The Beer Mile – Drink 4 Cans of Beer and Run a Mile in 6 1/2 Minutes?

photo: http://www.runnersworld.com

I admit, until this week, I had never heard of the Beer Mile.   But, when I googled the term, pages of hits came up.   There’s a BeerMile website, a Facebook page, a twitter page, numerous beer races, and even a World Championship Beer Mile!  Who knew?

On the FAQ page of the website, one asks What is a Beer Mile? This is the answer:

In the vast world of extreme sports, there exists a sub-culture at its heart best known as “digestive athletics.” The most famous, glorified, respected, and celebrated of all the events of this underworld is the Beer Mile.

The foundation of any true beer mile is built upon two things: drinking beer and running a mile.

The most common format of the beer mile requires a single participant to drink a full-sized beer, run a quarter mile, then repeat the process three times. This results in the consumption of four beers and the running of four quarter miles (hence the beer mile). The entire process is timed. The total time is often used as a measuring stick of competency.

Digestive Athletics, ha ha ha!!!

According to this official statement issued by the Beer Mile: “On Sunday afternoon [November 2, 2014 in Austin, Texas], Chris Kimbrough, a 44-year-old mother of six, shattered the women’s beer mile world record by 13 seconds, running 6:28.6 in her first attempt at the event” and  “Beer mile records are not recognized by USATF or the IAAF, of course, but they are tracked at BeerMile.com, where a list of widely used rules can be found. The general idea is that competitors drink a beer, run a lap, and repeat the sequence three times.”

Chris is already a very fast and accomplished runner, and can run a beer-free mile in about 5 minutes.  So, Chris chugged down a 12 ounce can of beer for each of the four laps of the course and still finished in under six and one-half minutes.  That’s pretty awesome if you ask me!

What type of beer, you ask?

Beer Mile contestants can drink almost any type of beer, but it must be at least 5.0 percent alcohol by volume. Kimbrough drank Alteration Ale, made by the local brewery Hops and Grain, because it’s one she enjoys; it has 5.1 percent alcohol. Nielsen, on the other hand, chose Budweiser because of its lower carbon dioxide content.

You can read more about this event and watch a video of the race at RunnersWorld.

I think this mom-of-six who runs 1 mile drinking beer sounds so much cooler than the mom-of-5 who wants to run 26.2 miles in  FM stiletto heels!  What do you think?  I think I’d like to try a Chardonnay mile.