Manchester United are in Aalborg today for a first round Champions League match - and reading this article from a British reporter in Aalborg, you really notice how respectful the Danish fans are. I can’t think of many other places (and neither, it seems, can the reporter) where an opposing football team is greeted by cheers and placards around town welcoming them. Apparently, even the hotel staff formed a kind of line of honour when the United players walked in.

Since the 80s, Danish football fans have been known as roligans - a mix of rolig (the Danish word for calm) and hooligan, the English word for a football fan [sic] - and this reputation shows no signs of abating. I wonder, though, if the roligans will ever beat the Japanese. At a game I watched in Japan, the fans brought there own rubbish bags and voluntarily cleaned up the stadium as they left!

I usually root for the underdog, but the reaction of the people of Aalborg has doubled my desire for them to cause an upset.

What to see some funky bike racks?

Browsing our old friend Aaron’s blog recently, I came across this post on bike racks designed by David Byrne for NYC. Looks like David has been an avid cyclist for years - and designed his racks for specific locations in the city.

As Aaron says, this seems like a perfect idea for Copenhagen - a city full of cyclists that prides itself on its design. Although, you’ll notice that David’s bike racks don’t have room for that many bikes. Any designer racks in Copenhagen would probably require a little more space.

Early September, ten happy runners and two even more enthusiastic cheerleaders set up camp at Fælledparken for the DHL Relay Race and got ready to compete against some of Denmark’s top companies.

Although it turns out we don’t run quite as fast as we write, we were thrilled with our two teams’ performances.

Out of the 17,876 teams, “Eye for Image 2″ came in as number 2,480 in 2:00:22, and “Eye for Image 1″ as number 3,709 in 2:03:48!

Our leading man, David Hoskin, showed the way forward, finishing the race in about 20 minutes (much to her chagrin, he even ran past Nathalie, who started before him!)

But the award for most impressive performance went to our colleague Dan Elloway who, after having run only three times in his life, ran in 25:11! We think the training conditions in Norway have been in his favor - thin mountain air, intervals up and down the hills…

So next year, we’ll train in Norway. But for now we’re happy to say we all had heaps of fun! Check out the action shots below – and click on the images to enlarge them.

How does a team of writers and marketing folk get ready for a race? Is it with lunges, stretches, and hours of training?

Not so much – unless you count brainstorming as intense mental training. Let’s just say we stretched our creativity instead. It started with one rebellious mind trying to figure out what DHL stood for and coming up with:

Dopey Hoboe Limp (we’re still waiting for a demonstration)

And that just got the ball rolling. Within minutes, the entire office was cracking up as our mailboxes filled with brilliant variations, including:

David Hoskin Lunge (our CEO is known for taking gigantic jumps over tree roots that get in his way)

Ditzy Hooray Line (which the cheerleaders executed with glee that evening in Fælledparken)

Don’t Hurry, Losers (from a skeptic in the writers’ room)

Do Hurried Loping (to lope means to run or ride with a steady, easy gait – an apt description for team Eye for Image, we think)

Det Hedder Løbe, ikke Gå! (addressed to competing teams, of course)

We hope DHL (which is named after its founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) won’t take offense.

Got another creative spin on DHL? Post it here!