GBW 2012 Day 6 - This is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

After a subdued day coming off the back of a too long night at Mountain Goat, I thought this was the point I was going to start struggling, and the sprint I put on last night was going to put me out of the marathon of a week of good beer. I had the offer to go to the beer awards, but knew I would not be able to do another sprint of beers and make it through the week. Still, maybe doing something beer orientated but without too much actual beer drinking may help. Maybe with a dose of exercise to flush out some toxins that had been building up during the week...

Therefore, I steeled myself and made it out to a packed Fox Hotel in Collingwood to catch up with Brad and Seda to partake in the beer scavenger hunt. Being late, I was running up Wellington St just to try and get there (an omen for the night to come) in time, but with a staggered start, we had time for a Cavalier Imperial Stout, which I must say tasted pretty good and with a bit of alcohol in it to loosen us up for the journey to come.
Setting off at 7:30, we worked out The Rose as out next venue so started making our way, trying to complete as many of the challenges we could do on the way. This pic is probably my fav from the night on our way to The Rose, with us all fitting into a small recycling bin. We also managed to get a few strangers to take team shots, and one guy gave Seda a piggyback to get the ball rolling

Once we got to The Rose we stalled a bit trying to figure out the famous people related to beers The Rose has on tap, but after some prodding by one of the staff and finding the nine inch nails poster on the wall, we finally figured it out. Also had a slow start on working out the next venue (thank you google!) but got enough for me to work out the next place was The Rainbow. At least I had time to drink the Squires nine lashes while I was there, but of course not focusing much o how it tasted

More bin shenanigan, trams, statues, Brad and I in a little arcade and trying to find a building with 150 on it and we finally made it to the Rainbow. No sooner had I walked in, and I knew what beer we were going to be having a pot of here. I nearly forgot I was on a beer scavenger hunt (or thought I had found the major prize and so the game was over) when I saw Thirsty Crow's Vanilla Milk Stout on tap. Ordering 3 pots of that and doing the beer style challenge (I swear that beer was an IPA!) we did as much of the find-a-word for me to work out Grumpy's Green was the next venue. Unfortunately we worked it out too quickly for the beer to warm up, so felt really bad sculling this amazing beer. Still, for tonight, tasting beer was not the focus, so quickly took this shot of us with the beer, and kept on moving.

We really started getting some momentum from here with police station, construction site and shopping trolley all in close proximity, and Brad and I having a push up off for a free beer (Grumpy's Pils was actually alright, or maybe I just didn't care). Also grabbing our pot each (I had the Goat Hightail...this race was not a poster-child for responsible drinking), we did the dash back up to The Fox, singing a beer song to passing cyclists, making our team name out of rubbish, following Brad to do the Macarena in front of Coles and whatever else we could fit in on our way back. I think we made it back just a few minutes late from our allocated 2.5 hours for the hunt, but think we did ok, and was a fun experience. My legs are smashed though. Not being a gym junky and not doing any cardio workouts, the running we did between venues and searching for photo ops took its toll not only on the night but after the fact. All I could handle once we got back to the Fox was some glasses of water, before we called it a night and left before the prizes were given out. Still, it was about the adventure and each team went home with a little pack of things to share which was nice.

So, the Beeroni's may not have gotten anywhere on the leader board, but was great to do a different sort of event during Good Beer Week. The end is nigh and starting to feel like I could actually survive what remains of it. But looking forward to what I have left, and that after that I will be happy to regain a little normality (and more importantly, sleep) in life. Thanks to all the venues for opening their pubs to rushing, sweaty people that no doubt affected the vibe in their establishments, to the Fox or oganising the event and getting some cool prizes and attracting so many people to it (I heard there were over 200 people in the hunt), and of course to Brad and Seda, for making up a team for me to go with, and experience another facet of Good Beer Week with some other friends (I swear my mates have a roster just so they don't get bogged down drinking beer with me too much. Good on 'em!)

Cheers,


Beef