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Throughout the country, thousands of runners fill the streets of Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, creating a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere at the organised running events, while simultaneously keeping the many volunteers hectically busy over days and weeks. Even though road races have an almost 50-year-old tradition in Germany, the interest group of race organisers has only existed for ten years.
"Our aims include improving the publicity for road races and coordinating the common concerns for the sport of running,” surmises Horst Milde, spokesman for the five-member board of German Road Races (GRR), who also was the founding father of the running event community as the head of the BERLIN-MARATHON.
Many problems have been solved
"Many of the problems discussed in 1995, such as the recognition of the chip timekeeping system, the exact surveying of the courses according to AIMS/IAAF regulations, and the enforcement of the quality standards have been taken care of and have long proven themselves!”
Horst Milde, who called the road races interest group to life in Frankfurt on October 30, 1995, together with the organisers of the attractive city marathons in Hamburg (Wolfgang Kucklick), Frankfurt (Irmgard Heckelsberger) and Munich (Michael Schulz-Tholen), does not try to conceal the organisation’s worries, either.
"Despite our successes, some of the problems we addressed in 1995, such as the relationship to the German Track and Field Association (DLV) and its regional association, have still not yet been resolved. It should, however, be of uttermost importance for the DLV to get these forty event organisers on board with them, as we make up a third of the total 390,000 participants in road races in Germany!”
The board of spokesmen for GRR particularly laments that while the road races receive great recognition and huge resonance from the general public, the media, and the participants — far more than for stadium-based track and field events — the national and regional associations still do not take note of them.
Founding members
The founding members in 1995 include the famous marathon races in Berlin, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Karlsruhe, and Munich, as well as popular road races like the Berlin Half Marathon, the Nürnburg Ring Race, and the Paderborn Easter Run. There are now 41 members in the association, with a strong tendency for growth, and GRR even includes events in Austria and Italy, the Wachau Marathon and the Southern Tyrol Marathon.
Krems 2005
At the annual general meeting on November 19-20, 2005, in Krems
(Austria), the spokesmen committee consisting of Horst Milde (Berlin), Derk Kogelheide (Berlin), Bernd Düngen (Duisburg), Wilfried Raatz (Darmstadt) and Sascha Wiczynski (Paderborn), who were elected for a two-year period last year, will submit a mid-way report of their activities.
The current members of German Road Races are:
real,- BERLIN-MARATHON
RUN BERLIN (25 km)
Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON
Bietigheim New Year’s Eve Run (Bietigheimer Sylvesterlauf)
German Wine Route Marathon (Marathon Deutsche Weinstraße)
The Borgholzhausen Night Run (Die Nacht von Borgholzhausen)
South Tyrol Marathon (Südtirol Marathon)
International Black Forest Marathon (Int. Schwarzwald Marathon)
Darmstadt City Run "Cup da Franco" (Darmstädter Stadtlauf "Cup da Franco")
3-Nations Lake Constance Marathon (3-laender-marathon Bodensee)
Morgenpost Dresden Marathon
Rhine-Ruhr Marathon Duisburg
METRO Group Marathon Düsseldorf
Essen Marathon
Frankfurt City Half Marathon
Frankfurt Fair Marathon
(Messe Frankfurt Marathon)
Freiburg Marathon
Conergy Marathon Hamburg
hella hamburg half marathon
PSD Bank Alsterlauf Hamburg
Casinos Marathon Hanover (Spielbanken Marathon Hannover)
Heilbronner Trollinger Marathon
FIDUCIA Baden Marathon Karlsruhe
Kassel City Run
Kasseler Citylauf
Ford Cologne Marathon
Int. WACHAUmarathon
Leipzig Marathon
Gutenberg Marathon Mainz
MLP Marathon Mannheim
Monschau Marathon
medien.marathon.münchen
Volksbank Münster Marathon
Neumarkt City Run
Neumarkter Stadtlauf
Run at the Ring (Run am Ring)
International Paderborn Easter Run (Int. Paderborner Osterlauf)
Regensburg Marathon
Rostock Marathon Night (Rostocker Marathon Nacht)
GutsMuth’s Rennsteig Run (GutsMuths Rennsteiglauf)
Stuttgart Newspaper Run (Stuttgarter Zeitung-Lauf)
iWelt Marathon Würzburg
Würzburg Residence Run (Würzburger Residenzlauf)
Wilfried Raatz
GRR Press Officer
Further information is available at: