We’re Going Streaking With Athletic Brewing’s ‘Give Dry a Try’

Hang Me Out to Dry

As runners, we know that a good drink after a hard race is one of those bonus rewards for all the hard work we’ve done. However, we also know how drinking during the week or before a long run can affect our sleep, and as a result, our performance and overall training.

Coming off the heels of the pandemic, an era when it seems that everyone imbibed a bit too much and sometimes way too much, people of all ages and demographics are looking to cut back on alcohol. In fact, a record-high 39% of Americans now believe that consuming one to two drinks per day is bad for one’s health, according to this recent Gallup poll.

Part of establishing a new and healthy habit is seeing a visual representation of that progress. Runners are no stranger to this method (see: Tracksmith’s No Days Off). The idea of run streaking with (or without) our clothes on, stacking one day of running on top of another as we create a chain of exes across the calendar.\

Which is why Athletic Brewing Company’s ‘Give Dry a Try’ campaign this January really appealed to me, as it offered a streak-style way to track the days I didn’t consume alcohol.

Called Track Record, their new alcohol moderation tool launched at the end of December in the Athletic Brewing mobile app and on athleticbrewing.com. According to Athletic, “Track Record will give the millions of Americans looking to cut back on alcohol a guilt-free way of practicing mindfulness and moderation.” In short, it’s a daily tracking tool to support you in your journey towards a more mindful drinking lifestyle.

If you follow Believe in the Run or listen to our podcast, you may know I’ve taken a step back from drinking over the past year, going on two months-long sober stretches during my lead-up to both the Tokyo and New York City marathons. And though I’ve drank in between and since, it’s been a stark difference in contrast to 2022. Most notably, I don’t drink at home anymore, and will only have one or two drinks if out with friends. 

A key player in that journey has been Athletic Brewing. Their beers are legitimately good and offer a close enough taste to a real beer that I find it scratches the itch if I ever want a beer with dinner or after a run. (If you’re wondering, my personal favorites are the Golden Ale and the Citrus Cacao IPA.)

So it seemed only logical that I’d try out their non-alcohol tracking, to see how I’d do for the month of January. Of course, we’re only 12 days into the month so I’m not gonna start patting myself on the back yet. But so far, I’ve strung together a couple streaks for a total of 11 non-alcohol days. My single exception was a beer after I finished a 50K that ended at the Guinness Brewery outside of Baltimore. (That said, the Guinness NA is almost identical to a regular, so I supposed I could’ve opted for that.)

The Athletic Brewing app itself is pretty straightforward. Most of the content within the app revolves around trying to get the user to order Athletic Brews, with a few other resources like a podcast feature and ambassador highlight. The actual Track Record tool is tucked into a row of circular icons kind of like Instagram highlights. Be aware, if you don’t want notifications, Athletic tries to annoy you into them by pestering you with a pop-up every time you open the app. Hopefully they change that soon.

Anyway, I hope that Athletic keeps the tracking going for additional months, because it would be cool to see how many streaks I could accumulate and get an end of year report.

Or maybe another pandemic happens and it’s back off the wagon for all of us. But for now, for this month– we’re going streaking.