Copenhagen Days 3-5, aka Copenhagen Beer Celebration AKA we drank some of the best beers in the world, and also went for a run in the middle of beer drinking.

Friday morning we took a cab to Sparta Hallen- the venue for Copenhagen Beer Celebration. There was a long line out front to get in, so we went across the street to Mc Donalds to get a quick bite before consuming too many beers to count. Although I did count and keep track with the untappd app.

A delicious egg, bacon and cheese bagel at Mc D's

After breakfast we walked back over the the venue and started 2 days and 4 sessions of sampling some truly fantastic beers.

We hammed it up at a Mikkeller photo cutout.
We had looked at the tap list for what was being served at each session, so we had some sort of game plan- but then I would walk by a brewery and go all "SQUIRREL" and have to sample their beer too. Each brewery brought 8 kegs of beer for CBC, and would serve 2 of them at each session and once they were out, they were out for that session.

While it was sold out, the space never felt super crowded. Many of the people got their beer and sat on a bench while dissecting the flavors. We weren't so fancy with printouts of the beers to track and try. We just used our app to keep track.

This beer celebration is like a "who's who" of beers- and I'm sure is one of the top industry events to go to for networking and expanding distro. We saw people from the Chicago area at CBC- like Drew the brewer from 18th Street in Gary, IN who was pouring his beers at the festival. We also saw one of the owners from the bar in our building. It was so cool to meet new faces and say HI and congratulations to the ones we knew who got invited to CBC.

Us and Drew, from 18th Street

We also met the guys of  "Way Beer" who are out of Brasil. I really loved their beers which had fruits and woods incorporated into them that are found in Brasil. They are really forward thinking with using different ingredients and their creativity shows with some really delicious beer.

Us and Way Beer brewery Alessandro.

We also saw James of Brew Dogs. It was so awesome to meet him in person- we watch all the Brew Dog episodes on Esquire TV, as well as enjoy their beers immensely. He was super nice and we got to chat with him for a few minutes.

Us and James!

Bud was invited after their crappy Superbowl ad, but was a no show.


We had the "pink tickets" which got us into each of the 4 sessions. We wouldn't travel all the way to Copenhagen to only experience one session...

On Saturday morning, we decided to relax with the beer drinking by not having too many, and only going for "lighter" style beers because it was the First Saturday of the month, which meant Mikkeller Running Club!

We joked an hour into the session on Saturday that we only had a fraction of what we had sampled at the same time of the Friday session.

It was so cool to run with another MRC Chapter!

MRC Copenhagen breaks into groups based on pace and then runs together for 75+% of the run with folks having the option to break off to not run as far.
I ran with the 5:00/km group and did 8km. I was dying!  Maybe it was drinking a pint or 2 of beer beforehand, but I felt so sluggish and heavy. The people in our group were super nice though.

We ran in the park around the stadium where CBC was being held- it was such a gorgeous day. 

Some photos from Theis Mortensen and Kasper Borg

Our group running across the bridge
photos from Theis Mortensen and Kasper Borg

Having fun post run!

 photos from Theis Mortensen and Kasper Borg

The 5:00/km group finishers.

 photos from Theis Mortensen and Kasper Borg

Pre run

 photos from Theis Mortensen and Kasper Borg

Maybe one day the Chicago Chapter will be this big?!?

We got to meet the creator of Mikkeller beer and the running club, Mikkel!
Our free beer for the run came from "Firestarter" which is a cool fire truck with taps on board. It is the ultimate party bus!

We went back to the hotel to freshen up post run and then headed back for the final session of CBC.

The first beer we had at this session was the much anticipated Hunahpu Stout from Cigar City brewing. It was a delicious imperial stout with notes of cinnamon and chocolate. LOVE.
We also got to take a photo with the legend of hot dogs- John, from John's hot dog deli. We first ate one of his hot dogs at Northdown during the battle of the hotdogs last year. For CBC John was selling dogs with all sorts of delicious toppings- beer mustard, beer reduced onions, heaven. He was our go to lunch 2 days.

