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.
The truth is no one knows for sure. It's "invention" was not dissimilar to the invention of calculus, where it was rumored that Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Sir Isaac Newton developed the notion independent of each other in the late 17th century. Like calculus, the concept was not necessarily an invention, but more of a discovery. It was inevitable that beer miling would surface, and because of that, multiple parties can claim they were the first to dance with the demon known as the "chunder" mile.
The roots of the beer mile family tree can accurately be traced back to parts of Florida and New England college campuses in the U.S., Hash House Harrier events in Indonesia, and to many places (most notably Ontario) in Canada. The earliest documented races (whose records still exist today) occurred in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Legendary stories spread of a mysteriously brutal event but many details were lost in the telling of the stories. Rules were approximated and a race of more than 5 people at once was a rarity. With the emergence of the internet and instant digital communication, information was shared and rules became more consistent in the early 1990's.
The first known set of rules to be posted in a public place was by a group in Kingston, Ontario where beer-miling had taken place regulary for a few years. Since many beer milers elsewhere were competitive, they took it upon themselves to indoctrinate the Kingston rules into their own festivities. And so, the set known as the "Kingston Rules" was born.
In the late 90s, Beermile.com chose to adopt some of the basic Kingston Rules, then add a few more in an attempt to standardize the sport.
Beermile.com has more than 90,000 entries and 5,000 races in its database. Not everyone enters race results into the site (only about 1 in 8 according to a recent rough survey).
They're not, and Beermile.com is not an authority. This site is just a centralized place to share beer mile thoughts and stories, and creating a consistent list makes competition more fun. Any variation of these rules is accepted, just not as "official" by Beermile.com. Most of these rules are widely accepted by beer miling communities and you will be hard-pressed to find severe deviation.
We are missing race results, obviously. Not everybody wants their race results on the internet, particularly athletes currently on scholarship or ex-athletes applying for non-beer-friendly jobs. We know people have run fast incognito. Our lists are not intended to be definitive; they're for entertainment. Along these lines, if you would like to have your name removed from our site, e-mail email@example.com.
In most competitions, "Masters" participants are over 40. You're on this site, so you understand beermiling is not like most competitions. Unlike normal running, age is especially brutal and unforgiving on beermilers. We therefore classify various flavors of "Masters" as:Masters - Age 30 and up
Super Masters - Age 40 and up
Grand Masters - Age 50 and up
Super Grand Hash Masters - Age 69 and up
Clydesdale - Age 35 and up, 200 lbs and heavier
It's said that the record for the 4 pint "Chunder Mile" is close to 5 minutes, an impressive feat. However, drinking from a glass or cup has proven to be much much faster than from a can or bottle. Of course, there's a lot more alcohol, hops, and carbonation to consume. At the same time, most "Chunder" contests don't penalize vomiting. It's hard to compare these times to "Kingston" / North American times. Few argue that logistics should compete with sheer drinking ability, but the "Chunder Mile" format has not been as popular online as the the "Kingston" version.
For those that scoff at this site's standard rules, you can still share your stories here. Anybody is allowed to submit any event for public display. We'll post record lists for the most popular rules. If a variation becomes more popular, it will definitely be celebrated appropriately.
Beermile.com will attempt to track down outstanding performances in:
- The Queen's Chunder Mile (20 oz. imperial pint from cup/glass, quarter, pint, 1/4, pint, 1/4, pint, 1/4; vomiting allowed)
Best known effort: 5:08.7
- The Female 3-Beer Mile (quarter, beer, 1/4, beer, 1/4, beer, 1/4)
Best known effort: 6:42.1
- The Beer 2-Mile (8 beers, 8 quarters)
Best known effort: 14:27.0
- The Beer Mile with Penalty (4 beers, 4 quarters + vomit = 5 quarters)
Best known effort: 7:30.0
- The Beer Mile 400m Split (time after first beer, first quarter)
Best known effort: 1:06.6 (8.8 / 57.8)
- The Beer Mile 800m Split (time after second beer, second quarter)
Best known effort: 2:31.0 (7.0 / 65.0 / 10.0 / 69.0)
- The 4-Lap Beer Steeplechase (4 beers, 4 quarters, 16 barriers, 4 water pits)
Best known effort: 8:52.0
- The 3000m Vodka Steeplechase (7 shots, standard 3k steeplechase)
Best known effort: 12:04.0
- The Vodka 2-Mile (8 shots, 8 quarters)
Best known effort: 13:01.5
- Clydesdale Division (standard beer mile, 35 or older and 200 lbs+)
Best known effort: 8:01
- The Lite Beer Mile (standard beer mile, any beer)
Best known effort: 5:35.1
- The Original Chunder Mile (standard beer mile, no penalty for vomiting)
Best known effort: 5:45.0
- The Shotgun/Cup Mile (standard beer mile, drink from any container)
Best known effort: 5:08.7
- 4 x 40 Beer Relay (4 team members - 1 40 oz. beer, 1 quarter each)
Best known effort: Unknown
- The Soda/Pop Mile (standard beer mile, soda instead of beer)
Best known effort: 7:21.0
- The Chocolate-Milk Mile (48 oz. chocolate milk, 4 quarters)
Best known effort: 5:49.0
- The Egg and Milk Mile (3 eggs, 500ml milk per lap)
Best known effort: 8:32.0
- The Rubik's Cube Mile (solve a cube, quarter, cube, quarter, cube, quarter, cube, quarter)
Best known effort: 19:56.0
- The Ben and Jerry's 4x4 (4 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream - 300+ calories/serving, 4 miles)
Best known effort: 1:06:55
- The T-Shirt Run (put on a t-shirt and run a quarter under 2 minutes)
Best known efforts: 50 laps/t-shirts, 48 laps/t-shirts (twice)
- The Protein Boost 4-Mile Burst (nut, mile, repeat 3 times - assistance allowed)
Best known effort: rumored to be 53 minutes
- The Beer Half-Marathon (13 beers, 13 miles)
Best known effort: 2:14, 5:07
- The 24 and 24 in 24 (24 beers, 24 miles, in 24 hours or less)
Best known effort: rumored to be 14 hours
- The Bicentennial (100 beers, 100 miles, any order)
Best known effort: rumored to be 104 hours, 151 hours
- The Renaissance Mile (1 mile, solve a Rubik's cube, drink a 40oz of malt liquor, dunk a basketball on a 10' rim, play Chopin's Minute Waltz, eat a pint of ice cream, any order)
Best known effort: rumored to be 29:09
Just register and click "Submit new race results". You have the ability to first create a race, then put in times and notes for each participant. You can come back and edit any race results you created. Note - if you edit a result that has already been approved as "official", it must be re-approved after the change.
A Beermile.com committee will approve the validity of the results (improvements to the process are being researched). Most times over 7 minutes will be considered official if there is ample documentation and/or race notes.
To be considered for an official sub-7 minute performance, you must submit video footage or something proving the validity of the race. Mostly, this is to provide entertainment for Beermile.com visitors, but it's also to prevent bogus results from contaminating record lists (any more than they already are). Proof will be added to an online gallery in the works.
If you would like to be considered for the Beermile.com Approval Committee, mail firstname.lastname@example.org.
Send ideas to email@example.com. All designers will be credited if their art is used. Also, feel free to e-mail us with any ideas and ways you want to contribute.
The first priority is filling the Beermile.com database with as many accurate records as possible. We'll then work on a communal "official" approval system, a Hall of Fame, and the ability to upload media for each race.