I run a lot, and I try and do at least 5-6 races per year – mostly ½ marathons, 10ks and 5ks. Over the course of my running career, I guesstimate I’ve participated in nearly 100 races.
But lately, I’m getting more and more turned off at the running/race world. The reason?
There’s way too much alcohol at the finish line.
A study was published in the Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in May of 2014. The title of the study says it all – Post-Exercise Rehydration With Beer Impars Fluid Retention, Reaction Time and Balance. The same study also showed that regular beer with 4.6% alcohol is not a good choice for post-exercise rehydration. Alcohol ingestion after exercise is high enough to push the average BAC close to the legal limit for a DWI; the study also showed that three hours after drinking, some individuals may remain above the legal driving limit.
The irony never ceases to amaze me, all of this running followed by alcohol consumption. Wicked Wine Runs. Beer Runs. Margarita Runs. Pub Crawl Runs (where you literally run from bar to bar, sometimes in costume, and slam a drink before heading to the next one) are becoming the norm. Just today, I saw a meet-up and race-registration night hosted by a local running club starting at where else? The Liberty Bar on the San Antonio Riverwalk.
And the clever shirts worn by the runners abound – I see shirts that declare “Will Run For Wine,” “Meet me at the Beer Tent” and “I Only Do This So I Can Drink After.” It’s becoming a cool badge of honor to run and then get lit at 9:00 a.m. Heck, a medal I received last year after participating in a 10k race that was part of a “Beer Series” included a bottle opener on it. A bottle opener. On the damn medal.
I thought about this recently, as I passed by a deep, deep line to the beer tent at the Austin Cap10k (about 8:30 am) and again last weekend as just about every woman post-race sipped champagne, then moved to complimentary wine after a women’s-only run in Fredericksburg.
According to a 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health by the National Institute of Alcoholism Abuse and Alcoholism, 15.1 million adults ages 18 and older had Alcohol Use Disorder. This includes 9.8 million men and 5.3 million women.
As the beer tents get bigger and the lines to those tents get longer, I’m worried. I’m worried we are promoting a culture in the running world that is simply not healthy for anybody – for the runners, for the supporters that attend the events, and for the children that are there, holding signs, cheering on their parents.
Let’s tone down the alcohol at these races, and stop encouraging people to run at 7:30 a.m., drink at 9:00 a.m. then drive home. I think, as runners, we can do much, much better.
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