The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2007/04/20/beer_run_2007

April 20, 2007 > News > Rescheduled race becomes Beer-Run

Rescheduled race becomes Beer-Run

By Beko Binder | Thresher Editorial Staff

For the second time in its history, Beer-Bike became Beer-Run when a large puddle on the south end of the bike track forced campus-wide Beer-Bike coordinators and members of the administration to keep bicycles off the track.

Campus-wide Beer-Bike co-coor- dinator Teddy Bucher said he and the other coordinator, Brown College junior Sanya Desai, waited as late as possible to make the Beer-Run decision.

“We wanted to have the bike race so bad, and we know that so many of the teams had put in so much time practicing on bikes that it would be a shame to do Beer-Run unnecessarily,” Bucher said.

Bucher, a Jones College junior, said he and Desai arrived at the bike track at 7 a.m. race day to find a mostly dry surface with a few leftover puddles from the previous night’s rain. Several colleges brought push-brooms and rollers to dry the track and were able to clear off most of the water. However, Bucher said one puddle on the final turn kept causing problems.

“As much as we would push the water off of the track, that part of the track was just a little lower than the surrounding area and the water kept draining back in,” he said.

At about 9:15 a.m., Bucher, Desai, Student Activities Director Heather Masden, Student Activities Assistant Director Holly Williams and various other university officials decided the puddle could not be cleared and made conditions too hazardous for bikes.

“As disappointing as it was, we made the call that we would have Beer-Run,” Bucher said. “In the grand scheme of things, our biggest concern is safety, and as much as we really really wanted to do Beer-Bike, we really couldn’t because it was too dangerous.”

Despite the changes, Bucher said he was pleased with student attendance and participation at the race.

“As disappointed initially as I was that it had to be the foot race instead of the bike race, I feel like overall it was a amazing event,” he said. “The student turnout was way more than we ever expected, and everyone had a good time.”

Rice Emergency Medical Services received five calls this year — down from 28 last year — with two cases requiring ambulance transport to a hospital. Neither of the cases requiring hospital visits involved students, and there were no alcohol- related calls.

REMS Captain Cameron Decker said one incident commander and two teams of four members each were on duty during the event, in addition to the standard campus coverage of three emergency medical technicians.

Decker said the nature of the race helped keep the number of EMS calls relatively low.

“With the fact that it turned into a beer-run, that helped to mitigate the potential for large traumatic injury seen with bike races in general,” he said. “Overall, it went incredibly well.”

Brown junior Charles Hampton, who ran for his college, said he enjoyed the event regardless of the race type.

“I think the competition itself makes it exciting, so whether they’re biking, running or anything else, I love it,” he said. “My teammates were all obsessed just for the competition part of it. Obviously, we were a little disappointed that there wasn’t going to be any biking, but we were willing to go out and compete.”

End of article

Back to top