A World Champion's Guide to Running the Beer Mile: A Manual and Memoir of Running, Chugging, and (Not) Throwing Up

Praise for

A World Champion’s Guide to Running the Beer Mile

Lewis Kent, and the current crop of competitive beer milers, has taken a traditional distance runner’s rite of passage and transformed it into a professional sport—and it’s entertaining as hell. Kent’s story is as fascinating and fun as watching your first beer mile. It’s also loaded with plenty of tips and tricks for the aspiring beer miler, which is great because you’ll know doubt want to lace ‘em up and drink some down after reading. I’d recommend grabbing a cold one and enjoying this read in one binge session.

—Desiree Linden, two-time Olympic marathoner and winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon

When you hear about the Beer Mile and see how these guys do it, in the time they do it in, it’s undeniably fascinating. Most of us can’t drink four beers in five minutes on the couch. These guys run a mile. Hear the account from one of the guys who became the best in the world at a niche sport that has fascinated North America.

—Darren Rovell, Senior Executive Producer, The Action Network

Running a beer mile is a uniquely painful (yet fun!) experience. It requires exceptional running AND chugging skills along with an iron stomach and care free attitude. Few have done it better than Lewis Kent and the advice he put forth in these pages is rock solid.

—Nick Symmonds, six-time US 800m champion and CEO of Run Gun

Readers should be aware of the drinking laws in their area and that readers are responsible for their own actions. The author and publisher do not in any way advocate or condone breaking the law. The author makes no claim of the accuracy, safety, or legality of following the instructions contained in this book. Nothing contained in this book should be construed to be legal or medical advice. This book is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only.

Copyright © 2019 by Lewis Kent

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Tom Lau

Cover photo credit: Caleb Kerr

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-3555-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3556-9

Printed in the United States of America.

Table of Contents

AUTHOR’S NOTE

CHAPTER ONE: Twenty-Four Hours

CHAPTER TWO: What is a Beer Mile?

CHAPTER THREE: So You Want to Run a Beer Mile?

CHAPTER FOUR: So You Want to Win a Beer Mile?

CHAPTER FIVE: Having a Support Team

CHAPTER SIX: Everything’s Bigger in Texas

CHAPTER SEVEN: Anything for a Free T-Shirt

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Road to World Champion

CHAPTER NINE: Living the Dream

CHAPTER TEN: So What’s Next?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PHOTO INSERT

Author’s Note

I was just your regular college kid who liked to run and drink beer; I never thought to put the two together. This is my story of how sometimes extraordinary things happen to ordinary people.

CHAPTER ONE

Twenty-Four Hours

"LEWIS, I HAVE the Ellen show calling me asking for your contact information … What’s going on?" Guy Schultz, my university cross country coach had called me, exasperated. I just laughed in response. After all, I had interrupted a live photo shoot with the Discovery Channel to take his call. How can I explain this one?

I had just broken the Beer Mile World Record in 4:51 and the media was on fire. I had done over thirty interviews in three days. I was waking up at 6:00 a.m. to go on morning radio, leaving university lectures to take calls from ESPN, you name it. I had already booked my flight to Austin, Texas for the World Championships on December 1, 2015, and was training hard for it.

Word came through that Ellen DeGeneres wanted me to go on her show, but it would have to be taped in Burbank, California the day before the World Championships in Austin, Texas. It would ultimately play out to be the craziest twenty-four hours of my life.

My older brother, Jordan, and teammate, Phil, were booked to travel with me to Austin. Their support, and that of a man named Kris, kept me sane in what would quickly unfold into an insane trip.

We landed in Austin, Texas at 2:25 p.m. on November 27. I had been in Austin for the Beer Mile World Championships before, but back then, nobody knew who I was. This time it was different; I was now the world record holder, and all eyes were on me to take down the current world champion, Corey Gallagher. The media frenzy surrounding the event was intense already, and I knew that The Ellen Show would introduce the sport to a whole new demographic on the very day that the World Championships would be broadcasted live by FloTrack.

I had been running since the age of ten and had been pretty competitive locally, but by no means had I made the leap to the elite level. While the Olympics were not in my future, I was a proud varsity runner for the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

I knew enough about how elite athletes prepared, and I took my training very seriously. Although the beer mile was a fun and recreational event for most, there was a growing group of runners who had been taking it more seriously as well. Being one of the favorites, I wanted to do well. I wasn’t there to finish second.

