Tough Kegger was back for its third year on Aug. 20, with more people, more beer and more fun.
Tough Kegger is hosted by Persephone Brewery with proceeds going to the Sunshine Coast Association for Community Living (SCACL). This year 120 racers competed in the 8.5 km challenge course, which was followed by the Beer Farm Fest after party – attended by nearly 500.
Persephone’s general manager Dion Whyte said this year’s Tough Kegger “went really well.”
“We were really excited because, not only has SCACL been our beneficiary all along, but we’ve been trying to work with them to get more and more involved and engaged in the actual execution of these events. This year they really got right in there,” Whyte said. “It was a lot of fun. It’s always great working with those guys.”
The winning team – the Pale Males – was made up of Ryan Chapman, Josh Williams, Sebastian Sleep and Steve Gemmell.
“It was really hard and it was really fun. We worked as a team and just pushed it the whole way,” Sleep said. “It combined a lot of awesome things – like running, competition and beer. Nothing better.”
This was their first year competing, but the team all agreed they would “absolutely” do it again next year.
Teams of four carry a full 30 kg keg – full disclosure, it’s filled with water not beer for food safety reasons – through an 8.5 km loop across rugged terrain that begins and ends at Persephone.
Racers are also required to complete several challenges along the way, including three word scrambles – letters are posted around the trail and racers have to figure out the word they spell or face penalties – as well as a ropes course and tire field, to name a few.
There are also some less orthodox challenges – for example, one challenge titled Respect Norman involved lighting a tea candle in the wind to pay respects to race course route setter Dave Hallstead’s dog Norman, who passed away and is buried near the trail.
Hallstead commissioned an oil painting of Norman wearing a suit, which was displayed for the challenge. The song Candle in the Wind was played on a loop for this challenge.
“It’s like a dog’s head coming out of a suit with a tie – he’s all dressed up,” Whyte said. “It’s a big oil painting. We had that set up on an easel with a whole bunch of tea candles laid out below it. The idea was to just leave the racers with a bit of a ‘what the hell was that?’”
Tough Kegger will be back next year as long as everything goes according to plan.
“Barring some bizarre and unfortunate turn of events, we have no intention of stopping,” Whyte said. “It’s one of our two main annual events and it’s one of the ways we raise money for SCACL.”
Total amounts raised were not known as of press time, but the event appears to be growing every year. For more photos from Tough Kegger, see www.coastreporter.net
