Two Wheel Blogs

I've been looking forward to tonight for a long time. It was an especially welcome reward after a busy week at work.

I got home, changed, and set out. It was hot. Really hot. But I didn't care. I had about 90 minutes to ride, and I wanted to get all of it.

I considered doing the Marine Loop again, but I was worried it would take me too long, and I did not want to be late on arrival at my destination. So I started out to do the Belk Park Loop instead. I knew that route would take about an hour, leaving me 30 minutes to fill. I road through Poag to the Nature Trail, then up the trail to the Edwardsville high school track. As I rode past, I could see that the runners will still doing their stretches. This meant I had about 10 more minutes to ride before they started their 2-mile run. So I road to the end of the trail, turned around, and headed back. When I arrived, they were heading to the trail to begin their run.

My wife, Diane, hda just arrived, so I got my change of clothes and headed for the restroom to change, stopping to rinse off in the sprinklers that were spraying the grounds. By the time I had dried off and changed, the runners had returned and were getting ready for the night's entertainment: the Soda Mile.

Every year, near the end of the summer conditioning run, the high school runners participate in the Soda Mile. They line up at the Starting line, and when their coach says "Go," they open a can of soda, drink it, and run a quarter mile. They then repeat this three more times: four cans of soda, four quarter-mile laps. If they puke before they complete all four laps, they're DQed. If they finish all four laps but then puke on the track, they're DQed. The only way to "win" the Soda Mile is to complete all four laps and to keep all four cans of soda inside until you're off the track.

The coach said "Go," the runners cracked open their cans, drained them, and off they went. And it went about as you'd expect: a lot of young men doing their best to run quarter-mile laps with their stomachs swishing and swirling with soda. Some would finish all four laps. Others would lose their load mid-way.

The record for the Soda Miles is held by Daniel Mazar, now a senior. Daniel should have been the Illinois 800-meter champion last year, but a stress fracture interrupted his season. He missed several weeks of training and racing, his only workouts being cycling and running in the pool. His doctor cleared him to run four races: the conference meet, the sectional (to qualify for the state meet), and the prelim and the final at state. Despite the training and conditioning he lost due to his injury, he still managed to finish 6th at state. Had he been healthy the whole season ... if he hadn't won the 800, he would have made the other runner bleed to win it.

Last year, Daniel ran the Soda Mile in 6:10. That's pretty remarkable when you consider that, of that total, he probably spent 20-30 seconds standing still, drinking soda as fast as he can. Daniel is changing schools this year. He'll be running for some lucky high school in St. Louis. (Edwardsville's loss is some team's major gain.) But he came back to defend his title. And he was serious. You could tell by his choice of soda. Other runners accepted the cold cans of soda the coach provided. Daniel brought his own: Mountain Dew. And it was warm. He ran beautifully. Or, as beautifully as you can with four cans of warm Mountain Dew in your belly. He broke his old record by two seconds: 6:08.

As the other runners finished long after him, we were treated to the "fireworks" you would expect. After that, believe it or not, several of the parents and their children went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I regard the Soda Mile the same as I do the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona: it is something I would never, ever do it, but as long as someone else is willing to do so, I am willing to watch them do it. And yes, I am already looking forward to next year's.