Trail Running World Masters In the City

16.09.2009

Dortmund is the location for the exciting climax to this year’s season. The first WINDSTOPPER® TRAILRUN WORLDMASTERS will be held from 6–8 November 2009. Top international runners will be lining up with keen amateur runners from all over the world. The challenge to be crowned the world’s number 1 trailrunner consists of a distance of 57 kilometres over three days, with a total climb of over 1,000 metres.

The first race on the programme is the Phoenix Sprint, which will be held on the redeveloped industrial Phoenix site on Friday afternoon.

This will be followed on Saturday by a run through Dortmund’s “outback”: the 34-kilometre circuit follows some interesting trails through constantly changing terrain in the hills and woods surrounding the city. Runners will have to tackle a total ascent of 740 metres. The event winds up on Sunday morning with the Bittermark Run, a varied 20-kilometre run around the event site with a total climb of 315 metres.

The competition format is simple: each of the three runs counts towards the overall score. Points are awarded using an internationally accepted formula that makes allowance for the different distances run in the three races. The fastest person each day in each scoring category, for example, is awarded 1,000 points. This system guarantees that only the best all-round runners step onto the podium at the end of the competition.

Uwe Gilles, Course Director and President of Lauftreff Bittermark, is certain that the WINDSTOPPER® Trailrun Worldmasters will be a real highlight for all of the participants, “Many amateur runners are looking for new events, and for the professionals, this unusual course and the varied terrain will present an exciting challenge.”

Up until now, major trail runs have only been held in mountainous regions. But the fascination with trail running can be catered for virtually anywhere – from uplands and forests to the heavily populated Ruhr district.

Gilles explains, “When planning the routes, we discovered an enormous number of potential trails. In the end, we were surprised ourselves by just how many paths, root trails and forest tracks could be combined to create these exciting competition courses.” In figures - 85 percent of the entire 57-kilometre course consists of trails and forest tracks.
The Phoenix site allows Dortmund to offer rather a unique environment for this race event. For decades, Phoenix was only used by employees of the local smelting works. After the furnaces were closed down, redevelopment work began on the site, which is around the size of 300 football pitches. Now a technology park with residential buildings, waterways and green spaces, as well as being interspersed with the historic industrial buildings, there a very special atmosphere here.