Meet Brady Archer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brady Archer. 

Hi Brady, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a Colorado native who grew up in Westminster and went to school at CU Boulder. After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and spending the first 5 years out of college in the industry, I stumbled into a new passion and career by chance. Having run 5 of the first 10 events that Tough Mudder produced in 2011/2012, I was able to join them as a Course Designer, Course Manager, and Race Director. 

After playing in the mud and producing 50+ global TM events from 2012-2015, it was time to cash in some airline miles that I had built up. In 2016, my soon-to-be fiancé and I took the entire year off, put everything we could fit into our backpacks, and cashed in our air miles for two round-the-world tickets. We spent exactly 365 days traveling and ended up visiting 75 countries in every corner of the globe. 

Once we finished the trip, we moved back to Colorado, and I started producing the Colorado Brewery Running Series. With a love of craft beer and a background in the events industry, it was a match made in heaven. 6 years later, I have now produced over 130 Colorado Brewery Running Series events at 60+ CO breweries and counting. In 2022, we have 32+ events scheduled throughout the year with some of the biggest and best breweries and taprooms our state has to offer. Each event consists of a 5k fun run, live music, food trucks, sponsor goodies and giveaways, and more. In 2022, we will also be hosting two half marathon events with Breckenridge Brewery in Littleton and New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with any small business, COVID was a particularly challenging stretch. Many events companies struggled through the pandemic, but luckily, we pivoted early and were met with a wave of support from our running community. 

In late March 2020, I launched the Colorado Virtual Distance Challenge. Our challenge allowed runners to accrue miles throughout the month of April, and earn rewards for hitting milestones of 25, 50, and 100 miles. We were shocked and delighted to have 400+ runners join us for our first challenge, and decided to keep it going for the subsequent months. Well, here we are approaching the two-year mark of our first challenge, and we are still going strong. We have now produced 13 different challenges (1, 2, and 3-month iterations), with nearly 9,000 runners and what is quickly approaching a total mileage of 1,000,000 miles!! 

So, although COVID brought us some live event hurdles to jump through, our virtual series has been a massive wind behind our sails in order to not only keep us moving forward but allow us to grow much larger year over year. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Although I am known for producing 5k fun runs and the Colorado Virtual Distance Challenge, one of the unique things that sets our series’ apart is our merchandise collection. 

I am a self-taught graphic designer, with a passion for making great event merch. After designing every Tough Mudder event shirt for 3-4 years, I have been able to keep my creative juices flowing with a full store of designs for our 5k, Half Marathon, and Virtual events. 

At any given event, you will now find at least eight 6-foot tables of t-shirts, hoodies, hats, accessories, and more. All of our merchandise can also be found at cobreweryrun.store at any time. 

What do you like and dislike about the city?
As a producer of 5k fun runs that start and end at breweries around Colorado, I am obviously a huge fan of the craft beer scene within Denver, and around our state (which gives me an endless supply of great partners to work with!). 

My least favorite aspect of Denver is definitely the traffic. We always look to have safe and enjoyable runs, and the number of cars in our city definitely makes that job more difficult. 

Pricing:

• $35 per 5k event

Contact Info:

• Email: brady@breweryrunningseries.com
• Website: cobreweryrun.com
• Instagram: @cobreweryrun
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cobreweryrun