Featured in this episode as we travel to Boca Raton:
Levis JCC Run, Sweat, and Beers 5K
On Thursday, July 20th, my husband and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary with filming the latest episode of the podcast. Right now, my work schedule allows me to scout races and destinations that we can drive to here in the state of Florida so we can spend a couple of days shooting the podcast. I am just beginning as a podcaster, but I love it and hope to feature more races and destinations. I do want to show you all hidden gems when it comes to races, tasty places to eat, and great beverages you should try if you get the chance. I hope it is enjoyable and that we are a helpful and fun resource for runners, vacationers, and friends. We want you to accomplish, explore, and indulge, and we hope to help with that.
This brought us to Boca Raton to participate in the Levis JCC Run, Sweat and Beers 5K. This race was held at a huge park in Boca. Talk about an undiscovered race! Who knew this organization had three separate races and this was the last in the series. If you ran all three you got a medal, but that is not the best part. This race benefits an outstanding organization, the Levis Jewish Community Center, and their summer camps for special needs children as well as many other endeavors they are involved in to support anyone in need in their community. Check out their website and Facebook page to see how you can support them or if you want to run the 5k they will be hosting in September. You really should do it! It was so much fun!
We ran the race entirely in this huge park. At mile 1 there was a water stop. We passed two, count them two, alligators on the way to the turn around at the half-way point in the race. That same water stop was available on the way back to the finish. It was a flat course, and it was runner and walker friendly with no time limit. They texted our finish times right after we completed the race, and we got a nice tech t-shirt as part of the goody bag. There was a big inflatable archway at the finish, cold water, chicken wings, and cold and delicious beer from Barrel of Monks Brewing, which we will review in a Quick Bite this week.
Once the after party was over and the awards had been given, we went on to Patio Tapas and Beer. It was happy hour and the dishes were small and inexpensive tapas plates. We review the Patatas Bravas in the episode, but we had so many good things that we will need to review them in Quick Bites all throughout the week. Our assessment in short: everyone should go there and try their tasty tapas.
Our last stop in Boca Raton was Funky Buddha Brewery. They have two locations, and we went to the Boca location, which is the smaller of the two. They had live music going on, but really, who are we kidding, we were there for the beer! So we made our way to the bar and ordered the Floridian. It had the color of a Florida sunset. It was light and a nice wheat beer to celebrate the completion of our race.
All in all, Boca Raton has some great unknown races, restaurants with unique food, and beer that was worth the drive. We definitely want to go back, and not just for the golf courses and beautiful beaches that we ran out of time and could not visit. We are hoping to go back in September and hope you'll come along with us.