Beer Lay and babies= Best Birthday Ever

I heard "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen the other day and came to a conclusion: I'm officially in my late-mid thirties. Or early late-thirties. Either way, I can race as a Master and by some estimates have seen the best of my days. 

Luckily, I cheerfully disagree. Yes, I may have some grays in the hair and fat in the belly that I didn't have before. And I am considerably slower(physically and probably mentally). But I can honestly say I probably had the best birthday ever this year. 

The actual day was spent with me taking a half day and getting to spend it with Matilda and the evening with Kenny. We had gone up to Charlotte the weekend before and had a wonderful time. Matilda(possibly with Kenny's help) got me some great birthday gifts. Family and friends showered me with well-wishes which is one of the saving graces of social media and text messaging.

If that wasn't enough, my brother Drew treated me to a weekend in Greenville and entry into the Cottonmouth Beerlay: an eight mile race where every two miles you have to drink a beer. 8 miles and 4 beers.

Wait-did I say best birthday ever???

Well eating and drinking is my specialty and I still can somewhat run, so why not? It would be fun! I surely wasn't thinking as much on my third and fourth laps with 3-4 beers in my ever-more bloated belly. And the fact the race came down to a sprint finish added an element of discomfort. 

At least the drinking was fast

Michael Nance-a fellow Harbison Trail runner after the race.

But in reality it was really fun and Drew and I spend the rest of the evening out and about in Greenville and was great catching up. Greenville is a beautiful little city which I hadn't really had an opportunity to explore before. 

Images from Falls Park 

The race was also good preparation for the Krispy Kreme Challenge in Myrtle Beach in a month. I suspect the competition will be steeper this year so I better be on my A game if I want to defend my title. 

That fun weekend really was just icing on the cake as having my beautiful baby to come home to really sealed the deal. It'll be a tough birthday to beat, but next year she'll be walking so who knows?

Until next time, 

Danny