N/A Beer Mile: A New Wrinkle In A Storied Tradition
Photo Credit: Athletic Brewing Company
With an assist from a certain non-alcoholic brewer based in Connecticut, N/A beer takes the baton as part of a venerable beer + running tradition.
As chronicled in a Runner’s World piece nearly ten years ago, the history of the Beer Mile dates back to a warm sunny night in 1989, at the Burlington (Ontario) Central High School track. Yes, that’s right, you can add the Beer Mile to the compilation of surprising things that were invented by Canadians, a list that also includes peanut butter and basketball. But no one, including the seven Canadian guys who came up with the idea to combine a love of running and beer could have foresaw the cultural phenomenon that it would eventually become. For the uninitiated, the Beer Mile is four laps around a standard track, which equals a mile. While that sounds simple enough, the drinking part comes in by requiring a beer at the beginning of each of those four laps, which must be consumed within an area called the transition zone. Chug a beer, run a lap. Chug another beer, then run another lap, until each activity has been completed four times. If it sounds ridiculous to you that anyone would feel competitive about being able to run a mile quickly while drinking two-thirds of a six pack of beer, well, you’ve obviously never met a runner.
As the Beer Mile expanded to the U.S. and across the world, naturally someone had to create a website to keep track of all the top times in various categories. Rules were created, which includes video evidence of the race being completed, with participants required to turn each can upside down with every lap to prove there’s no cheating going on. At the end of the race, no more than 4 ounces of liquid can remain across all four beverages. A seminal moment for the Beer Mile occurred in 2014, when beer-miler James Nielsen broke the 5 minute barrier, an accomplishment that was celebrated with perhaps equal enthusiasm to when Englishman Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile mark in 1954. To be fair, as poor Roger broke his record well before the advent of the internet, he never had a chance to go viral. While Nielsen’s record has since been lowered several times, until or unless the event becomes an Olympic sport it’s pretty unlikely there will ever be a beer-mileing version of Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute threshold.
With the growth and popularity of non-alcoholic beer, where does N/A fit into this cultural phenomenon? Enter Athletic Brewing Company. In October of 2021, the U.S. N/A craft beer leader hosted the first official Non-Alcoholic Beer Mile event in its hometown of Stratford, CT. Sensing an opportunity, the company had formed a partnership with Beermile.com to establish an N/A Beer Mile category. As for whether the lack of alcohol has any impact on the performances, the results are unclear. Canada’s Corey Bellemore is the reigning record holder in both the men’s regular Beer Mile and the N/A Beer Mile. However, his time in the former (4:28) outpaces the latter (4:53), which runs contrary to thinking the latter should be easier. Likewise, the same is true for the women, where Shelby Houlihan holds the Beer Mile record in 5:43, while her countrywoman, Elizabeth Laseter, is the N/A record holder in 6:29. In fairness, more N/A competitions are probably needed to be statistically meaningful. Given that carbonation is essentially the same for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer, it’s also possible the effects of alcohol don’t occur fast enough to inhibit a runner completing the task in roughly 5 or 6 minutes.
So what’s the cultural significance to all of this? As the non-alcoholic category continues to further distance itself from the O’Douls Era, it’s notable for N/A to show up around rituals that have long been associated with alcoholic beer. N/A may be a substitute or alternative for some, but won’t be for everyone, and that’s okay. Just let us know when the next N/A Beer Mile is, and we’ll bring the near beers. They’ll be warm, by the way, since science says room temperature beer has less carbonation. Anything for an edge, you know. See you at the track.