Bierlauf (Beer Run)

As I said earlier, all my classes are starting at week 2 of the semester. So the first week of school on Thursday the 20th this month, an on campus bar/restaurant sponsored the Bierlauf. Here is how it goes:
There are three people in each team. There are max five teams per category.
Categories include: International Team, New Student Team, Women Team, Major Team, and Young People Team
Each category is only racing against people in their own category.
So we (Team America) were going against Team FinnnPower and a Spanish team.
There were eight teams in total.
Here are the rules:
Each team must carry a 24 pack of Beck´s bottles (something like 2.6 liters of beer per person) including the heavy plastic container from point A to point B (3.8 km, or like 2.2 miles).
All the beers must be finished by the time you get to the finish line.
If you are missing bottles or bottle caps, or have unfinished beers, you´ll get at least a 5 minute penalty.
There are three stops were you have to blow up a plastic Beck´s guitar, fold a paper boat, and match some German beer types on a card.

1st place: A huge meal for three people and a pitcher of beck´s to share
2nd place: A 24 pack of Beck´s for the team
3rd place: A pitcher of Beer at the restaurant for the team

Our team was really only worried about the Finns. They run and drink a lot normally, so thats what we were really worried about. Everyone was surprised the Spanish didn´t show up 2 hours late. Because I was so confident in my team, Me, a basketball player from SC, and a lacrosse player from D.C., I bet Team Finnpower that if they do better than Team America, I would buy each of them a liter of the local beer at a different bar, including a different Finn who couldn´t race. IF WE did better than them, all four of them would each have to buy me a liter. This is going to be awesome!

Team America went 3 minutes before Team Finnnpower. We met at station 1. There we stole a bottle of their beer, so they would get a 15 minute penalty and we would win. Pretty cool eh. What we didn´t know is that they stole that beer back at station 2. So halfway between station 2 and station 3 we decided to chuck "their" beer into the woods so we would win. 2 minutes after we did that we were like... hey how many beers do you guys have??... so why is there a spot empty?? FINNS!!!!!!!!
So from that point on we looked into every garbage can for an empty Beck´s, but couldn´t find any. About 20 meters from the finish line we met a Canadian friend who just finished his Beck´s. He put it on the ground and I snatched it. We ran to the finish line. The officials counted our bottles and bottlecaps, and they said we only had 23 bottle caps. DAMN, only got his bottle! Just then Tim the Canadian slyly handed me the bottle cap to his beer and we finished at 42 minutes with no penalties. The Spanish team surprisingly (to us) finished at 42 minutes also. Team Finnnpower finished at 45 minutes.
So the Spanish Team and Team America both got 1st prize, which was a meal for 3 and a pitcher of Beck´s at the bar. Team Finnnpower only got a pitcher to share.

And on the side bet, each member of Finnnpower and their friend has to buy me a liter of the local beer here at the other bar. Team America, F*** YEAH!

After the race there was a free BBQ, but since most people threw up during the race, there was plenty of food to eat.