FloTrack Beer Mile World ChampionshipsDec 1, 2015 by Taylor Dutch
Erin O'Mara Breaks Women's Beer Mile World Record
Erin O'Mara Breaks Women's Beer Mile World Record
Erin O'Mara Breaks Women's Beer Mile World Record
AUSTIN -- In a dominant performance, Erin O'Mara shattered the women's beer mile world record to win the second annual FloTrack Beer Mile World Championships in a time of 6:08.
O'Mara beat 2014 runner-up Andrea Fisher by running nine seconds faster than the previous world record set by Elizabeth Herndon at last year's championships. O'Mara's winning time was a whopping 18 seconds faster than the rest of the field Tuesday night at the Austin American-Statesman.
"I've actually always been interested in the beer mile, I always thought that was something I would do, but it just recently kind of became more of an opportunity….I'm just grateful that it's a thing now!" O'Mara told FloTrack after the race.
The performance was another historical day in women's beer mile history as the first ever Beer Mile World Championships took place in Austin last year at the Circuit of the Americas race track. The 2014 winner, Elizabeth Herndon was unable to make it this year, but made her mark on the BeerMile.com record books with a then-world record time of 6:17. The performance shattered the previous world record of 6:28 set by Chris Kimbrough in Nov. 2014. The 2014 Beer Mile World Championships rewrote the women's beer mile record book as six of the top 10 all-time performances were run at the championships.
"I've actually always been interested in the beer mile, I always thought that was something I would do, but it just recently kind of became more of an opportunity….I'm just grateful that it's a thing now!" O'Mara told FloTrack after the race.
The performance was another historical day in women's beer mile history as the first ever Beer Mile World Championships took place in Austin last year at the Circuit of the Americas race track. The 2014 winner, Elizabeth Herndon was unable to make it this year, but made her mark on the BeerMile.com record books with a then-world record time of 6:17. The performance shattered the previous world record of 6:28 set by Chris Kimbrough in Nov. 2014. The 2014 Beer Mile World Championships rewrote the women's beer mile record book as six of the top 10 all-time performances were run at the championships.
O'Mara came into the championships with a 6:40 beer mile time, which she ran at the Michigan Beer Mile, a regional qualifier for the meet on Tuesday. The mark was the fastest women's time of 2015.
Four of the top 10 runners in the world returned to compete in the chugging and running contest in Austin, and did not disappoint.
In her first Beer Mile World Championship ever, O'Mara executed a standout race from the beginning. She led the first chug with an 8.98-second split and remained behind leaders Kirsty Jahn and Elizabeth Laseter throughout the first 400m. She regained the lead on the second chug and continued to stick with the leaders through 800m, splitting 3:00 alongside Lyndsay Harper.
However, the third beer and lap was O'Mara's time to shine as the Michigan native threw down a four-second lead over Fisher. By beer four, the race was O'Mara's to claim as she had a 10-second lead over Fisher. The lead extended even further into the finish as she closed in 6:08.51.
"I felt like it went out a little slow and that's probably why I was able to keep up. I thought that the girls were going to go out really hard," O'Mara said.
"I told friends to watch me to move up in the third and fourth laps. I thought that's where I would be able to make some moves, but surprisingly I didn't get dropped in the first lap," she added.
"I told friends to watch me to move up in the third and fourth laps. I thought that's where I would be able to make some moves, but surprisingly I didn't get dropped in the first lap," she added.