The Beer Mile: A Queasy Sport Misunderstood by Most, Mastered by Chicagoan Chris Robertson

No runners were intoxicated during this interview.

Four laps. Four beers. The beer of choice must be of at least 5% alcohol by volume. If there’s more than 4 ounces of liquid or foam left at the end, you’re disqualified. If you puke, you run an extra penalty lap. In short, these are the official Beer Mile rules.

In 2017, I got word that one of our Fleet Feet Racing Team members won the Beer Mile World Championship with a time of 4:46.67. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I didn’t quite grasp how impressive this triumph really was.

Last week I saw Chris Robertson’s Instagram post sharing his accomplishments at this year’s Beer Mile World Championship in Berlin. His 4x4 men’s USA relay team won for the third year in a row. Individually, Chris placed second place overall in his second best time: 4:47.7. Only one second off the American record.

This time, I felt like it was my duty to share this story.

Chris Robertson works as a product manager at the Chicago tech start-up Yaro by day, runs about 75 miles a week, has a personal best marathon of 2:24, and on top of that, finds time to compete annually in the Beer Mile World Championships.

Naturally, Chris found out about the sport of the Beer Mile while in college during an end-of-season unorganized event put on by his Iowa State running club, although his first experience was from the sidelines. Intrigued but not impressed, Chris decided to jump in on the second go-around.

He continued to participate in the unsanctioned races with his friends and teammates. By his senior year he completed one of them in 5:28 and uploaded his results and video proof on BeerMile.com, the official BeerMile resource. FloTrack took notice and reached out to Chris and invited him to compete in the inaugural Beer Mile World Championships in Austin, Texas in 2015, which were hosted by FloTrack at the time. This was his entry into the competitive field.

For those who didn’t find out about the mythical event in college, we’ll lay it out for you. The beer mile is a 1-mile race combining running and drinking. The race takes place on a standard 400-meter running track. The race begins at the 1-mile starting line with the consumption of a 12-US-fluid-ounce beer, followed by a full lap around the track. This process is repeated for the next three laps. Following the completion of the fourth running lap (and four beers), a competitor has finished the race. Intricacies and rules are involved and you can read about the official Beer Mile rules at BeerMile.com.

When I saw Chris’s Instagram post I started thinking about my personal best mile: 6:32. I then tried imagining the agony I would be in if I added a beer in between each lap. I couldn’t fathom it. So I asked Chris how he does it.

We met on rainy Monday evening at Begyle Brewing to ask him some questions regarding his training, his beer of choice, and his strategy.

Do you ever worry that your beer mile training will affect your distance training or your overall health?

Yes, if I were drinking all the time. But I actually very rarely drink. For the main training for [the chugging], I just leave an empty bottle by the sink, fill it with water, and chug that. I do that like 8 times a day. Basically instead of going to the sink to get a normal glass of water I’m like “okay I’ll fill up this beer bottle with water and chug it.”

Is there a specific strategy you try to adhere to when training and competing in the Beer Mile? 

Everyone at the competitive level can basically chug at the same speed, so it really comes down to who the fastest person is. The hardest part is being out of breath and being able to chug a beer that fast. You can stand by your kitchen sink and chug a bottle in 6 seconds but doing it while out of breath while moving is another skill entirely. I’d say that’s the hardest part. You have to make sure you run fast, but making sure you run so fast that you’re not hyperventilating. You’re racing a mile, but one gear lower because you need to save enough breath to hold your breath for six or seven seconds.

What is your go-to beer for competition?

The go-to is Blue Moon. Not for anyone else though. Everyone has figured out at this point that it’s faster out of a bottle than a can. I’ve done it with Budweiser and Bud Platinum but the problem I found with those is that they are more carbonated than Blue Moon. The heaviness of the Blue Moon doesn’t upset me as much. Blue Moon may be heavier but it’s less carbonated.

For those curious, the top five most common beer used are: 1. Budweiser, 2. Pabst Blue Ribbon, 3. Miller High Life, 4. Coors, 5. Heineken.

Isn’t there a rule about the amount of foam you leave in your beer? 

Yes, so there needs to be less than four onces of liquid or foam remaining total across all four beers. If you’re over that limit, you’re automatically disqualified.

Does that play into your drink of choice?

So, when you take Budweiser and you go straight up with it, it keeps making foam. So even if you have all the liquid out and you put the bottle down, they measure it at the end and when it all settles it’s hard to get under the legal amount. 

What else gets you disqualified?

Throwing up doesn’t get you disqualified but you have to run an extra lap. So basically you’re out of the competition.

How you ever thrown up?

I have never thrown up.

What do your non-running friends, family, and coworkers think?

I think overall it's positive. My coworkers all knew I went there [to Berlin] and thought it was cool. My boss thought it was cool.

I feel like everyone thinks it’s cool.

Actually, if anyone doesn’t think it’s cool, it’s the serious type. The LetsRun.com runners.

Who is behind the Beer Mile World Championships?

That’s a good question. Originally, there were two groups. FloTrack and the Beer Mile World Classic. A couple guys own the Beer Mile World Classic. They’re about 40 and 50. They’ve been doing Beer Miles for 30 years. The guy who founded the official Beer Mile rules, is one of the directors of the Beer Mile World Classic. Both companies had the same idea to host a Beer Mile World Championship in the same year. FloTrack was more focused on the individual but the Beer Mile World Classic focused more on country versus country. FloTrack, for legal and budget reasons, stopped hosting and sponsoring the event in 2017. The Beer Mile World Classic now hosts the championships

Did they fly you out?

Now they do. For the first few years, it was all self-funded. Now they do a combo of prize money and helping fly people out but I don’t know if that will continue because they definitely lose money on it. It’s their passion project, they both have full time jobs on the side.

Remind me again, what’s your Beer Mile personal best?

4:46.67

And what’s your non-Beer Mile personal best?

4:13