10 miles of pure awesome

Last Saturday, Ironside held its (first annual?) Beer Run -- 10 miles through the streets of Boston, visiting 10 bars, in 6 hours.  The brainchild of Sam "Hummer" Rosenthal, and charted out by Matt Holzer, it started at the Washington Square Tavern in Brookline, and ended at Colin Mahoney's house in Somerville.  I remember few bars in between by name -- John Harvard's refused to serve us; Sevens on Beacon Hill, CSC?, the Hong Kong where Brent had to rescue from a Harvard student, a bar across the street from the one we were supposed to go by Fenway but had really cheap Miller Lite drafts so ended up being good afterall, a really cool place with a piano from which Chicken serenaded us, and probably one or two others.  

I was a little nervous about "crashing" the Run, but there were other non-Ironsiders joining in.  Jammin' from DC (a Hodag alum), Patrick Baylis (new to Boston, formerly of Carleton & Sub Zero, will be trying out for Ironside next year), and Chicken.  I was the only girl, however.  And somehow the only one to hold onto the PlayBoy Josh McCarthy was handing out at the piano bar.  It served as a spanking tool and a baton, so I don't know what everyone else was thinking putting theirs down. 

There were different strategies of what to drink.  I started out with stouts, because they went down smooth, but the volume became a problem -- the first half-mile after each stout-stop was fulling of belching.  Shots went down quickly, but obviously were a bit more potent and caught up with you after 3 in a row.  Some sipped hot toddy's but later regretted it.  I don't think anyone drank wine, and rightly so.  No matter what the beverage, my strategy was to drink it quicky to allow time to digest.  There was some noshing of food -- fries & pizze were donated to the cause by enraptured bar-goers.  I don't think anyone puked the day of (Paul Batten was a puking machine the next morning).  

A very cool effect of having to move from place to place every 10-15 min is that the group gets shuffled up every time, and you interact with lots of different people, instead of getting "stuck" in a smaller group within the group.  I ended up running with a couple different people, and got to know a lot of the Ironside guys a bit better.  All good guys.  Way cool.  I tripped about 200m from the end and have scrapes on my R palm, and Paul Batten twisted his ankle/foot, but casualties could have been worse. The night ended a bit on a bad note, and I was way hurting the next morning (sweating?!) but overall, I have zero regrets doing it.