Mill Creek Park Night Run

Jeff, Bruce, Jim & I

Tonight after work I drove over to Mill Creek Park and met Jim and my brother at the Lily Pond @ 5:45 for an 8 mile trail run. We weren't anticipating anyone else to be there but NEO Trail member Bruce McIntosh also showed up for the fun. The temperature had been dropping throughout the day due to an arctic cold front moving in and was probably in the low 20's when we began running. Much like my run in the Cuyahoga Valley on Sunday, it was amazing to see how much snow was on the ground in Mill Creek Park. Here's a picture of the boardwalk that leads to Lanterman's Mill. There were some other spots though where the snow actually came close to my knees.

The sections of trail that are more heavily traveled had a single file path and we were able to run through here at a pretty good clip but there were a lot of areas that were slow and the uphills were very tiring. Despite a decent amount of walking due to the snow depth, we were still able to finish up in under 2 hours which I thought was pretty good.

After our run Jeff and I went to downtown Youngstown for some food and to try out some beer from the Rust Belt Brewing Co. for the first time. We first stopped in the Boxcar Lounge next to the B&O Station (which is the location where Rust Belt brews their beer), but they were having issues with their tap so we drove down the road to University Pizzeria, which is next to the YSU campus, and tried out Rust Belt's Blonde Ale. I thought this beer was pretty good and had a smooth finish. Definitely more of a summer beer though. When we first walked into the restaurant I was also able to meet Ken Blair (owner of Rust Belt Brewing Co.) for the first time. He is still working as a Youngstown police officer and was on break at the time.

After eating we went next door to Inner Circle Pizza which had Rust Belt's "Irish Red" on tap. I thought I'd like this beer more than the Blonde Ale but it was not what I was expecting. It tasted good but I think it needs to be either stronger or hoppier to match its dark red appearance. Nonetheless, I will continue to support Rust Belt's efforts as a local brewer and look forward to new beer releases.