Garrett Cullen Lowers Beer Mile American Record to 4:54.52

Garrett Cullen, a 24-year-old runner from Mountain View, Calif., set a new beer mile American record on July 9, running a 4:54.52 in San Francisco, according to a video posted on the West Valley Track Club website. (Beermile.com has posted the result as an official record.) Cullen, who placed eighth at last year’s FloTrack Beer Mile World Championships in Austin, broke James Nielsen’s 2014 U.S. mark of 4:57.1.

The world record for a beer mile on a track belongs to Canadian Lewis Kent, who ran a 4:51.90 last year. (Kent also ran at 4:47.17 to win the 2015 FloTrack Beer Mile World Championships in Austin, Texas, but that event was held in a parking lot and not a sanctioned track.)

Cullen, who ran briefly at the collegiate level for the University of Michigan and owns a 4:23 open mile PR, started a GoFundMe page to raise money so he can attend the 2016 Beer Mile World Classic on July 31 near London. As of July 14, he has raised $240 of his $1,051 goal.

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Cullen ran his first beer mile at the West Valley Track Club Summer Classic last summer, finishing in 5:53. When he came back a year later—and several more beer miles under his belt—he ran almost a full minute faster. When he started doing beer miles last year, he drank Bud Light Platinum. But he set his American record drinking Budweiser out of bottles.

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