When my wife and I booked a long weekend trip to Frankfurt in South-West Germany I’m not going to lie that one of the first things I did was check to see if they had a parkrun there!
Parkrun isn’t as popular on the continent as it is in the UK, I googled Frankfurt parkrun, parkrun Frankfurt, nope, but I was excited to see that Nidda Parkrun took place just 5km from my hotel. Result. Parkrun Germany was going to happen!
What is parkrun?
You probably know about parkruns, but they’re free, weekly, timed 5km runs in parks and open spaces around the world. They usually start at 9am, with marshalls all along the route, and at the finish you can scan your barcode (you get this on the website when signing up) and then you’ll get your 5k finishing time.
You only need to register once with parkrun and you have access to ALL the parkruns around the globe.
You can check out our parkrun pacing charts if you want to find out the pace you need to run to get a specific parkrun 5km time.
Getting there
The run takes place in the Niddapark, Am Ginnheimer Wäldchen, 4, 60431, Frankfurt. That doesn’t mean a huge amount to me, but with the help of Google Maps and my headphones I was able to have a jog to the venue, whilst getting audio instructions on how to get there. The occasional glance at the map of my phone didn’t go a miss either.
My hotel was near the central train station, Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, so was around 5.5km away from the start-line. Once you get out the main city centre it’s immediately less built-up and you can have a nice warm up jog to the park.
All the roads have crossings, so there were minimal stops on the run there.
Niddapark has an underground station so I’m sure there are public transport options but I feel a lot calmer when I can take my own time.
Parkrun people are great
What I love about parkrun is that it’s free, run by amazing volunteers, and the majority of runners are friendly. This was also true of Nidda parkrun.
My German is terrible, so it was great to arrive and hear English voices with the group of 34 runners and half a dozen volunteers a mixture of nationalities with a heavy smattering of ex-pats.
They were immediately chatty and the pre-race briefings were in German and English, so then it was onto the run.
The route
Nidda parkrun is a great route if you’re looking to get a fast time.
- The route is very easy to follow with plenty of route markers and marshals.
- It’s flat. My GPS said different, but I can tell you that it’s a very flat course.
- The park was also quiet at that time of day, 9am, so minimal public to deviate around.
As I mentioned, on this particular week there were 34 runners, so a lot smaller than the parkruns I attend in the UK, which range from 100-200 runners on most weeks. With fewer runners it meant that I actually ran most of the race on my own so that’s the only downside.
Here is an actual video of my run route:
How did I do?
I finished with an official time of 23:36 so a parkrun PB for me and only 7 seconds off my 5km PB, finishing 8th out of 34 runners. If you want to see how the pacing would work for those times then have a look at the helpful pacing charts on this page.
See I said it was a fast route.
More City Break parkruns
I love running and it’s so nice to have a run when visiting somewhere new. With parkrun you know it’s well managed, accessible, and friendly, so if you’re going on a city break, which are usually over a weekend, then have a look and see if there are any local parkruns. All you need is your barcode and your running gear.
I’ll always remember my first continental parkrun and I’m hoping to do more in the future.
