Beer Mile World Championships: Victoria man Jim Finlayson places 3rd

Victoria runner Jim Finlayson took third place at the first everBeer Mile World Championships in Austin, Texas this month, as 10 elite beer runners competed to chug four beers and run a mile the fastest.

• Winnipeggerwins Beer Mile World Championship
• Beer Mile World Championships official website

The first documentedBeer Mile racestook place in the 1980s according to the championship's website. According to the rules, runners do four laps of a 400-metre or quarter-mile track, drinking a beer before each lap.

"You're trying to drink [the beer] as quickly as you can," 42-year-oldFinlayson told On The Island's Gregor Craigie.

"Usually at the start of each lap there's a little bit of burping and just trying to absorb the liquid, but you maybe have five to 100 metres of that before it seems to settle into the system."

Four out of 10 of the runners vomited during the world championship race. Official beer mile rules usuallydictate any runner that vomits has to run an extra penalty lap. In the World Championships, it led to immediately being disqualified.

Finlaysonset a time of five minutes and 21 seconds at the Beer MileWorld Championships, drinking Bud Light Platinum andHops & Grain Beer Mile Brew.

Currently ranked the fifth fastestbeer mile runner in the world, Finlaysonsaid he hasn't had problems keeping the beer down. For him, the difficult part is getting it in when he gets to the second of third lap.

"We're actually trying to catch our breath after a hard lap of running," he said.

Finlaysonregularly runs more conventional races, including the Victoria Marathon, and admits running a Beer Mile is an unusual sport.

But, he said, the World Championships are operated with a similar rigour to other professional sporting events.

"When the gun goes off, we are serious about it as well. However, I think every single one of us recognizes that it's a fun event."

To hear more from Jim Finlayson and about Beer Mile running, click the audio clip labelled:Victoria's Jim Finlayson 3rd in Beer Mile World Championships