Fluid Crew

The Fluid Crew are the pacers of our runs. They help everyone get to our destination, safely, smoothly, and while having fun. Our pacers are a bit different in that we don't run to a set pace per km. Instead, we have people at the front, throughout the middle, and sweeping at the back. They spread out to ensure no one takes the wrong turn at tricky intersections, and ensure no one gets left behind. Fluid Crew members are made up of our regular and committed runners. The commitment is to pace at least 1 run every 2 months. Interested in joining? Let us know!

Board of Directors and Key Volunteers

RunTOBeer is governed by an elected Board of Directors. The Board is elected by the Fluid Crew Members.

The current board members are:

Leanne Chisholm

In 2016, after googling 'running' and 'beer', Leanne decided to show up alone and run with a group she'd found on the internet. Since that day, RunTOBeer hasn't been able to get rid of her. As a runner, Leanne has raced every distance from 1 mile to 50KM. She really loves a half marathon, and really loathes a 5KM. She is a lover of the outdoors and always up for a big adventure, as long as there is beer somewhere along the way. She is a Prud'homme Beer Enthusiast (taught by Dan Grant). On any given Friday you can probably find her enjoying a beer with other RunTOBeer friends at her favourite local, Granite Brewery. Her favourite beer is Meanwhile… Down in Moxee (Great Lakes Brewery).



Dekel Chui

Dekel discovered RunTOBeer in 2015, and it's been an adventure ever since. Initially not much of a runner and with no particular beer palette, he has now embraced the life of a hobby jogger while still loving lite beers. RunTOBeer has taken him through numerous races, seen him crumple in a beer mile, sparked a love for trails and relays, and introduced him to the joy of brewery hopping. Dekel is always looking forward to more brews and runs with the best crew around! Interested in his adventures? Follow him on Instagram @dekelchui. Or like cat content? Follow @iamchesterboo.



Michelle Lau

Michelle heard about this interesting run crew called RunTOBeer in 2015, when she was learning to run with NRC (mostly because a colleague was a pacer and convinced her running is a fun thing! - she hated running as a kid…) She remembers her first RTB run on a cold January evening in 2016, meeting the group at Yonge/Bloor, Tej dressed in a winter shell with loud geometric shapes and running uphill to what was Scallywags for a Canada Running Series collab with Cameron's Brewing Co. And that was history. Michelle is known to be a serial volunteer; if she's not running, she is volunteering at a race, a beer festival or whisky show.



Andy Saito

Although he's been a beer enthusiast since his teens, Andy started running later in life. In the summer of 2015 he discovered RunTOBeer and hasn't looked back. Since that time, Andy has run 15 marathons, a bunch of ultramarathons, and consumed many, many delicious beers. He has helped coordinate the RunTOBeer special events and road trips, which have included Ragnar relays and group trips to races across Canada and the US. Andy lives in Hamilton, right next to RTB co-founder Tej's Merit Brewing, but will always make the trip to Toronto to run and drink with the good people of RunTOBeer! His current favourite beer is Fairweather's Donna, although Great Lakes' Octopus Wants to Fight is a close second.



Tim Westwood

Tim joined RunTOBeer in the Spring of 2017 and knew immediately that this was his kind of running and social group. Besides running and pacing innumerable RunTOBeer events, he has been a member of some of the RunTOBeer teams for destination/group events (e.g. two Ragnar runs, trips to Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Ellicottville) and co-organized (with Jeff McCurdy) a RunTOBeer team for the 2022 RunToMontreal). Tim is also a whisky enthusiast belonging to 3 whisky societies, frequently attends and/or organizes online and in person whisky tastings, and has visited numerous distilleries in Scotland.

Favourite things about RunTOBeer: Making life-long friends with similar interests; trying out fantastic craft beers with the group in the GTA and on our destination runs.
Favourite local: The Wren.
Favourite beer(s): pretty much any hazy IPA from Great Lakes Brewery like HazeMama (and Leanne's fave Meanwhile… Down in Moxee).

We also have key volunteers who coordinate different aspects of our operation:

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Karolina Tomaszewska
Social Media
📋
Heather Leatham
Registration
🗺️
Charlie Needham
Route Planning
🏃🏻‍♀️
Kelly-Ann White
Fluid Crew Captain
👨🏻‍💻
Tyler Miller
Website

Our Founders

If you've read our origin story, you'll know that two strangers decided to go for a run on March 2, 2014. These are those two people who founded RunTOBeer:

Dan Grant

Before co-founding RunTOBeer, Dan was an accomplished beer writer with his own website, and a frequent contributor to Taps, NOW, Scandinavian Brewers Review, and others. Dan is a Prud'homme Beer Sommelier and is currently the co-owner and Beer Steward at Bossanova Wine and Beer, an independent bottle shop selling exceptional wine and beer in Toronto's Roncesvalles Village.



Tej Jordan Sandhu

Tej is president and co-founder of MERIT Brewing, Hamilton's first brewpub that quickly became a local icon along James St. Prior to founding MERIT in 2017, Tej spent his career in the music industry where he worked in a variety of roles alongside some of the industry's biggest stars, and of course, he founded RunTOBeer with Dan on that chilly March day in 2014.