Breaking the Five-Minute ‘Beer Mile’ Brews COntroversy

James ‘The Beast’ Nielsen’s Record-Setting Run Has Gone Viral, but Some Question Whether He Followed the Rules; Is It OK to Skip the Can-Over-the-Head Maneuver?

SAN FRANCISCO—Last month, James “The Beast” Nielsen honored the 60th anniversary of the first sub-four-minute mile run by shattering another hallowed record long thought unbreakable: the five-minute “beer mile.”

Since its origin on college campuses in the late 1980s, the beer mile has grown into an underground phenomenon. Thousands of people, including some professional athletes, have sought to be the fastest in the world at chugging a 12-ounce beer, running one lap, then repeating the uncomfortable, belch-heavy process three more times. Adherents call it the most “glorified” of the “digestive athletics”—a realm that includes competitive eating contests—but it has remained mostly in the shadows.

Mr. Nielsen’s record-setting 4:57 run catapulted the obscure sport onto a larger stage with more than one million views of a YouTube video of his feat. The first world championship is now being planned for this year. Mr. Nielsen, a 34-year-old sales executive who ran competitively in college, says he has been approached with endorsement offers from apparel and beer companies.

But sudden fame has come with a price: questions about the record-setting race are being raised by beer-milers who have examined his video like assassination theorists poring over the Zapruder film. In online forums, some accuse Mr. Nielsen of gaining an unfair advantage by somehow de-fizzing the four cans of Budweiser he drank. Others question why he didn’t flip the first can upside down above his head to prove that he had completely drained its contents, as custom demands.

“He didn’t demonstrate that he’d finished the first beer,” says John Markell, a 40-year-old investment banker and one of the sport’s founders. “But the reality is he’s a super nerd. I know he did everything by the book—he’s not faking it.”

Beer milers are a rule-loving—if not strictly open-container-law adhering—bunch. The sport’s rules and records are documented on a website, Beermile.com, including one rule stating that competitors who vomit must complete an extra lap. Volunteers vet documentary proof submitted by thousands of beer-milers before posting their times on the site.

Mr. Nielsen says he read over the rules at least a hundred times because “you don’t do one thing and you upset people.” He is quick to point out that the can-over-the-head maneuver is “strongly recommended” but not, in fact, one of the sport’s 10 official rules.

And while he says he did consult with experts on the “chemistry composition of beer and carbon dioxide displacement within the can,” he dismisses conspiracy theorists thusly: “Yes, I got on a plane to St. Louis, broke into the Budweiser factory, altered the beers before they were sent out and then I put a GPS tracking device on the four beers that I tampered with to track them.”

To try to settle the matter once and for all, beer-mile enthusiasts are aiming to hold the first world championship this year, where they hope to see a showdown between Mr. Nielsen and previous world-record holders such as Canadian Jim Finlayson (5:09 in 2007) and Australian Josh Harris (5:02 in 2012).

Mr. Finlayson, a former Canadian marathon champion, isn’t sure. “I am coming up on 42 and to be honest I don’t think I have the wheels for it,” he says, adding, “I know I can still drink quickly.”

A couple of different efforts are under way to organize the race, including one in Texas by Flocasts, an Austin-based sports media company. Nick Symmonds, a two-time Olympic runner, says he’ll be participating and looking to break the record.

“I’m a better runner than most other entrants, but the drinking is really where the world records are won and lost,” says Mr. Symmonds, 30, who posted a 5:19 beer mile shortly after his appearance at the 2012 Olympics.

Beer-mile running has been a loosely organized sport, dominated by word-of-mouth events and individual attempts on the record, but Mr. Markell says he “would love if it became more mainstream.”

Beer milers say they don’t endorse binge drinking and, in general, see the feat as a physical test rather than a frat party stunt. Beermile.com keeps track of several nonalcoholic races as well, such as the soda-pop mile, the Rubik’s Cube mile, and the Ben & Jerry’s 4×4, in which competitors must down four pints of ice cream while covering 4 miles. The record for the 4×4, set in Connecticut in 1997, is 66:55.

To be sure, the beer mile isn’t doctor-recommended, says Anthony Luke, a sports-medicine specialist who heads the Human Performance Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

“These are definitely unique activities that are for special people, and I think unless you think you’re one of those people, it’s probably more fun to watch than to try,” Dr. Luke says. He cautioned that the beer mile brings with it a “high risk of nausea.”

For beer-swigging runners, it is this very risk that gives the sport credibility. The 4-pint “chunder mile,” popular in England, is generally frowned upon by North American purists because there is no penalty for vomiting, says Patrick Butler, the keeper of Beermile.com.

“I’ve met lots of good chuggers and I’ve met lots of good runners,” says Mr. Butler. “The ability to keep it down is the real key.”

Over the past year, Mr. Nielsen says he would practice after coming home from his day job as vice president of sales at a tech company by chugging a warm Budweiser as quickly as possible. When his wife asked if it had been a rough day at the office, he told her: “No, I’m just training, babe.”

Mr. Nielsen no longer runs competitively outside of the beer-mile, but he has kept his speed. His beer-mile time was just 1:14 off the current world record for the officially sanctioned mile where no beer drinking is required.

Veteran competitors say one key to success is forcing out a large belch in the first few strides of each quarter-mile.

On a recent evening in San Francisco, members of the West Valley Track Club, including Mr. Markell, demonstrated proper beer-miling technique on a track oval. They quickly gulped down beers at the starting line and took off, letting loose long, sonorous burps as they ran. On this day, 41-year-old high-school teacher Todd Rose was the victor.

“You want to get all the volume of the burp out in one burp,” says Mr. Rose, adding that if you don’t get it out early on, “you’re going to yak.”