Enjoying Beer and M&M’s on the Road to Fitness
how Eau Claire’s Indianhead Track Club spawned an unusual running tradition
The Indianhead Track Club was founded in Eau Claire in 1969, inspired partly by the formation in 1966 of Governor Warren Knowles’ Council on Physical Activity and Sports for Fitness. The club logo, the Tortoise and the Hare, embodies the mission of the organization: to sponsor fitness activities and support runners of all ages and abilities.
In the ’70s, the club started a series of annual races: the Carson 10, Spring Fever 10K, Sawdust City 6 (now Rock the Riverfront), and the Frigid 8. Later, the club added other races: an Eau Claire Marathon, a half marathon, the Water Street mile (still a July standby), and the Tortoise and the Hare. The club also assists with logistics for many other community races such as the four-decade-old Buckshot Run and the now 10-year-old Eau Claire Marathon.
Beer and M&M’s
In the early ’80s, the club founded an event that Governor Knowles and his advisors would not have approved: The Beer and M&M’s Marathon. The idea for the run came from a group of beer drinkers who had a running habit. As I remember it, most of us were training for a marathon – probably Grandma’s in Duluth. Some of us were there because the run would be a challenge. If you tired along the way, you could quit, have a beer, and ride in with the sag-wagons attending to the “hydration” needs of the runners. Most of the route was on back roads – County Highways E and C leading into Shawtown. Then we would take Menomonie Street to Water Street and the Camaraderie. That’s where, hours earlier, we had gotten into a bus that took us to the east side of the city of Menomonie. Sane people would ask their runner friends, “You did WHAT? WHY?”
‘Fah – a long, long way to run!’
Fred Hable would sing annually as runners strode off the start line.
The Beer and M&M’s run now takes place early in September instead of May. On Saturday, Sept. 9, the run celebrated about 30 years of yearly get-togethers. We took a moment to remember former Indianhead Track Club president, marathoner, and sales expert at Fleet Feet on Water Street, Freddie Hable, who passed away earlier this year.
You may wonder at the incongruity between a zeal for fitness and a run that “requires” a donation of beer and some M&M’s, and that you are expected but not required to drink a beer while on the course. You would be right, of course, to scoff. I can hear, “You can’t be serious!” In the tone of John McEnroe!
A crack in the asphalt served as the starting line. John shook a can of Leinies decisively, then popped the tab. The explosion of the beer sent us off to connect to the trail.
Maybe the rigor of the training plans explains this silly day out. The systems are elaborate and take several months of dedicated work – and a good deal of sweat. Maybe some tears. Every plan includes at least one or two long runs before the actual event: 20 to 22 miles. To my knowledge, no training plans include using beer and M&M’s. Instead, serious runners generally practice long, slow distance (LSD) and/or strides and intervals. Some do fartleks (look it up).
Not many days ago, I set out with about 20 others on the river trail. I was thinking that 5 miles would be about right. Others were deciding their own distances. No one went as far as Caryville, which would have made about a 16-mile round trip. But everyone enjoyed the start temp of 50 degrees at 8:30am. A few cars had grumbled past us as we chatted on the sidewalk in front of Ray’s on Water Street. Then John Qualheim summoned us across the street. A crack in the asphalt served as the starting line. John shook a can of Leinies decisively, then popped the tab. The explosion of the beer sent us off to connect to the trail. We passed three cars parked at the launch site just below the Hobbs Ice Arena, and then we were running between the river and the stretch of the new Sonnentag Center and the attached Mayo Clinic and UW-Eau Claire sports building.
The sun was on our left, and we were already glad that ahead on the course were stations for water – and beer and M&M’s. Once you pass under Interstate 94, the roar of engines and the hum of rubber subside. Further on, a long stretch of the trail is a tunnel of shade from trees on either side. The air smells and tastes good out there. Even though a sand pit and Silver Spring horseradish fields are on the left, you’re in the country. On hotter days, there’s the urge to jump in the river. It’s close to the trail for many of the miles to Caryville. Before long, faster runners had made a turn and were coming back at me. It would take one group of runners about the same time to run 10 miles as I did 5. Back at Ray’s, some stayed to chat. Others left for the rest of their Saturday activities. I had a lawn to cut.
