This weekend is going to be bittersweet for me. I was supposed to run the ING Georgia Marathon, but a little over two weeks ago, I had a pretty painful experience with my knee on my final long run, a 20 miler I ran on the West Ashley Greenway in Charleston. I fought through that run, but haven’t been able to do more than 2 or 3 miles since then.

So, I’m taking the side of caution and I won’t push myself to run the race this weekend. Despite weeks of training and some very exhausting long runs, I want to make sure I can run for the next 20 years.

On the bright side, I can now turn my focus onto beer. (Talk about a shift in extremes, I go from running a marathon to drinking beer.) It just so happens that the Sweetwater Brew Your Cask Off festival is this weekend in Atlanta, and now I’ll be able to go!

This is a very unique event, at least for me. Sweetwater Brewing out of Atlanta created a few base recipes from which 75 invited guest brewers have taken and made their own casks. This is my first cask ale festival, and I love cask beer. I could not be more excited.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the experience, and if you’re in the area, be sure to attend. It’s bound to be fun and delicious.