Nothing like the sweet taste of beer, I mean victory.
Scottish runner Josh Kerr broke a 27-year men’s mile record with a blazing 3:42.66 time on Saturday and celebrated with his first beer in months.
Kerr said he had not drank since he was married in December, but decided to indulge in the alcoholic beverage to “slow [himself] down a little bit.”
“Athletes tend to move through moments too quickly and that beer was necessary for me to savour it,” he wrote in The Telegraph.
The runner said he did not sleep much after the beer, and woke up at 5 a.m. the following day to start training for another record; this time at 1500 meters.
Kerr said his wife was not in favor of another lofty goal so soon after completing that last one, asking for “12 hours” of rest.
Kerr had set his eyes on becoming the seventh Brit to break the mile record last March, at least publicly, and did it in front of 60,000 people in London Stadium.
“It’s very overwhelming with the amount of hype [I created],” he told BBC Sport. “It’s silly to call [the attempt] that early because there’s a lot of things which can go wrong, but I am surrounded by amazing people and was able to stay consistent and put the work in.
“If I am to leave my mark on this sport as a British legend, following in the footsteps of the legends behind me, I have to put in those performances.
“Those performances take every single part of you, every single part of your team. The amount of work behind the scenes is incredible. Today it was a performance I was able to bring out — I just hoped it would be a little bit faster!”
The Scot said his coach told him he thinks the 1500-meter record is possible, same with a faster mile time, but taking a vacation to Hawaii is equally as good an idea.
He gave his coaches the ability to tell him to rest whenever, and plans of listening if they tell him to do so.
It won’t be for long, though, as Kerr feels he has a lot more to give to the sport and plans on going after a marathon major win after the 1500 meter.
“I hope the person who breaks my world record will have been sitting in that stadium on Saturday, inspired, excited and ready to chase me down,” Kerr wrote. “That is the legacy I want to leave on my sport.”
