That time I ran the Craft Brew Race and almost got a St. Bernard

R came home from work at 7 am this morning and woke me up to let me know that the Animal Refuge League had a St. Bernard up for adoption. We weren't really thinking of getting a new dog soon, but I LOVE big, fluffy, drooly dogs and it is really rare that they are available at the shelter. So after my metabolic conditioning class, we headed to the ARL.

Penny

We were first in line to meet Penny. She was the sweetest more gentle dog, but we ultimately decided she just wasn't right for us. She has a lot of health problems, the meet and greet with our current dog didn't go that well, and she made my allergies crazy. It was hard to walk away but there was already a line of people waiting to see her next, so I know she will go to a good home!

I dropped R off to finally get some sleep and headed off to my next adventure- the Portland Maine Craft Brew Race. This is a new series that combines a 5k with a beer fest.

I convinced my best friend Breezy to do it with me. She isn't a runner, but I won her over with the promise of unlimited free beer after the race. The course was selected for its proximity to the expo where the beer fest was held, and certainly not for the scenery. It was on the busiest, ugliest roads in Portland. The roads weren't closed, but they did put out cones to widen the shoulder and the traffic didn't bother me. There were some small rolling hills, but nothing major.

I didn't have any particular goals for the race. Between dog induced allergies, already having done a hard boot camp class, and the strange middle of the day start time (I don't usually eat before 5 k's), my only goal was to beat my time from the run portion of last weekend's tri. I ran without my watch, but at mile 1 saw the woman next to me check her watch, so I asked what our pace was. 7:18. Well, okay then, game on. From then on, I pushed a little harder, but never went totally flat out. I was thrilled to see 22 something on the clock as I turned onto the track where we finished. I ended up finishing in 22:45 which is a 7:19 pace!! The medal is pretty neat- it has a built in bottle opener!

Then it was on to the important things- beer! There were tons of Maine craft brewers there and we could get as many tastes as we wanted. This was nice because there was no pressure. If I didn't like something, I just dumped it and moved on. There were a lot of names I recognized, but also lots of new ones. It was so cool to see how many different types of awesome beer are being made right here in Maine. Pretzel Thins also had a free sample booth with a genius idea- pretzel necklaces! They knew we'd have our hands full of beer- so we could string our pretzels onto a necklace for hands free eating.

So no St. Bernard, but I did run a smoking fast (for me) 5k, and taste a lot of yummy beer. Happy Saturday!