A World Champion's Guide to Running the Beer Mile

In June, 2015, Lewis Kent was just an ordinary twenty-one-year-old college kid who liked to run. By December, 2015, just six months later, he had appeared in ESPN, Buzzfeed, Ellen, and dozens of other major outlets. Videos of him running went viral, and he received daily calls from agents. So why all the attention? Simple: He ran the Beer Mile, and he ran it unbelievably fast. The beer mile is a track or road race in which you chug a beer, run a quarter mile, chug another beer, run another quarter mile, chug, run, chug, run: four beers, four laps, no vomiting allowed. “Chug, run, repeat.” If it sounds difficult (but really fun), it’s because it absolutely is. The event first went viral in 2014 when the five-minute barrier was broken. Kent became the world champion and broke the world record in late 2015 with a time of 4 minutes, 47 seconds, just over a minute longer than the world record for the regular mile. After that, he became the world’s first professional Beer Miler, literally being paid for his superhuman ability to run fast and drink quickly. Part memoir, part how-to manual, A World Champion's Guide to Running the Beer Miles is for both serious athletes and recreational runners who love to run, enjoy a drink, and like the idea of a challenge.