In just over a week, on the 13th June, the centre of Frankfurt is going to be taken over by a charity run. You are only allowed to run if registered with a company team so you will already know the details if you are going to be taking part.

This year’s run has over 60,000 runners registered from 7600 different companies. Most of the companies will have not only paid the registration fee, but will also have provided their runners with matching sponsored running outfits as well as a tent pitched on the bank of the river serving refreshments. The north bank of the river will actually be taken over by the many corporate tents and runners milling around.

The run starts at 19:30 officially and is only 5.6km, but with 63,000 runners, there are issues. Firstly, although there are two start lines and two queues, in can take over an hour to get to the start line. Last year, I arrived an hour early and then queued slowly for an additional hour before I could start running. And even then, there were so many runners that it was hard to run straight and evenly. A really good idea is to either arrive very early or to arrive very late. Arriving at about 8:30pm is ideal as there should be very little waiting time. I saw many people sitting in cafes waiting while I got cramp in the queue…

At the end there will be no one handing out water except the Red Cross in emergencies, so make sure you take plenty of drink or have someone waiting for you. The finish is normally near the ubahn though so it is easy to get away afterwards.

Good luck with the run! It looks like it will be a hot one again.