Frankfurt am Main Sports & Outdoors

If you are lucky enough to have yourself an office job in Frankfurt (I say this, because unemployment rates are up), then you just might be interested in participating in the annual Chase Manhattan (now JPMorgan) fun run. It's all about sport & business going hand-in-hand, a reminder that life is not and should not be all about working. It's about team work and well being. You can register for a team or individual on their website.

In any case, it's good fun (if you like running I suppose) and it's a great atmosphere.

It takes place every year, some time around June. It's a 5km run through a mostly financial hub of FFM. Apparently it's pretty much Europe's biggest road race of it's kind. 3 years ago they had about 50, 000 runners, who knows what they are up to now!

Argh, you will laugh at my 1st experience of this race. I had not been living in Germany long and spoke maybe only 2 words of German. This did not include the German word 'finish' - Ziel. When I was coming to the end of the race, I still had some bursts of energy, so I thought I would run as fast as I possibly could. I kept seeing these signs to 'Ziel' throughout the race, thinking it was directing us to a place in the centre called the ZEIL. I must have looked pretty funny sprinting past and through the Ziel, towards the Zeil. I think I ran almost an extra 1 kilometer... and then I realised I must have run completely past the finish... Uuuppsy...

Equipment: what ever you like to run in - even if it is your penguin suit!

Bad event for the local basketball team but on January 5th, 2005 they´ve been defeated by the italian team Benetton Treviso.
No matter about the result, I´ve been at the match cause I was curious about the event itself ... and ... WOW ... these guys know how to organize such a show.
Do not miss a Skyliners match if you have a chance !!!

Equipment: Bring a camera with you !

We took a long walk around the Green belt north of Frankfurt, along the banks of the Nidda river.... very popular with locals who take their kites, bikes and dogs there in the evenings and at weekends.

The Rebstockbad was the absolute swimming pool, the non-plus-ultra for Frankfurt, when it opened in the 1980's, with its wave pool with meandering underwater way connecting the pools, and an outdoor message fountain! Then in the 90's the city of Frankfurt made a grave mistake with respect to it's regular pool fans – they felt sorry for the town's welfare recipients, because they couldn't afford to have a real vacation. So they gave them free passes to the Rebstockbad. It's hard to say this here, because I don't necessarily believe that a person's income determines their amount of respect for other people's property – but there was a direct constellation between the poor quality of the water, the number of thefts and the general condition and amount of noise in the Rebstockbad and number of free passes the welfare department issued.
Finally the pool was becoming so run-down, that the city re-invested in 2003 and reopened the Rebstockbad. Now the Rebstockbad is also known as the “Aloha-Bad” and has been expanded to include the following facilities:

Equipment: Pools include: non-swimmer pool, kiddie pool, wave pool, outdoor pool, diving pool (up to 5 m), water slide (120 m long), The Black Hole water slide (125 m long), and outdoor play ground.

The Sauna area, which costs extra includes a dragon's breath steam room (45°C), the Geisha sanarium (a sanarium is for people who think a sauna is too dry for them – 60°C), the Tokyo Sauna (80°C), the Samurai Sauna (85°C), the Shogun Sauna (90°C), the Kyoto Sauna (95°C), the outdoor Lotus Sauna (95C°), the Bonsai Sauna (100°C), the Snow Chamber (-15°C), the Lotus Pond (outdoors), a whirlpool, a quiet resting room, a glassed-in patio, and a Mongolian Sauna.
For an extra charges you can now receive entrance to the hot whirlpool garden, Turkish steam bath, get a regular or a reflex-zone message. They also have baby-sitting, an indoor restaurant and a sauna health-food bar.

Please remember that beach shoes are required for the sauna area.

Prices
The pool costs 4.00 Euro for the first hour, and 0.50 Euro for every consecutive hour.

The sauna center costs 7.00 Euro for the first hour, and 3.00 Euro for every consecutive hour.

The Frankfurt lifestyle does not really promote exercise or sports. However, there are of course most people who use a bike to commute as the city is geographically a small and flat area. However, to really get into sports you need to actively seek a club of your sport of choice. Tennis, squash, volleyball, cycling... check this site for events and good links to sporting clubs http://www.frankfurt.de/sis/English.html

Last wednesday on 18 June this years JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge took place. I joined the run for the 3th time. It is so great and lots of fun. More than 50.000 people join the competition. It's fun to see the different T-Shirts which each company has.

Next Challenge will take place on 16 June 2004

This year's race will take place on 29 June 2003 and starts at 10am. I joined the race two years ago and it was a great day. I will join again this year.
You can chose a 2 km walk or the 5 km running. The start is at the "Museumsufer" crossing Schweizerstrasse. The running course takes you around the Main.

The home of soccer club Eintracht Frankfurt and NFL Europe side Frankfurt Galaxy is in April 2003 undergoing extensive alterations. I guess this is in preparation for the 2006 soccer world cup? Stands behind the goals / endzones are just about complete, one side is being built and another old stand was still there, not for long I guess?