After pre-race team pep talks, an occasional Tufts streak attempt, and the organization of the placement of 400+ beers, the runners (men, women, children, alumni) were all started about an hour after the originially planned tip-back time of 10:00-10:30pm. Each team was allowed a single lane to start all of their team members and exchange the brew, though the well-intended exchange became a free-for-all on lap two.
Amherst's decathalete Steve Contreras '99 was first out of the blocks and never looked back. He won by 11 seconds in a potential new world record 5:40.12. Tufts' Dana Bellows managed to cross the line just before Allen Nunnally '99 of Amherst who out-squeeked Eric Lavigne '98 of Trinity and Patrick Butler '98 of Wesleyan. The results are still a bit sketchy, but in the coming days, we hope to "attempt" to clear up some confusion. Potentially also in the top ten (under 6:54) were estimated to be Gabe Wieder '98 of Wesleyan, Paul Alsdorf '99 of Williams, and a few more Tufts men. Rob Mitchell '99 of Amherst deserves mention as his top five pacing was destroyed by his lunch resurfacing, but nonetheless finished in close to 7:30 with a penalty lap.
On the womens' side (no, not the beer), Wesleyan took first and second in 7:34 and 7:44 (note: all women drank FOUR not three beers [or tried to]). The largest competiting teams in this division were Wesleyan, Amherst and Tufts.
A possible reason for the confusion in scoring was the guest appearance of the local police who decided to join the fun about 10-12 minutes after the race started. After close to 100 people scattered in all directions to return to race HQ for a post-party, the cops commented that they were only concerned with our panicking, not our rowdy shenanigans.
Let the record reflect that close to 40 people ran sub 8:00, while another 25 or so broke 10 minutes. What must have been the largest field in the sport's history will make for a good story for years to come.