Company race Nearly 11,000 runners in the Rheinaue
Bonn · Runner groups from various firms around Bonn took part in the annual race to raise money for charity. Rubber duckies and polyester clouds were spotted (in the mix).
A team of 30 runners from a water and sewage treatment firm in Hennef didn’t come to get the best time. “We wanted, of course, to win the best costume competition,” says Christian Berger, who designed the team’s rubber ducky outfits. His team took part in the tenth annual “Bonner Firmenlauf” (Bonn Company Run) which included 10,943 participants this year for the 5.7 kilometer run. Grocery chain Aldi had the most runners with 382 out of 1,559 employees.
It was perfect weather for the tenth anniversary run and the mood reflected it. Mayor Ashok Sridharan gave the starting signal and he ran as one of 166 city employees. Next year, he said the goal was to have a team of 200 and all the department heads.
Parking was quite chaotic for the event as many participants were searching for parking spaces. Organizer of the event, Burkhard Weis said he hoped that having the Mayor there would encourage the city to take traffic problems more seriously. As far as the number of participants, however, Weis said he was pleased and that there were more runners every year. “We began with around 2,300 runners,” he said.
Every participant donated at least one euro to charity. The biggest sum came from Agfa Health Care, which presented a check for 1,200 euro. At the end, a check of 19,432 euros was handed to Stephan Kruip and Stefan Ewers of the Cystic Fibrosis Association, and they rounded it up to 20,000 euro with their own donations, with Weiß adding another 1,000 euros on top for a total of 21,000 euros.
The rubber ducky costumes weren’t the only invention; city parks and recreation staff came in the gardener look with watering cans and flowers on their heads. Sebastian Korintenberg, having visited Finland came in the latest reindeer fashion. A construction firm contributed 27 Superman runners to the mix, but it was the polyester clouds from the Kunst Cafe´ who beat out all others with their pillows at hand. (Orig. text: Stefan Knopp)