Beer Mile Championships in Austin TX

In a dizzying finish, American scientist Elizabeth Herndon set a new women's world record in the Beer Mile World Championships in Austin, Texas last week, breaking through a tight field to obliterate the previous mark by 11 seconds. In the men's race, Canadian mailman Corey Gallagher relied on fast drinking to separate himself from the field, turning in a time a hair over 5 minutes, just three seconds off the men's world record. Herndon, an environmental geochemist from Fort Wayne, Ind., used a steady pace and a strong final lap to pull away from several runners who had traded the lead back and forth. Her final time was 6:17.76. Her competitors included Austin native Chris Kimbrough, who made headlines last month when the 44-year-old mother of six set the previous women's world record with a time of 6:28.6. On Wednesday, Kimbrough struggled to keep up with her opponents' drinking and finished fourth. To remind you, the beer mile is an event that was for years a mostly private pursuit of uniquely motivated athletes, who drink one beer at the start of each of 4 track laps. But it's grown more popular recently, and the beer mile went viral – or bacterial, one might say – when James Nielsen made a video claim to the first-ever sub-5 minute time (Nielsen did not compete in last night's race). And in case you're thinking these aren't serious athletes, consider that the men's field included an Olympian.