GERMANY: Jogging fanatics race up German high rise, cover 61 floors with 1,344 steps inside Frankfurt's landmark

Record ID: 489890

  • Title: GERMANY: Jogging fanatics race up German high rise, cover 61 floors with 1,344 steps inside Frankfurt's landmark
  • Date: 25th May 2008
  • Summary: (L!1) FRANKFURT, GERMANY (MAY 18, 2008) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FRANKFURT'S LANDMARK "MESSETURM" (FAIR TOWER) FIRE-FIGHTERS AND RESCUE WORKERS PARTICIPATING IN RACE STANDING IN LOBBY WOMAN HOLDING UP PALCARD READING "GO, SVEN, GO!' RUNNERS PUTTING ON SNEAKERS OFFICIAL COUNTING DOWN TO START OF RACE GROUP OF FIVE PARTICIPANTS RUNNING OFF CHEERLEADER CHEERING RUNNERS RACING AP
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAD9BZ0Y59RP7ID53MYQYV8DH80
  • Story Text: American football players, fire-fighters in full gear and ordinary jogging fanatics have competed in an unusual run inside a German high rise on Sunday (May 18), running up 61 floors inside Frankfurt's landmark "Messeturm."
    According to the organisers, a property management group, the second annual "Sky Run" with 1,344 steps in Germany's financial capital ranks third among its kind after the Taipeh 101 Run Up in Taiwan (2,046 steps) and New York's Empire State Building Run Up (1,567 steps).
    Individual runners and teams of five participants ran up the 257 metre high building cheered on by cheerleaders and relatives.
    25-year-old German Matthias Jahn won Sunday's race in Frankfurt for the second time, improving his previous record of 7 minutes 15 seconds to 7 minutes 06 seconds.

    "This year, the last ten floors were especially hard," Jahn told Reuters Television sitting on a bench out of breath and covered in sweat.
    "I tried to do as well as I could and that's what I did. But now I'm happy I'm able to sit here."
    Jahn recently came in third at the New York Empire State Building Run Up and is considered one of the best staircase runners in the world, according to the race organisers.
    Frankfurt fire-fighter Erwin Pappert, who completed the same course in full gear, even wearing a gas mask, regarded the Sunday event as additional training for his job.

    "This protection suit lets out practically no sweat and no heat," a worn out Pappert said on the 61st floor. "The body heats up so much that you're just totally exhausted."
    All proceeds from the participation fees went to "Arque," a local charity supporting the paralysed and sufferers of a split vertebral column, according to the organisers.
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