BLOG: Melanie Pozdol, World Beer Mile Champion

A: My first memories of running date back to Field Day in Elementary School. I was a member of the track team in both middle and high school (I did hurdles!) and also participated in XC in high school. In college and graduate school, I ran a few road races and half marathons, but I mostly ran for fun and as stress relief from my demanding music performance major. Running also offered a great opportunity to explore my college and grad school towns of Columbia, SC and Rochester, NY. I moved to Great Falls, MT in 2012 after winning the Principal Oboe role for the Great Falls Symphony Association and ran a lot on my own and with my roommate's dog. However, the bitterly cold winters of Montana quickly persuaded me to give CrossFit a shot. CrossFit offered an opportunity to create community in my new home and I also loved the combination of cardio and weight lifting.

 

Running a marathon had always been a bucket list item, but actually trying to give it a shot didn't cross my mind until 2018. By this time I was back in Chicago, and one of my best friends from CrossFit ran the Chicago Marathon that year. While spectating the race I thought, "I could do this!" and so another friend and I decided to enter the lottery for the 2019 marathon to let fate decide if we would run the marathon. Fate chose me (it did not choose my friend that year!), and so my main fitness focus switched from CrossFit to running when I started training for the 2019 Chicago Marathon. Three years later, I have run 7 marathons!

 

 

A: I was a member of the Chicago Endurance Sports Marathon training program the summer of 2019. At the time, CES was allowing members to join in on racing team workouts on Wednesday nights, though I didn't think that I was qualified to run with the group. Lucky for me, some fellow CES gals (who I consider some of my best friends today!) invited me to join them on some of the racing team workouts. I felt honored that they would invite me to run some workouts with the racing team, but also a bit in over my head! I found that I loved the added challenges of the racing team workouts and also loved the community of the team. I didn't officially join Racing Team until the 2021 season, since the 2020 season was sort of up in the air due to the pandemic. I did run some workouts with the team towards the end of the season in 2020, when we started having in-person workouts again.

 

 

 

 

A: The Beer Mile is something that I had always wanted to do. I ran and won the November Project's Pizza Mile in 2019 (same format as a beer mile, just with pizza), and felt a calling to events that involved alternating running with eating or drinking. The beer mile is traditionally something that happens kind of "underground", where you're never really sure when it's going to happen or who is going to show up and I think the mystique of it all really intrigued me. The first beer mile I ran was an "underground event" organized by members of FFRT in May 2021. At the time I was in the middle of peak marathon training for Grandma's Marathon and had completed a 20 mile run with a workout earlier that day. Despite running on tired legs, I discovered that I had some good chugging speed, and knew I could probably go faster on fresh legs.

 

My next Beer Mile was in November 2021, again with FFRT. I PR'd by over a minute and felt confident that I could break 7:00 the next time. I then ran in the Inaugural Chicago Beer Mile in June 2022 and ran a 7:01. Chris Robertson, who is the American beer mile record holder and lives here in Chicago, was there that day and I wanted to run fast in hopes that he would think I might have a future at the beer mile! Chris was then instrumental in helping me take part in the US Women's Beer Mile Championship, which was here in Chicago over the summer. I had just recently gotten over covid so had very low expectations for the race, but all of the women broke 7:00 at that race, cementing the USA women as a force to be reckoned with, and my spot as a member on Team USA! 

 

Honestly though, I owe so much of my start in the sport to my teammates on Fleet Feet Racing Team - the team was hosting underground beer miles before I was a member of the team and everyone has been so incredibly supportive throughout this journey!

 

 

 

A: I trained with the CES Performance group all summer, so had some great speed workouts and long runs programmed up until the end of September, which helped with running speed. After I purchased my plane ticket to Belgium and the trip became real, I reached out to Coach Cynthia Kmak to help program workouts to account for training for both the beer mile and for my fall goal race, the Indianapolis Half. Cynthia programmed workouts where I would alternate speed intervals with chugging sparkling water during our Wednesday morning FFRT workouts. I would show up to the track with bottles of Topo Chico sparkling water (and later, cans of La Croix when we found out that the World Classic would use cans) and would run and chug and chug and run. I definitely got some strange looks from other teams practicing at the track!

 

Another key training event was the Bucktown 5K. Some friends stationed themselves at mile 3 with a can of Athletic Brewing for me to practice chugging under pressure. But otherwise I also keep empty cans and bottles in my kitchen and fill them up with water to practice chugging throughout the day. I have also done some chugging practices where I play my oboe for a bit to get out of breath and then chug sparkling water to simulate the experience of chugging when out of breath. I think being an oboe player has helped to develop my breath control, which has been an important skill to have while chugging.

 

 

A: Belgium was so fun! Prior to the World Classic in Leuven, I did some sightseeing in Brussels with two other members of Team USA, Elizabeth Laseter and Allison Grace Morgan. The three of us had all met in Chicago at the US Championships and it was a lot of fun to travel with them and continue to get to know them both. While in Brussels, we tried a lot of delicious Belgian beers, frites, and waffles and did some general sightseeing before heading on to Leuven. Leuven is probably one of my favorite places I've visited. Belgium in general has such deep history and a lot of beautiful Medieval buildings, and Leuven was steeped in history and beautiful architecture. Not only was the town beautiful, but the beer was inexpensive! Overall the Beer Mile World Classic exceeded my expectations - the event was very well-run and it was a lot of fun getting to know other athletes from the 13 countries represented. I would definitely say that in terms of life experiences, my experience in Leuven ranks toward the top!

 

 

 

A: The beer mile represents so many things that are important to me - balance, community, trying not taking yourself too seriously. To represent the USA in something that is the embodiment of these things is really special.

 

As far as my team, my fellow USA women's teammates are such strong, kind, incredible ladies and it is an honor to know them and to be on the same team as them. Teammate and current world record holder, Allison Grace Morgan, has been a pioneer and set the bar so high in beer miling for women; I was truly starstruck when I first met her! Another teammate, Elizabeth Laseter, would have broken the world record at this year's World Classic, but was unfortunately disqualified for chugging outside of the chug zone. The very speedy Laura Riches of the UK would have finished 2nd but was also disqualified for having too much beer left over at the end (anything left over 4 oz at the end results in a DQ). This left me and fellow USA teammate, Kassandra Marin, as the 1-2 finishers for the women at the BMWC, resulting in a team win for the USA! To be honest I still haven't fully comprehended the win and what it means, other than just knowing that I really had such an amazing time in Belgium and love the beer mile and the beer mile community. On the men's side, Chris Robertson has really brought a lot of visibility to the event in general, and so it is so cool to be on the same team as him! 

 

 

 

Aside from all of that...more Beer Miles! I am passionate about the Beer Mile and am so excited that we had the deepest field of women represented at the Beer Mile this year. I truly feel a calling to the beer mile and hope that we can continue to bring attention to the sport and hopefully attract even more women to participate. I love the community, I love the joy of the event, and I love that the beer mile allows you to not take yourself so seriously and gives you a sense of silliness and balance. The Beer Mile World Classic will be here in Chicago in July 2023, so I hope to see Chicago come out in full force to not only try out some of the open heats of the beer mile, but to also cheer on Team USA!