Root Beer Mile 🍻

What better way to start the weekend than chugging 4 cans of root beer in-between each lap around the track? Sounds like the best idea ever, right? That’s exactly what our Heart of a Spartan crew did this morning!

At 7am on this fine Saturday morning we all met around the high school track, 76 cans of root beer awaiting to be chugged. With the temperature being a chilly 30 degrees and there being a chance of snow, most of us were bundled up, yet everyone had smiles on their faces!

Nobody from our group had ever done a root beer mile before, so none of us knew what to expect. This idea for a root beer mile came after a LONG Spartan trifecta weekend in So Cal. A few of us were on the long drive home, the race brain still fresh as can be, and conversations full of nonsense were taking place.

One of those conversations just so happened to be about the beer mile and we were talking about how Corey Bellemore has a world record of running it in 4 minutes and 33 seconds. All of a sudden, conversations of other people running a beer mile turned into talk of our group running a beer mile. Instead of beer we all agreed that we would be doing root beer because not all of us drink and we wanted to be inclusive, which I am happy to have a group who keeps others in mind when making decisions!

5 months down the road and here we are! My friend Luke and I picked a date, I created a flyer, and we shared it with our friend group. I don’t think either of us expected this many people to willingly subject themselves to this extreme kind of type II fun. BUT… 19 people showed up!

There were a lot of things I learned during this challenge:

1. Four cans is a lot of soda (especially if you don’t drink soda at all)
2. I am TERRIBLE at chugging root beer
3. The faster you run, the more the root beer in your stomach gets shaken up
4. It is very hard to breathe between foam and burps
5. Trash cans are a MUST to have nearby
6. Shotgunning root beer is NOT the key
7. Friends will cheer when you vomit (a very weird type of support)
8. Some of our friends are ridiculously good at this, too good….
9. If you ever want to beat me in a race, the root beer mile is your chance!

What I thought would be an easy get in, get out kind of run turned out to be a 21 minute and 21 second mile for me! It turns out when you take about 4 minutes to “chug” a soda that will slow your mile down a bit. The fact that I was shuffling instead of running trying not to “shake up” my stomach also probably played a role in added time.

While we saw a lot of struggles occur (burping, foaming of the mouth, and the occasional throw up) we also saw a lot of support towards one another. We were all in our own type of misery and yet everyone was showing constant support and speaking words of encouragement. This truly reflects what amazing people this group is filled with. We didn’t start the event until everyone arrived (even if there were some stragglers) and nobody left until the last person finished!

There were some crazies among this group of crazy people that showed they were the superior crazies when it comes to the Root Beer Mile though! With our overall winner running an impressive 10 minute 39 second mile!!

Congratulations to the root beer mile overall podium finishers:

1st Place- Ken
2nd Place- Cody
3rd Place- Paul

Would I run another root beer mile? Probably not. Was it a lot of fun? You bet it was! Thank you to the crew for making today a success and a lot of fun. For now I am off to fill my stomach with Pepto, real food, and never touch a root beer again in my life!

We plan on doing a mile event each month so if you have a fun idea that could be a mile challenge feel free to leave a comment with your idea!