Pre-Race Sunday, March 15^th, 7:51am

Running has been a big part of my life for the last few years. Beer has been a big part of my life for the last 25 years. Running keeps me active and in shape. Beer seems to do the opposite.

Despite the seemingly antagonistic relationship between these two important facets of my identity, they can sometimes come together to create something beautiful (like Shoes & Brews), or simply be forced into an ugly partnership to celebrate one of America’s favorite drinking holidays.

Today I’ll be embracing the latter and participating in my first ever beer run! This event will allow me to tie drinking and running together while I honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of alcohol and bad decisions.

The Race: The Poulsbo Beer Run consists of four leisurely miles run through our humble little Western Washington town, with stops at all our local breweries. (Since this is the Pacific Northwest, even humble little Western Washington towns have at least three breweries.)

The Concern: While I do love both running and beer, I have never done both at the same time. I have had beer after a run, but never during. And since I’ll be knocking back five 12oz beers during the four miles and I’m no longer what you would call a “young man,” there is definitely a part of me that wonders how I’m actually going to feel at the end.

The Good News: I’m running with my wife, who’s a self-proclaimed “slow runner.” (Seriously, she’s really slow.) So I’ll probably be fine. But who knows… it’s been a while since I’ve drank 60oz of beer in two hours. My wife is also allergic to gluten which means I’ll have a designated runner guiding me the whole way. (Something tells me this might be important.)

Running shoes are on and I’m about to head out to mix alcohol and athletics for the first time since my friends and I played basketball while drinking “forties’ during our final week of high school.

Sláinte!

(Be sure to check back later today to see how it went…)

Post-Race Sunday, March 15^th, 5:21pm

As it turns, out drinking a lot of beer before noon is a good way to achieve early drunkenness and not accomplish anything during the day. I had every intention of writing about my experience earlier, but the previous sentence should explain why I didn’t.  My intention was to write more, but sleep was needed.

Some quick notes on my first ever beer run:

• It poured rain all day in Poulsbo, WA making the run less than ideal.
• Seriously, POURING RAIN!
• Unfortunately, because of the weather, I had to wear running tights.
• Beer run = costumes!
• My wife and I were under-dressed (no costumes) and agreed to put on more ‘green’ next year.
• I drank 6 beers  instead of 5. (Mistake!)
• As it turns out 6 beers in two hours is a lot.
• Vomiting occurred. (Spoiler alert!)
• Naps should be scheduled for beer runs

Many thanks to Silver City, Valhöll, Slippery Pig, Sound Brewing and all the people responsible for making my Sunday a hazy mess.

See you next year!