FloTrack had organized a professional, world-class event. (For those who don’t know, FloTrack is one of the largest companies in the United States for covering live track and field and running events, with hundreds of thousands of viewers for big events such as NCAA’s and the US Track and Field Championships.) With major media interviews, lots of online presence, countless talks with radio shows and meetings with sponsors, this was a real World Championships in every aspect. And as such, the organizers had not banked on their headline athlete and top-seed leaving Austin two days before the race. So when I told them I wouldn’t be around the two days leading up to the event, they were hesitant. However, once I told them the reason why, their feelings quickly changed as they would obviously benefit from the national media exposure as well. Arriving back late the night before the big race was far from ideal, but that is the way it had to be.

Ellen’s staff had planned to tape the show on Monday, November 30, so Jordan and I left Austin and landed in LA on Sunday afternoon. There we met up with Kris Mychasiw, who had landed fifteen minutes before us. Kris was one of the most established track and field agents in Canada, known for working with Bruny Surin, a Canadian track-and-field Olympic gold medalist. Kris had seen my story and called me to see if we could work together. (He is really to blame for all of this.)

It was Kris who connected me with Brooks, coordinated the first ever professional beer mile contract, and then floated the story to Ellen. It was good to meet him in person at last and to discover that we both had the same approach to life in general. He wasn’t the Jerry Maguire type; just a good guy who was seeing one of his dreams coming true: landing an athlete on Ellen. To my understanding, there had only been one other track athlete on Ellen previously: Usain Bolt. Kris was there to soak it in. Thankfully for me, as the trip unfolded, he kept me calm.

Once the three of us were together, the craziness began. Have you ever seen those celebrities with a driver waiting at the airport in the limo, holding up a sign with their name? The guy who met us was doing just that, and I can only describe him as Lurch from The Addams Family. Jordan and I cracked up on the spot; this was Hollywood!

The three of us jumped into the limo and off we went. About an hour later, we arrived at our hotel, and I could only imagine all the stars who had taken the same trip and walked through the same doors. Kris walked up to the check-in counter, and when prompted for his last name, he replied, It’s pronounced like a cashew from McDonald’s, Mychasiw. Jordan and I got a good laugh out of it, and I was slightly embarrassed as I had been saying it wrong for weeks. When I gave my last name, the hotel receptionist said there was a delivery left for me, pulling out two massive boxes. Excited to see what it could be, Kris joined Jordan and me in our room to open them up. One box had six brand-new pairs of Brooks shoes—two for me, one for each of the producers, as well as a pair for Ellen herself. The other box was packed with apparel. Once again, there was some stuff for Ellen and her staff, but also two shirts each for Kris, Jordan, and me. Brooks hooked us up big time.

Because we were quite a distance from nearby restaurants, and couldn’t be bothered to take a shuttle or taxi, the three of us decided to have dinner at the hotel. As soon as we got there, we could tell that we were a bit out of our league because this place was fancy. I didn’t dare look at the prices and ordered a pretty standard pasta dish. You always have to keep the stomach happy leading into a race. However, I did enjoy a luxury with dinner that most athletes avoid close to competition—a nice cold beer.

I got to know Kris better as we ate, and we immediately clicked. I thought back to the first time I had ever spoken to him on the phone, and how he’d said the sky was the limit since the beer mile as a sport was just getting started. When he mentioned sponsorships, major media outlets, and live television, I honestly thought he was out of his mind. But now, every single thing he had mentioned had become a reality. After dinner, we decided to call it an early night as the next day was going to be a big one. Jordan and I watched some sports highlights for an hour then went to bed.

We got up early on Monday morning. The plan was to get picked up at 2:00 p.m., tape the show, and catch a 7:00 p.m. flight back to Austin, via Phoenix, landing in Texas around 2:00 a.m. This was not ideal leading into any race, and certainly not the preparation of an elite athlete for a World Championships, but how often does an opportunity to be on Ellen come around?

However, my focus was still on Tuesday and the big race, so I had to go running. Out I went in my Brooks gear on the streets of LA. I had planned a six-mile shake out run at an easy pace. The hotel was located at the top of a hill that must have been two miles long, so the thought of having to run back up deterred me from running down it in the first place. I settled for running laps in a parking garage about half a mile down the road. My legs were feeling great, just as they should feel before a big race. Every lap, I would pass by a few people looking for their cars. I would give a friendly nod, which they acknowledged with a bizarre, confused nod back. Why is this kid running laps in a parking garage? If only they knew what my next twenty-four hours looked like. Ten minutes into the run, Kris called me and told me to get back to the hotel immediately—the limo had come early to pick us up and we absolutely could not be late.

I sprinted back to the hotel as quickly as I could. With no time for a shower, I stuck my head under the bathroom sink, dried off my sweat with a towel, and got on my