CHICAGO — Steve Holler summed up "The Western Avenue Six Pack Almost Marathon" like this: "It was a friendly, fun, puke-free run."
Holler, of Edgewater, his son, John, Holler's University of Chicago law school classmate Mark Parts and Stefan Castellanos, a college classmate of John Holler, completed the 23.5-mile run along Western Avenue on Saturday.
The run took them from Beverly all the way to Rogers Park with stops at several Western Avenue bars along the way.
The foursome finished in about 4 hours, 40 minutes, and each runner downed about six beers.
"We didn't stay long at the bars, we had a small beer and kept moving, otherwise it would be hard to stop again," Holler said. "It was a friendly run the whole way."
The runners were greeted at their final stop, Candlelite Chicago, with a special sign that said "Run Like A Bavarian." Candlelite co-owner Pat Fowler had read an earlier DNAinfo story about the endeavor and wanted to reward the runners with cool signage at the race's completion.
Beers consumed included Strawberry Kolsch, Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, Three Floyds Gumballhead and Anchor Meyer Lemon Lager, Holler said. The run started Saturday morning and some of the scheduled bars on their trip hadn't opened yet, so the group instead stopped at a South Side liquor store, where they bought a six-pack of 7-ounce Miller Lites that Holler said they "quickly quaffed on the sidewalk."
"All these guys in the store were looking at us like, what are you doing," Holler said.
Holler, 56, an Assistant General Counsel at Loyola University Chicago, and his son ran the Chicago Marathon together in 2014, one of 20 marathons Holler has finished.
Holler's not sure he'll run Western Avenue — the longest continuous street in Chicago — with stops at bars again, but he may try to complete a similar jaunt on Halsted Street next year.
"It was fun to see the neighborhoods change," Holler said. "Western Avenue is just a good working street."
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