Despite what you see on YouTube, running a beer mile is no easy feat. You have to pound a beer while running a relay around a track in record speed, which is a good recipe for puking your guts out. The last record was 4:06, set in London last year. Over the weekend, while celebrating Canada Day, four Canadians beat that record with just two seconds to spare. The new official beer mile record? 4:03.33 thanks to these Bros in the North.
Incredibly, they did it while chugging craft beer too. That ups the ante big time, as a beer mile isn’t the easiest thing to pull off even with watered down domestic light beer.
Hop Culture caught up with the guys afterwards. Here’s how they pulled such an impressive drinking feat off:
JTS: I’ve done a beer mile before. It was terrible. I vomited multiple times. How does a person train for this?
AH: Haha! Because we were only doing one beer for this record attempt, the training was mostly in the running. Running a 53 second 400m takes a lot of work for washed up old runners like us. If you’re training for beer miles, though, the best tip we can give you is to expand your stomach for a few days before with big meals and lots of water. That really makes the whole process go a lot smoother. There are also great youtube videos that Lewis Kent and Phil Parrot-Migas have posted, going out and doing laps with practice beers in between to get your body used to the punishment.
They key? A big, carb-friendly diknner followed by lots of water in the morning.
JTS: It’s hard enough to complete a beer mile drinking light beer, why did you chose to incorporate craft beer?
AH: Well, there IS some practicing for the beer drinking section of the relay that needs to be done in order to break the WR. If we were going to be training drinking, it might as well have been delicious local craft beer, right?! Our four craft brewery sponsors were generous in providing us with a bunch of beer before the race. Thanks to Hearthstone Brewing, White Rock Beach Beer Co., Main Street Brewing and Four Winds Brewing for keeping us well hydrated!JTS: What’s more important, a fast runner or a fast drinker?
AH: In the full beer mile, a faster drinker (with a big stomach capacity) beats a faster runner who can’t drink — every time. In the relay… you kinda need both!preparations?
AH: We prepared pretty similarly to any other race — a nice pasta dinner the night before, followed by a light breakfast (leaving room for a frosty beer), and some water and coffee in the morning.
And for the beer nerds, here are the delicious craft brews they pounded while doing their record-breaking beer mile:
- “White Rock West Beach Fruit”, American Pale Ale, 5%, IBU 36
- “Main Street Pilsner”, Pilsner, 5%, IBU 22
- “Four Winds Brewing Pale Ale”, American Pale Ale, 5.2%, IBU 38
- “Hearthstone Cali Common”, California Common, 5.3%, IBU 33
Can a beer mile be done inside four minutes? We’d love to see it happen. There has to be one squad of Bros out here in the states willing to bring the record back home for the Stars and Stripes.
Do it for Old Glory. Make our drunk, beer-loving Forefathers proud.