In merely a few days time the future king of Denmark, Crown Prince Frederik, will be celebrating his 50th birthday and all over the country flags will be at high mast. A total of five Danish cities are involved in celebratory shenanigans which began on May 18, and span nine days, which The Royal Family has unveilied in tribute to their future king.

Royal Run exceeds over 70k participants, spanning 5 different cities.

Danes across Copenhagen and other cities shared in the celebrations yesterday as the crown prince laced up his running shoes with the rest of the Danes to take part in what has been called The Royal Run.

With registration for the event closing at over 70k members, cities across Denmark, including Copenhagen, have participated today in The Royal Run.

The event span across Denmark’s 5 largest cities which include Aalborg, Aarhus, Esbjerg, Odense, and of course, the capital Copenhagen.

The Crown Prince began the day with a golden mile in the first four cities and rounded off the festivity by running 10km in Copenhagen.

The Royal Run was a unique celebration because it was an invitation to run with The Crown Prince, when the whole Kingdom with the Crown Prince at the head, transformed the streets of Denmark’s five largest cities to a large running celebration on the occasion of the Crown Prince’s 50th birthday.

A Run For Everyone.

The starting gun sounded in Aalborg, where the Crown Prince ran one mile (just over one and a half kilometres) together with Danes, their neighbors, their friends, colleagues and family. Then the race continued in Aarhus, Esbjerg and Odense, where the Crown Prince also ran the well-known one mile routes, before he ended up the festival in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, running a total of 10 kilometers through the capital.

Along the route the royal blue carpet was rolled out, and the music was playing and the flags were unfurled. But The Royal Run was for everyone, regardless of whether the race was a part of everyday life, or whether it is the first time people were grappling with their running shoes. There was an emphasis that the festival began with the everyday Dane as it ran around the whole country.

The Danish Association of Athletics Federation were responsible for putting on the race and it was also organised under the auspices of Denmark’s largest sports vision, the move of a lifetime, a collaboration with Nordea-fonden and Trygfonden, with Danish television channel TV 2 as its media partner.

The Crown Prince spent approximately one hour in every city, where he ran, handed out the medals, and attended the entertainment, greeting the Danes who came to run with and celebrate him.

By the time Crown Prince Frederik entered the capital it was to be his final part of the race, happening simultaneously with the other 10k distances in the other cities. As he arrived in Frederiksberg he was welcomed by the Mayor of Frederiksberg and Copenhagen’s Lord Mayor, as well as the Presidents of the race’s organisers.

The Golden Mile, some history.

One mile, or the English Mile, measures exactly 1609.34 metres.

It may seem like an unnecessary distance when 1500 metres became the Olympic-standard but it has remained an athletic standard for middle distance runners. However, the mile is actually the original distance, which is why it is a classic. It was only with the introduction of the metric system, that the mile was converted to the 1500 meters, as among Americans it was long known as the “metric mile”.

The mile has a significant place in sports history, notably due to famours runner Roger Bannister, who, in 1954 was the first man who managed to run it in under four minutes. That race aroused greater interest and resonated throughout the world and the concept of a dream-mile was born. Since then, a variety of runners regularly pressed the record down, so that today it stands at 3mins.; 43secs., run by the Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj in Rome in 1999.

Alive and Kicking.

Although the 1500 metre distance is clearly in the ascendancy today, the mile is certainly not forgotten. At the annual Diamond League event at Bislett Stadium in Oslo there continues “The Dream Mile”, and, like many large cities, it has an annual street race at that distance. One of the most well-known is “The Fifth Avenue Mile” in New York, where a field of world-class runners start at 80th Street in Manhattan, and then simply just run in a straight line down to East 60th Street at a little under four minutes.

10km Facts.

10,000 metres or 10 kilometres? We are, of course, talking about the same distance, but in the field of athletics it is agreed that the former is 25 rounds at a stadium, while the second is on the road or street. 10,000 metres is the longest distance on the track, as it is competed at at the World Championships and The Olympics. The marathon course is obviously longer but always takes place outside the stadium.

10 km on a road is a popular distance when jogging. Most can train up to complete it, and it is said that you can run it in 55 minutes. The world record for 10 km is crazy fast, standing at 26mins.; 44secs. For men and 29mins.; 43secs. for women.

The Copenhagen Route.

Since Matt shot the race in Copenhagen you will see some of the sights along this route which featured unique sightseeing and pedestrian streets full of music.

The race took place on closed roads which gave The Royal Run a unique opportunity to pass by a large number of the iconic and everyday heavily trafficked streets in Copenhagen, including H.C. Andersens Boulevard, Gammel Kongevej and Frederiksberg Allé. The latter two represent respectively the start and goal for both the one mile and the 10 km routes. While the one mile participants only ran at Frederiksberg, the other runners awaited the 10 km-sightseeing route around the capital which went past a long row of the city’s sights, including, inter alia, Christiansborg, Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen’s Town Hall, the black diamond and, of course, the Amalienborg Palace. The 10 km route offered participants a unique opportunity to run through all the best scenes that Copenhagen and Frederiksberg has to offer.

Words By Elijah (Content Marketer).