Akron Marathon Relay and Great Beer Night
This past weekend I drove down to Akron, OH, to visit my friends the Spoonsters. On the agenda for the weekend was to run the Akron Marathon Relay and then to spend the rest of the day napping and drinking ridiculously good beer. By all accounts the weekend was an enormous success. Here are some pictures of the Good Times. Let's kick things off with the marathon relay:
Nicole and her sister, Kat, after the race. I ran the final leg into the stadium, which is really the only way to do one of these. It was super fun. I finished in 61 minutes and our team finished in 4:07:42. Official results can be found here, and pictures from the road can be found here. There are a lot of pictures of me, a few pictures of Kat, and a few pictures of Leslie, but I didn't see any of Kiernen or Nicole. Maybe they weren't taking pictures in those stretches? There are a bunch of me at the finish line because the jackass right in front of me did some kind of a dive forward roll right at the finish line. Jackass.
It was overcast and chilly, and of course I got rained on during my leg of the run. But there was Michelob Ultra at the finish line which made it all worth it(?!?). You got two beers for the tag on your bib, and we collected people's tags for more beer. We probably had 10 or 12 by the time we left.
Joseph racked out on the couch after we got back to the house.
Umm...yeah. It's gonna be a good night.
First beer of the evening. Grimbergen's Double Ale. Delicious. And I got the same glass that I used at the last Great Beer Night I attended.
Party goers have to select a glass. Joseph said it's like the Sorting Hat. "The glass picks the drinker."
Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard outside for most of the evening, so the party was entirely indoors.
mmm...food...mmm. Nicole slaved away most of the afternoon getting the eats together for the party. (There were a lot of people there, I'm just not posting pictures of all the random people at the party...click the link way down below for more pics.)
At some point in the evening, the enormous bottle of Chimay Grand Reserve was opened and it was amazing. A really, really good beer. (Dare I say a "Great Beer?" YES! I DARE!)
Me and Joseph in the basement, near the Great Beer Fridge, about to do some jello shots.
Kiernen, Nicole, Joseph, and Corrine. Corrine, on the far right, has a nasty habit of making ridiculous amounts of ludicrously strong jello shots, and then twisting everyone's arms to do them. It's actually a very small, select group that gets invited to the basement to stand in the presence of the Beer Fridge and share in the wonders that are Corrine's jello shots.
See? Don't we all look like we're being forced here?
Late in the evening I got roped into playing the guitar for people in the kitchen.
We made short work of the beer bucket, and did some damage to the collection from the fridge in the basement.
Joseph and Nicole on Sunday morning after we finally got some breakfast.
Lots more pictures of Great Beer Night 2009 can be found here.
I think my favorite beers of the night were the Grimbergen Double Ale, the Chimay Grand Reserve, a La Trappe that isn't made anymore so I just enjoyed drinking it, knowing I'd pretty much never have it again, and then Great Lakes Brewing's Glockenspiel. Great Lakes only produces it seasonally, but wow, I will be on the lookout for it from now on.
Really good times with Joe and Nicole, as usual. We need to spend more time together or a more regular basis. We'll work on that after the baby.
Nicole and her sister, Kat, after the race. I ran the final leg into the stadium, which is really the only way to do one of these. It was super fun. I finished in 61 minutes and our team finished in 4:07:42. Official results can be found here, and pictures from the road can be found here. There are a lot of pictures of me, a few pictures of Kat, and a few pictures of Leslie, but I didn't see any of Kiernen or Nicole. Maybe they weren't taking pictures in those stretches? There are a bunch of me at the finish line because the jackass right in front of me did some kind of a dive forward roll right at the finish line. Jackass.
It was overcast and chilly, and of course I got rained on during my leg of the run. But there was Michelob Ultra at the finish line which made it all worth it(?!?). You got two beers for the tag on your bib, and we collected people's tags for more beer. We probably had 10 or 12 by the time we left.
Joseph racked out on the couch after we got back to the house.
Umm...yeah. It's gonna be a good night.
First beer of the evening. Grimbergen's Double Ale. Delicious. And I got the same glass that I used at the last Great Beer Night I attended.
Party goers have to select a glass. Joseph said it's like the Sorting Hat. "The glass picks the drinker."
Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard outside for most of the evening, so the party was entirely indoors.
mmm...food...mmm. Nicole slaved away most of the afternoon getting the eats together for the party. (There were a lot of people there, I'm just not posting pictures of all the random people at the party...click the link way down below for more pics.)
At some point in the evening, the enormous bottle of Chimay Grand Reserve was opened and it was amazing. A really, really good beer. (Dare I say a "Great Beer?" YES! I DARE!)
Me and Joseph in the basement, near the Great Beer Fridge, about to do some jello shots.
Kiernen, Nicole, Joseph, and Corrine. Corrine, on the far right, has a nasty habit of making ridiculous amounts of ludicrously strong jello shots, and then twisting everyone's arms to do them. It's actually a very small, select group that gets invited to the basement to stand in the presence of the Beer Fridge and share in the wonders that are Corrine's jello shots.
See? Don't we all look like we're being forced here?
Late in the evening I got roped into playing the guitar for people in the kitchen.
We made short work of the beer bucket, and did some damage to the collection from the fridge in the basement.
Joseph and Nicole on Sunday morning after we finally got some breakfast.
Lots more pictures of Great Beer Night 2009 can be found here.
I think my favorite beers of the night were the Grimbergen Double Ale, the Chimay Grand Reserve, a La Trappe that isn't made anymore so I just enjoyed drinking it, knowing I'd pretty much never have it again, and then Great Lakes Brewing's Glockenspiel. Great Lakes only produces it seasonally, but wow, I will be on the lookout for it from now on.
Really good times with Joe and Nicole, as usual. We need to spend more time together or a more regular basis. We'll work on that after the baby.