Fast forward about 10 years where, with a chemistry degree and some lab experience, I land a temp job at Diageo, the corporation who owns St. James Gate Brewery. Yeah...THAT one. I didn’t get to test any Guinness or Smithwick’s, but my experience there got me a job at Lagunitas in Chicago. Before then, I knew beer, but I didn’t KNOW beer. There I learned about the brewing process and all of the work that goes into beer analysis. I was in love in the first week. Beer chemistry is fascinating, from flavor production to aging. I loved my work, and now that I live in Columbus, Ohio, I’ve been fighting like hell to get back into it.

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Running and I haven’t always been friends. As one of the biggest kids at my high school, I practically got sentenced to the football team, and my hometown paid by the pound. Bigger meant better. However, I also spent my springs on the track team...as a shot-putter. I respected runners, but I never dreamed I’d be able to do what they do. My football career ended hilariously after a single season in college, but I found the track team and spent four years as a thrower, even got voted captain in my last year. Throughout my college athletic career, running was the vegetable you had to finish before you could start on the main course. Sure, I ran, but for me, it was compulsory, not recreational. I occasionally ran, usually after watching a documentary on the heart or breaking a chair I just sat in, but hardly anything habitual.