18.19 mi, 2:51:43 , 9:26:41
Long run and first Beer Mile
I had 18 miles scheduled and Escape Brewery was having their first ever beer mile which was at 9:00 am. So, I made an adventure out of it. Left the house in Palm Harbor at 5:50 am, heading north on Belcher until Klosterman, then over to US 19. This was probably the worst part of the run but it wasn't that bad. Traffic was still light and the sidewalk is set back pretty far from the road. But some of the sidewalk was uneven and there were lots of parking lots to cross where someone might not have seen me although I was wearing a headlamp and green safety vest.
Also, mindful of my time, I did start out easy but slowly worked my way toward a 9:30 pace.
Turning east onto Keystone Road, there were hints of light. The sidewalk is extra wide and then I was on the Pinellas Trail which was even nicer. Crossed over East Lake with no problems, and soon I was turning north onto the new trail along Lake Dan preserve. Felt like I was almost home.
I swung by Escape to make sure race was at 9:00 and not 8:30. Still had 2.5 more miles to do so stopped by my house to grab a gatorade, did a loop in the neighborhood and then back to Escape.
Got my bib, waited a little, warmed up a bit. The race was very, very casual. Original plan was for 4 laps around the little strip plaza but they couldn't do that for some reason, so they changed it to 8 laps in the front parking lot. They had a table set up with little dixie cups of beer (those little 3oz ones, filled maybe 2/3 so about 2 ounces or maybe a little less).
I ran a little faster than expected, about a 7:31 pace, not bad for making 9 stops. When I finished the 8th lap my garmin said 0.89. I asked the guy in charge if I should do one more lap, he said if I wanted to. I might have won the race but no one was keeping time or places, it was all for fun. I think there were about 25 of us.
We each got three tokens good for $1 off.
After the race, it started to rain heavily. Earlier in the morning there were some light sprinkles. The rain had held off.
Headed back home, showered and then got a ride from Andy back to Palm Harbor and we also grabbed lunch at Grain and Berry. So, it was a pretty fun morning.
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