Alcohol and sports are, as a rule, incompatible things. But sometimes there are craftsmen who combine the incompatible, and successfully.
Imagine a competition of beer-drinking track and field athletes. Well, or foam fans who love to run. You have to drink and run. Then drink again, and keep running. And so, four times.
If you managed to empty your glasses and overcome the distance faster than the others, then you will receive a lot of money and the title of world champion!
Some participants of the 2023 World Cup in Budapest, perhaps, will envy.
Drink – run!
There is such a beginning in the world – a beer mile. Based on the name, it is clear that each participant must run one mile (1609 meters). But athletes start with the fact that already at the beginning of the first 400-meter lap, before the start, they drink a can of beer with a volume of 0.35 liters. Then the athletes run in a circle and drink another mug. As a result, everyone runs four equal segments and drinks 1.4 liters of beer during this time. By the way, the contents of each can must be emptied in the transit area, which is a corridor 10 meters long. Competitors are prohibited from using their own cans, bottles or devices that may give them any advantage.
The results are recorded on a single site Beermile.com. For the entire period of its existence, 4516 beer races were held, the athletes officially ran 44,296 miles (more than 71 thousand km) and drank more than 177 thousand liters of beer.
The beer mile can be organized independently. If you want your name and result to be included in the official rankings, you must record a test video of your run and send it to the organizers.
Participants of the beer mile in Moscow
Photo: RIA Novosti
Boys just having fun
The very idea of u200bu200bsuch a race appeared by accident back in 1989. Seven Canadian runners from Kingston, including the future participant of two Olympic Games, 17-year-old Graham Hood, sat in a sports bar after training and thought about how to have fun that August night.
Already under cover of night, hiding from the guards, since there were minors in the company, they arrived at the school stadium. His plans were to drink a bottle of beer, run a 400-meter lap, and see the results. But they did not stop in one lap, instead repeating the combination three more times. They unknowingly became the founders of the tournament.
In the fall, the guys entered Queen’s University in Kingston, where a circle of runners and beer lovers was formed, so every year an unusual tournament began to be held near the hostel, but still at night.
In 1992 the race was named the Kingston Classic and an official set of rules was established in 1993. They are:
1. beer is drunk only in cans; 2. the alcohol content in the beer must be at least 5%; 3. Beer cannot be substituted for other drinks: 4. Men drink four cans of beer, women three (later the rule was changed: both men and women must drink four cans); 5. An extra lap is added to the distance if the competitor vomits (it is believed that the competitor who vomited starts to feel lighter, so they will have to run more).
Little by little, the local tournament began to gain popularity. Stories about him passed from mouth to mouth and reached the United States. Student runner Patrick Butler of Wesleyan University in Connecticut suggested that his classmates organize a beer mile after the end of the sports season. The idea was approved and gradually spread to other American universities.
In 1998, Butler decided to collect all the results and records in one place and created the Beermile.com site, which expanded the geography of racing.
From fun to great competition
Over time, beer snatches have ceased to be laugh-out-loud entertainment. They began to prepare for tournaments more thoroughly, special methods appeared. The results were improving and the runners were fighting for the records.
The first man to run the beer mile in less than five minutes was the American athlete James Nielsen. He prepared professionally for an unusual career and deduced several rules that should help anyone who wants to show a high tournament result.
For example, beer should be at room temperature, this way it foams less, which means it’s easier to drink. When taking a drink, it is better to tilt your head back 45 degrees and press your lips hard against the jar.
James Nielsen in training
Photo: Paul Chinn/Getty Images
Nielsen clocked 4.57 in 2014 and was able to become the best beer mile runner in the world. Now his result is only in 13th place.
By the way, in the same year, the first world championship in this discipline was held in Texas. Then the men’s and women’s winners received rewards in the amount of $ 5000. And in 2015, even a kind of federation appeared – Beer Mile World Classic took over the organization of the World Cup.
Interestingly, beer mile stars are offered endorsement contracts, and Canadian world ranking number three Lewis Kent won in the popular book How to Run the Beer Mile: A Guide from the World Champion.
The Olympic champion set a record with beer!
In the summer of 2023, the ninth World Beer Mile Championship was held in Chicago. In addition to the individual disciplines, team races and relay races were held. The prize fund for the competition was a rather impressive $10,000.
The men this time failed to break last year’s record held by Canadian Cory Belmore (4:28.10), but the women eventually traded 6 minutes.
Olympic champion and world record holder in the 4×1500 meter relay Shelby Houlihan, who was banned for four years for doping, broke the world record and ran the distance in 5:43.81.
shelby houlihan
Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Beer mile entrants don’t follow the AMA code, so the American had no problem entering the World Beer Mile Championships. In addition, the organizers emphasize that they do not control the state of the athletes during the races. To run the beer mile, you only need to be 21 years old and record a video proving it.
By the way, the Russians are also in the rating of Beermile.com. The best result – Anatoly Danilichenko. In 2017, he ran the distance in the Rostov Beer Mile in 7.39. Similar competitions are held in Russia every year. The most popular are the races in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
With all the playful attitude towards such a sport, it is worth remembering that excessive drinking is harmful to health.
The British cheese race is more dangerous than the beer race:
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