Bonn R4K Course - 14.7km of Running Pleasure

This is more for the running group back in Australia. I was trying to find a course in Bonn that would match Melbourne’s amazing Run for the Kids course (of about 14.5k). The challenge was to find a comparable distance with a hill comparable to the rise over the Bolte Bridge simultaneously managing to highlight some of the more beautiful aspects of Bonn.

Sounds easy, right?

I have mapped the course using www.runningahead.com as per the attached image. The blue numbers show the distance in kilometres while the red numbers correspond with the images below. I have tried to pinpoint where I was looking when I took the pictures. Just to provide some perspective.

The first thing was to find a great starting point. Poppelsdorferstrasse, with its wide grass avenue, beautiful border trees and tracks for cycles and runners was an obvious choice. The avenue was the original road between palaces for Clemens August, the Elector of Cologne who resided here in Bonn. He was the Bishop of Cologne as well as being king Charles's brother; so relatively well placed in society. He needed this castle we are looking at now as a residence for his mistresses (to be fair, he had a few but only one at a time) and how this reconciles with his bishopric is anybody's guess.

Of course today, his palace in downtown Bonn is the main University building while the palace we are running toward contains the Department of Zoology and the grounds are now the Botanic Gardens.

Picture 1 - it is a little difficult to see the palace at the end but, trust me, it is there! There are walking and cycle paths on both sides of the lawn.

I have added a picture I took later today, showing how it looks in brilliant sunshine. The sun isn't rising until after 8am and I began the run at 7:30 today and it was just too dark to get a good picture at that time of day.

We run directly to the palace and then left, following the moat with the Gardens now on the other side of the moat.

We track some forgettable roads for a couple of ks until we get to the base of Bonn's Anderson St. Our climb begins here.

Picture 2 - let the steady climb begin!

This is a steady climb that takes us past two hospitals and hopefully there'll be no need to visit either one. The road follows the spur of the ridge so it is as comfortable a climb as the geography allows but it still brings the puffing and panting out before too long!

With about a kilometre until we reach the summit, we take the trail to the left and enjoy the woods above Bonn.

Picture 3 - it really is lovely in the woods above Bonn

This is a popular spot for walking and running and cycling so, no matter what time of day I have traipsed through here, I usually have some company.

This cairn to Kaiser Wilhelm must have some historical significance but to me it means that I am about 500m from levelling off and the hill climb is done.

Picture 4 - Kaiser Wilhelm's monument and level ground is not far away!

There is a lovely serenity here in the woods. The tracks are well made and, now that it is autumn, a blanket of leaves covers the ground making it feel like you're running on a carpet. With the noise of your footfalls smothered by the leaves, you can actually hear the birds waking up and the soft breeze in the trees. Magic!

Once on top of the hill, we need to follow the paths and trails to the next hospital. This section is a little disconcerting as there appears to be no trail running on the inside of the hospital; trust me, there is.



Picture 5 - the track really does continue to the left of the faint image of a fellow runner in blue, trust me!!

The trail runs between the hospital and the edge of hill providing some stunning views of the small villages below. It was here that I was hoping to get a picture just on sunrise.



Picture 6 - Now you begin to see how far above Bonn we have come. Note the Post Tower looming at the left of the picture

I'm writing this on the way to Cologne for some Saturday shopping (the main mission is to buy some new running shoes, believe it or not!) so I hope the picture is at least reminiscent of my mind's image from this morning. Where I took this, a young couple had dragged up a table and all the fixings for a sit down breakfast. They were enjoying a coffee as the sun was coming up; it seems like a lot of effort for breakfast but the views were worth it.

From here, the trick is to keep the hospital wall on out right and the drop to the villages on our left. The interesting part is when we run out of hospital wall. Then a little bit of navigation is required.

First, take the trail to Godesburg which is marked on a stone. About 500m further on, there is another directional stone and this time head toward Friesdorf.

Picture 7 - Directional signs carved into local rocks make for an even more natural feel. This sign (Friesdorf left and Godesburg to the right) is the second one after the hospital wall ends. Running on to Godesburg won't be too much of an issue, apart from making the run 20+k ...

This is your way down the hill.

The trail descends from the wide broad, well made trail to something a little more narrow, then to a path and then to a goat track. And all the while, the trail becomes steeper and steeper. Running becomes a distinct problem; rolling an ankle here would be painful and a long way from help. If discretion is the better part of valour and cowardice is the better part of discretion, then I cowardly walked and hobbled my way downhill as best I could.

Eventually the trail follows the fence line and then fits between two tall wooden fences with a gap of about 1.5m.

Picture 8 - The trail narrows until it's only wide enough for one person, but it does find the street.

This is still the trail and it will find the street, trust me. As you can see from the photo, finding the path from the street may be a little problematic but you're out and back on the road. Turn left and head toward the train line.

Picture 9 - I am glad I found this trail from the top of the hill; it might have been difficult finding this narrow opening (between doorway and brick fence) from the street

It is now a slightly downhill run to the train line and back toward Bonn. The run through the little village of Friesdorf is uneventful but watch for folks heading back from their morning visit to the baker and the paper shop.

The railway line is about 2k down the hill and this is a great place to gather some energy for the run back to Bonn.

Picture 10 - the occasional train makes running this pathway a little more interesting; we are about half way between Bonn and Godesburg, so the trains are pretty much at full speed here and they move very quickly!

One of the tricks is to cross the railway line when you can. There are a series of level crossing along the way and they have a tendency to stay down for seemingly minutes before the train comes along. The downside of crossing the line soon is that you miss seeing the allotments and parks on the Friesdorf side of the line. So it becomes something of a game; how long can I leave it before cutting across the train line.

You do need to cross the line as we have to cut across Adenauralle, run down Tempelstrasse (which as its name suggests contains a synagogue) and down the steps to the river.



Picture 11 - no guesses why I love my standard run along the river; the sun is up now and the pathways along the river are just extraordinarily wonderful. The green spans of Kennedy Bridge are in the distance; we turn left up the steps at the bridge and head back in to Bonn Zentrumm

When I run my standard 8.5k run from the flat, my turn is here at Tempelstrasse on the banks of the river so the next 1.5k back to the Kennedy Bridge is very much familiar territory.

At the bridge, take the steps up and follow Oxfordstrasse back toward the main shopping district in Bonn.

Picture 12 - Welcome to Friedrichstrasse; a nice shopping boulevard; we'll cut left along here, through Market Square and on to Munsterplatz!

Cut through the market square, have a quick look at the Aldt Rathaus but head down now toward the Munster and the main square of Munserplatz.

Picture 13 - We're now just in Remiguisstrasse and the Munster steeple means we're close to the end of the run

Run up to the base of Beethoven's statue and the course is complete.

Picture 14 - Beethoven's statue out side the Postamt greets you with a stern gaze as if asking just how well did you run?

The course should be around 14.7k according to the runningahead website so might be a little longer than the Melbourne course but not by much and probably within the limits of the runningahead accuracy.

Today took almost 90minutes as I wanted to make sure the photos looked good and steady (but a few still look decidely wobbly, sorry). With only two full weekends left, I would really like to have a proper crack and see if I can beat my current best time of 77minutes. If I don't then too bad because it is a lovely run bringing (literally) the highs and lows of Bonn into play. It's a little sad that this next run will probably be the last time, so I better make it a good one!