Runners lace up for pints of Mikkeller

Toronto runners know which group to join if they want their thirst properly quenched after cruising for kilometres on city streets. There are many things that make lacing up worth it: a better fitness level, a connection to the running community, or just a pint of Mikkeller beer to drink down post run.

That frothy glass of goodness is a guarantee when running with the Mikkeller Running Club. That’s a group that started at the end of May 2015 and meets at the first Saturday of every month to do a run and drink Mikkeller beer afterwards. The Toronto club is just one of several chapters across the world though. The first was started by legendary Copenhagen beer brewer Mikkel Bjergsø and co-founder Søren Runge. “Søren and Mikkel started running and drinking beer. What they were drinking, obviously, was Mikkeller beer,” says Tej Sandhu, co-founder of the Toronto chapter.

“He’s not only an excellent brewer, but he’s also a scholarship runner,” he explains. Bjergsø ran for Kansas State before he was a brewer so it’s not a surprise that he wound up blending the two passions to create a running group — now well known around the world. The two went on running and settling in for a drink at the Copenhagen brewery attracting new members, some of them tourists.

That’s how the club started to spread internationally. Tourists would join and go back home and want to continue the tradition says Sandhu. Currently, there are chapters in Paris, London, Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, San Francisco, Norfolk, Barcelona, Aarhus, Sao Paolo, Reykjavik, Montreal and Toronto. All of them run on the first Saturday of the month.”Whenever you’re in one of those cities with a run going on, you can join in,” says Sandhu.

In January of 2015, Sandhu was visiting London when he got his first taste of what the club was all about. He was inspired to bring it back to Toronto. At that point, he and Dan Grant had already started RunTOBeer— Toronto’s run crew that ends every run in a different brewery or beer pub.

They decided to plan a Mikkeller group meeting at 12:00 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month and finishing the run a Bier Markt,a pub in the city’s downtown core. Runners purchase a club T-shirt to become a member and from there on, they get the first round of beers on the house.  “People are really excited. It’s something everyone looks forward to,” says Sandhu.

“Mikkeller beer is highly thought of,” he says. “We don’t have a lot of it in Ontario.” Right now, there are four beers by the brewery available in the province and on tap at Bier Markt. It’s not as wide of a variety as it could be, but it’s good enough considering that it’s a rare find. Right now, the club has grown to a nice size of about 35 runners. Their run and social time makes for a good afternoon to kick off the start of every month. Sandhu is satisfied.

“I thought that beer could be an incentive to get out to run,” he says. “And hey, that there’s a Mikkeller beer at the end of a run is extra.”