Before the athletes who took part in the 10th Run & Bike event on 1st December allowed themselves to open the first door in the advent calendar, they first had to, or wanted to, run or cycle 17 km through the snowed in Ungerthal at temperatures just under the freezing point. Things were "a little bit" more pleasant for the spectators, because they could while away the time standing around a camp fire with punch, mulled wine, cakes and Memmert fried sausages.
To clarify matters: you take part in the Run & Bike as a team. The 17km-long course over forest paths at the foot of the Heidenberg mountain is covered by switching from running to cycling as you please, whereby the distance between the running part and the cycling part of the duo must never exceed 10 metres.
Memmert was represented on the course by Matthias Grosser and Fabian Conrad (Team Memmert 1) as well as Benedikt Spangenberg and Harald von Blumenthal (Team Memmert 2). After a successful start, the bell rang out for the two "professionals" from Team Memmert 1 for the 2nd round, their pursuers hot on their heels. Shortly afterwards, Benedikt and Harald were cheered on by the spectators into the second round.
And before you realised, it was all eyes on the finishing line:
the duo from Team Memmert 1 was there, 57 minutes after they had started. By the time the first two had drunk their first glass of mulled wine at the finishing line, the other two Memmertians were also back in the forest car park in the Ungerthal. The stopwatch recorded 1:17 h. Overall, the four of them had achieved a great result. After a tough fight, Team Memmert 1 finished in a proud 2nd place. This was the first event of its kind for Team Memmert 2, which they finished in a respectable 15th place, but they both agreed that this would not be their last Run & Bike.
We raise our hats (or at these temperatures, perhaps our woollen hats) to their performances and their motivation! They certainly deserved the chocolates from the advent calendar that day.
