College Bro Breaks 2 Hours In A Half Marathon While Shotgunning A Beer After Every Mile

SI – While major sportswear companies are focused on breaking the two hour barrier for the marathon, one Notre Dame senior took it upon himself to break the two hour barrier for the half marathon—except with 13 beers along the way.

Emmet Farnan took the concept of the beer mile, where a runner drinks a beer for every lap on a 400-meter track for a mile, and applied it to the half marathon by shotgunning one beer for every mile. According to BeerMile.com, there is record of a Ghent Beer Half Marathon that was run last December with the winning time of 1:34:25 but no YouTube video could be found and there were two participants. There’s a “beer half marathon world record” video that shows a runner completing 13 miles with 13 beers in 1:28 but it doesn’t look like an official race.

Farnan, a former high school runner from Long Island, purchased the bib off a fellow student just days before the race and then decided to recruit his friends to help him drink his way through the half marathon. Farnan completed his half marathon in 1:43:42.

Obviously this Notre Dame bro running a 1:43 half marathon while stopping at each mile marker to shotgun a beer is impressive. I couldn’t do that.  And I’m one of the best athletes I know.  So kudos to Emmet for that.  But that impressiveness doesn’t mean there aren’t aspects of this “beer marathon” that are problematic, the first and most obvious being his beer of choice – Coors Light over Bud Light.  Horrible move. Everybody knows Bud Light is the best beer on the market not only because of the taste and affordability but because of the strength of their advertising and marketing teams.

Second and almost just as important, the dude didn’t even make sure he was following official beer mile regulations.

There’s several factors that wouldn’t comply with official beer mile regulations. Shotgunning is technically not allowed in a beer mile. He also spits out some of the foam in parts of the video and in the beer mile, puking can lead to a disqualification or extra lap run. The beer of choice in this half marathon appears to be Coors Light, which also wouldn’t meet the minimum 5.0% ABV.

Doing all that work and not even qualifying for the Beer Mile record books.  Wrong technique, spitting out foam, low ABV.  Not ideal.  But then again you went viral anyway so if you’re fine with not having your name in the history books then so be it.