9 Running Challenges That Are Not Beer Miles 

The Beer mile is a famous race in college track teams and fantasy football punishments. It is a true test of drinking ability.
The beer mile consists of a runner chugging a beer at the start of each lap of a mile. A Mile is 1609 meters. Those 9 meters at the start is the drinking zone. When the whistle blows, you can crack open your can and start drinking in that 9 meter zone. When you finish the beer, you pour it over your head to show that it is empty and you start running the first lap. A mile is four times around a 400 meters track (beer, lap, beer, lap, beer, lap, beer, lap). When you chug four beers and run four laps you finish the race. Rules also state that if you puke, you need to run a penalty lap but don’t need to chug a penalty beer. The beer has to be 5% alcohol content and can not be shotgunned. Some discuss rules about cans vs bottles, but I have always done cans.
I have run 7 beer miles, one every year for the last 7 years. I would judge my drinking ability by my beer mile at the end of each outdoor track and field season. As my community in Boston has grown, we have more and more interest in doing silly challenges like this together and have tried a couple. Here are some more that I have learned and/or attempted. 

In my experiences, each run has been VERY different. I threw up during one and had to do a penalty lap. I didn’t throw up at all during another. One year I didn’t finish, poor planning eating mac n cheese and cheesecake before.  One attempt and I ran 8:48 and another I ran 13 minutes. If the beer mile is not for you try some of the other ones. 

1. Chocolate Milk Mile 

This is the child friendly version of the Beer Mile but still a good challenge for any runner. The chocolate milk mile requires the runner, like the beer mile, to chug 4 and run 4. But the drinking is a solo cup filled to the top with chocolate milk. That’s 72 oz of milk, or 18 oz every lap. The chocolate milk mile is a lot easier in the moment while you’re running, but in my experience, you feel a lot worse after, and through the rest of the day. I remember running a fast time, but I threw up within 5 minutes after the run was so nauseous in the car on the way home I had to keep getting out to throw up. I would not do this one again but would prefer to do a beer mile every year. 

2. T Shirt Run 

Fun a track, and grab all your t-shirts in your closet. I’m sure you have a lot of high school track meet t-shirts, college shirts, work shirts, anything. This challenge is running as many laps around the track and putting on as many t-shirts as you can. This is a silly one as your mobility will get worse and worse as the challenge goes on. You will also get warmer and warmer as it goes on, so make sure you’re not doing this on a warm summer day. Go till there are no more t-shirts or there is a winner. First to X amount of shirts. 

3. 6/12/18/24 

This is a fun one that is common in college cross country teams. This challenge takes 4 tasks and the runner has to associate it with a challenge. These can be beers drank, miles run, donuts eaten and jerking off. Yes you heard it. Self pleasure. For example (jerk off 6 times, eat 12 donuts, drink 18 beers, run 24 miles). I have done this challenge with friends where we changed jerking off to sit ups times 100. My variation of the challenge was 6 donuts, 12 beers, 18 miles and 2400 sit ups. This was fun because you really bond with your group through the activities even if you’re all doing different numbers. You can get creative, you can change your activities half way through the day, but the goal is to finish within 24 hours, or as fast as possible. 

4. Chipotle Mile 

This one sounds impossible but has been done. There is a record that was broken for eating 4 chipotle bowls in one mile. So a bowl at the start of each lap. The record was 15 minutes and 36 seconds. This is not a challenge that I have done, or have interest in, but could be good for a loser of a bet to attempt. 

5. 100/100 

Another challenge that seems out of my grasp is 100/100. This challenge is consuming 100 beers in a week and running 100 miles. That's on average 14.29 beers and miles a day. I would hurt myself running that much and would not be able to legally function in my life with that much alcohol in me. I think a more achievable challenge is 100/100 in a month. Thas 3.3 miles and 3.3 beers in a 30 day month. I usually run 3-7 miles a day, 6 days a week, so this would be an easy challenge for running. 3-4 Beers a day are do-able but would not be enjoyable.  

6. Krispy kreme challenge - 

This running and eating challenge is a big event held at NC state each year in February where proceeds go to the UNC children’s hospital. It Originally started out as a challenge between 10 friends and grew to a huge fundraiser to reach the annual fundraising goal for UNC Childrens. The run consists of a 2.5 miles to the krispy kreme, eating 12 donuts and then running 2.5 miles back to finish the event. You have 1 hour to complete this. I have not tried this but would love to participate one day at UNC with the large field of runners and donate to UNC Childrens. 

7. Beat the B line / Charlie Card Challenge 

This is the best Boston Challenge for running and I completed it earlier this year. The Boston College B line on the T or MBTA train, is historically the slowest train in Boston. The MBTA is one of the oldest trains in the world and many like to take on the challenge of outrunning it themself. The challenge starts at Boston College Station on Commonwealth ave and is run 6 miles along the route to Park Street station. At Kenmore, 4 miles in, the T goes underground so you need to keep running along commonwealth ave, through the public garden and boston commons to get to the Park Street station. I finished 4 minutes before the train had arrived at park street and had to run at a 7:14 pace, including stopping at intersections for cars. My timer was running the whole time regardless of intersections like near Washington square and BU bridge. Read more about my experiences in this challenge here. 

8. 26.2 miles in 24 hours 

This is one that I believe is manageable for anyone but is tedious and exhausting. There are a lot of people in Boston interested in Marathons because of the culture in the city around the Boston Marathon. Not everyone thinks a marathon is manageable for them, but a mile is. Since there are 24 hours in the day, why not break up a marathon to each hour. 3.2 miles at 12am and then 1 mile every hour after. That means being up through the morning, day and night to run. You can still take short naps here and there but you need to dedicate your whole day to setting aside time to run. 

9. 4 X 4 X 48 

Similar to the 26 in 24 challenge, the 4 X 4 X 48 is another challenge where speed does not matter but perseverance does. Every 4 hours you are expected to run 4 miles. And this lasts for 48 hours. That means you're running 4 miles, 12 times for a total of 48 miles in 2 days. You don't really give your body a chance to recover at all. This is a challenge I have not attempted yet but would definitely try later in my life when I am training for marathons or not training for anything at all. I believe I can do it but I would not want to risk hurting my legs over the race and losing out on valuable training time for other races I care about.