The GRR website as ‚the Voice of Running and Athletics‘ in GERMANY with 50,000 entries-a critical information portal – Horst Milde reports

The numbers are indeed impressive, and the contents are a fabulous source of information. 

The website German Road Races – the voice of the running and athletics in Germany – has grown stronger by the year as a portal for quality information for runners, the media, and the interested public in Germany and abroad.

The users of the website of the interest group for the largest German races (German Road Races (GRR) e.V.) have now accessed over 50,000 articles (German and English) 74,500 photos, and can reach select articles from the national and international press (German and English) via 20,3000 links.

Due to its bilingual offerings, the GRR website is unique in the German-speaking world. In English language communities outside of Germany, the GRR website is considered to be the "voice of athletics and running in Germany" and is utilized as such. 

A special anniversary 

The 50,000^th article was published on this page on June 19, 2017-an article by the US Track and Field Association: Multi-time Olympic gold medalist coach Clyde Hart to receive 2017 USATF Legend Coach Award – USA Track & Field –  News  

Of course, the primary aim of the website is to provide information for the running community about the activities of the GRR members, their upcoming events and results.

The focus of the information, however, is not only on meters and seconds, but also on expert reports, who understand what they are writing about and who look at the back story critically and with insight. We are constantly presenting current information from the scientific community, such as reports from universities such as the Deutschen Sporthochschule Köln, Zurich University – UZH, the Free University of Berlin, and many more.

German Road Races (GRR) e.V. also is always looking beyond its borders with great interest. And that is certainly one of the strengths of the website: international heavyweights in the running world, like the New York City Marathon and London Marathon, are just as popular as are the pre-race reports and stories about niche events, such as the Mount Fuji Marathon in Japan.

Athletics with all its facets is presented and commentated upon in a lively manner. Articles about senior and youth sports, smaller disciplines like mountain running, ultra and cross country races are featured just as often as topics such as sports medicine, doping, training theory, and para-sports.

Of course, there are reports about the World Championships, the European Championships, and the Olympic Games, but it is not only about elite sports, as the website's primary goal is to address the interests of amateur athletes. 

We simply cover a wide variety of topics. Articles about sport history and the new artefacts in the Berlin Sports Museum (AIMS Marathoneum) in Berlin are always a good source for interesting articles.

Under the category "Sports Museum," we also report about big birthdays, official distinctions, and the deaths of famous athletes.

The GRR portal also serves as the archives for the member events for their photos, videos, the history of their events and of national and international athletics.

The statistics about the "most read" articles are intriguing, with the greatest interest being displayed for topics of training, sports medicine, and prevention, as well as for statements and opinions that oppose the official association policies.

Especially for this reason, the website is valued as an important voice for athletics and running, as it provides analyses on critical decisions and behavior of the athletics association.

Critical topics are presented on the GRR website to a diverse readership, which is enhanced by the daily newsletter. This included the efforts of German runners to make it easier to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. It is a specialty of those behind the scenes at the GRR website to get involved in diverse areas of sports policies.

One of the top topics on the GRR website currently are the efforts to thwart the plans to repurpose and remodel the Berlin Olympic Stadium into a football stadium.

The range of articles about running and athletics is rounded out with information pertaining to our neighboring countries, especially Switzerland and Austria, and the series "Run with your neighbors … in Poland,"  as well as with extensive articles from the USA, Great Britain, Japan, and other countries for the increasingly international readership interested in the development and organization of running and athletics outside of Germany.

German Road Races is closely tied to AIMS, the Association of International Marathon and Distances Races, and reports frequently about its many events.

The many reports from Japan (Japan Running News) and the USA make it clear how diverse the running culture is abroad-and how important it is to look beyond one's own borders to learn more and keep developing new ideas (especially if you are an event organizer wanting stay in the know).

And in the other direction, the GRR portal is becoming more and more important for the English-speaking world to find out what is new in German running and athletics and what interesting German races are coming up.

"Track & Field, the Bible" often links articles to on the GRR website as TOP topics, which introduces the articles to a greater international readership.

Videos, podcasts, the national and international calendars of events, the TV sports schedule, and numerous reviews of books and magazines round off the bilingual offers on the site.

The numbers mentioned here about the articles and photos are already history and added to the books of statistics – and now all eyes are looking forward to the World Championships in London in 2017 and the European Championships in Berlin in 2018.

The GRR portal will be there reporting up close and personal, of course.

We are already looking forward to the 60,000^th article on www.germanroadraces.de!

Thank you for your interest.

Horst Milde