After sampling loads and loads of delicious beers, CBC was over. We were hungry so we walked a while to get to a highly rated Indian restaurant we found on 4sq.
We had to have a Carlsberg in Copenhagen!

We shared some naan, Saag Chicken and butter chicken. I cant even describe how this hit the spot so hard after drinking so many beers!

Post dinner we walked back to the hotel and saw a nice sunset over the train tracks.

Sunday morning was the  Mikkeller Beer run. Post run, we walked over to where the most iconic spot of Copenhagen was- Nyhavn.

These buildings are so colorful and beautiful.

Sunday afternoon we walked around Kongens Have- another beautiful park.
I really loved the statutes in Copenhagen- some were super serious, and others were more whimsical like these on the side of a building.
3am Monday morning we woke up to start the journey back home. We had an early 6:50am flight to Paris and then our flight back to Chicago. Unfortunately we realized at the CPH airport that we would miss our flight from Paris- Chicago because the time had been changed to an earlier one. Luckily L travels a bunch and has super extra status with the airline and they were able to book us on a flight connecting in NYC. We made it home a few hours later than anticipated, but were happy.
I can;t say enough nice things about Copenhagen. The city was so clean and beautiful and the people were also incredibly friendly. We made so many new friends there it was awesome! While I was sad to leave, I know that we will be back again someday- hopefully for next year's CBC!
Cheers!

Mikkeller Beer Run 5k

May 3 was the inaugural Mikkeller Beer run 5k. It was the perfect capstone to the Copenhagen Beer Celebration and Mikkeller Beer week in Copenhagen. (And if you haven't heard of Mikkeller running club, click here to find a chapter near you! We meet every first Saturday.)

L and I having fun pre-race! Photo Cred

The Mikkeller beer run started and ended at Warpigs- the new bar/restaurant/brewery collab between Mikkeller and 3 Floyd's and ran a nice out and back course along the streets surrounding the bar.

The main perk for this run was the beer. The runners got an amazing choice of on course and post race beer to quench their thirst. Yes. On course refreshment. the aid station at Km4 was well stocked with beer and runners were encouraged to hang out and have a few.

The logistics for this race were a dream. Register online and pick up your bib the morning of the race (with the race starting at 11am). L and I arrived at 9:15 to collect our bibs thinking it would be busy and a cluster Fu#k like many races in the USA, and we were wrong. We had our bibs within 10 seconds and went to a cafe to chill before the race started.
Before the race I ran around the parking lot a few times and did some strides to see where I was at- previously I hadn't run much in the past 2 weeks, plus I've been eating and drinking all the things.
Once my warm up was complete, I lined up for the start and soon we were off. Mikkel and some fast guys took off and I was left in their dust. I was feeling pretty good considering all the beer intake over the past 2 days but let out a loud "oh shit" when I hit the 1km in 4:00. I tried to keep an even effort after that even though my stomach was sloshy and I felt heavy and sloth like.

Drew and Kasper sprinting it out to the finish 

Running on cobblestones is tough. There were some spectators cheering along the course, but mainly folks on bikes who had stopped to see what the commotion was. I seriously considered stopping at the 4km to get a beer but just decided to keep going and continue having fun.

SIDE 5!

I ended up 1st woman of 91, and 28th of 351 starters with a time of 21:48 which would be my 3rd fastest 5k ever! And I had a blast! Everyone was so friendly and encouraging- just like our MRC fun runs and there were many high 5's and cheers to be had.

First and Second place with our prizes! Photo Cred

 I saw L finish strong and cheered on the 18th Street brewer, Drew to an epic sprint finish.

L, Jan and I post race. We rocked it!

We found our friend Jan and got some beer from Firestarter and then got our last meal at Warpigs.
For being 1st woman, I got 2 sweet bottles of beer from 8 Wired brewing and a gift certificate to a local running store.
I have to say this was one of my favorite races ever- it was such a fun relaxed atmosphere and every single person was smiling, drinking beer, and having a blast.

L and I with Kasper at the Mikkeller Bar post race

We made so many new friends on this trip it was amazing!

I really hope we can return next year for Mikkeller beer run 2.0.