Let’s face it: some things are just meant to go with one another. Peanut butter and jelly, corned beef and cabbage, Chinese food followed by ice cream and so on. Add to the list beer and running. After a run, there is often times nothing more refreshing than a cool beer to help you get some calories back into the system and cool down after hitting the pavement. This weekend it was a back-to-back weekend of racing with a 5k on both Saturday and Sunday and low and behold each race had a nice beer theme to it.

Yesterday I traveled to Canton, Massachusetts for the Blue Hills Brewery 2nd Annual South Shore Trail Run. Runners checked in at the brewery and then boarded a trolley to the starting line which was just down the road a bit within the State Park and around Ponkapoag Pond. The race time conditions were quite gross with temperatures in the low 40’s and a rather heavy dousing of rain pouring down on runners. The race was an informal sort of fun run with no real timing taking place and the course not marked or marshaled, causing a couple of other runners along with myself to run a wee bit further than the 5k we signed up for. The course was rather sloppy from the rain but after having done so many pavement miles training for Boston it was nice to mix things up a little bit. Post-race, runners boarded the shuttle bus back to the brewery where everyone was able to enjoy two free beers and some light snacks. One of the best surprises of the race was when the race director gave every single runner a case of Blue Hills Brewery’s IPA. Not a bad deal!

This morning, we headed for Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Spring Classic 5k. This race started just in front of the Asgard Pub and just shy of 3000 of our closest friends hit the streets of Cambridge for a nice 5k run. Having done a race that started at the Asgard before, I liked this course much better since it wasn’t just an out-and-back and instead you hit some residential neighborhoods of Cambridge along the way. I felt quite good at the race, particularly after doing a trail run yesterday and after completing the Boston Marathon less than a week ago. Overall, my time was 24:16 which is good for 7:48/miles.

Post-race, runners were treated to fresh beer being poured by Jack’s Abby as well as cases of cans of 21st Amendment Brewery‘s IPA and Watermelon Wheat. Back in my younger days I would have made a pretty nice dent here but instead after enjoying one IPA, thanks to the generosity of my brother who came to watch us run the race, we treated ourselves to Flour Bakery before heading back home.