The legendary beer mile world record holder, Corey Bellemore, has worked tirelessly to continue bettering his best time in the bizarre running event–after initially setting the record in 2016. At the 10th annual Beer Mile World Classic held in Bellemore’s hometown of Windsor, Ont., on Aug. 17, the Canadian set off at a blistering pace to chase history and beat his impressive time of 4:28.10 set in 2021, but fell just short of his goal, clocking 4:30.47.
Bellemore’s time was almost 27 seconds faster than the second place finisher. The win marks his sixth world title.
The Canadian also clocked 4:30 at the 2023 Beer Mile World Championships–with only one shoe. In 2018, he ran a 4:24 beer mile, but was later disqualified for having too much leftover foam in his beer bottle after chugging (there must be less than four ounces of cumulative liquid or foam among all four bottles). The 29-year-old, who runs professionally for Adidas, has evidently been on the very brink of smashing his world record.
To put Bellemore’s skills into perspective, Olympic 5,000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen (who runs a 3:43.73 regular mile) ran a beer mile at his bachelor party in September. He clocked 5:22.42, falling well short of the Canadian’s time.
“I don’t know how many more of these I would do, if any,” Bellemore wrote on Instagram after Saturday’s World Championships. He has taken part in the unique event once a year since 2016. Outside of his beer mile glory, the Windsor native takes part in road miles, community races, regular track meets and more recently, Half Ironmans. Sans beer, Bellemore has run a 3:57 mile.
What is a beer mile?
A beer mile requires runners to complete four laps around a 400m track while consuming a beer from a bottle before each lap. The beers must have a minimum volume of 340 mL and an alcohol by volume (ABV) content of five per cent or higher.
