RUNNING GERMANY: DÜSSELDORF – 100,000 miles to promote a marathon – The METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf promotes the event on 27 April 2014 both national and worldwide

Jan Henning Winschermann (chairman of rhein-marathon duesseldorf e.V., the club promoting the sport of distance running) is a frequent flyer. The Race Director of the METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf has been flying more than 100,000 miles, i.e. 160,000 kilometres this year to promote ’his’ event on 27 April, 2014 worldwide.

Mr. Winschermann and his small team only returned from the New York City Marathon last week. „We had a booth at the expo in the days prior to the event. In the past years, time and again we have noticed a significant increase in the number of registrations for the METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf whenever promotional activities at different distance running events were executed.

This time also the number of registered American citizens has doubled due to our immense effort and work at this year`s New York City Marathon Expo“, as Jan Winschermann explains.   

The METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf plays in the same league as the New York City Marathon regarding the focus on organizational and sports-related ojectives. Taking a look at the winner`s time of the male topathletes, the Düsseldorf race is even of higher athletic quality: the winner of the New York City Marathon, Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) finished in 02:08:24 hrs, while the winner of this year`s METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf, Derei Debele Tulu from Ethiopia reached the finishing line on the lower part of the Rhine promenade even in 02:07:48 hrs.

Altough the METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf is the biggest sportevent in the city of Düsseldorf and belongs to the top-six marathon events in Germany with more than 14,000 active athletes, so far it has not reached the No. 1 event in New York City with more than 50,000 athletes at the starting line. However, the gap becomes smaller thanks to the intense promotional activities carried out by the team of the rhein-marathon duesseldorf club.

Mr. Winschermann and his team not only distributed information materials but also attracted attention for the event by talking intensively with the runners one-on-one. „The advantage of the New York City Marathon is that you meet American citizens as well as people and running enthusiasts from all over the world“. This also can be seen in the growing international character of the METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf.

However, the booth at the New York expo is only one out of 22 promotion campaigns at marathon events. „We have been promoting successfully at all outstanding marathon events in Germany and abroad for the METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf and thus for the state capital of North Rine-Westphalia. It is not our target to gain top athletes by this but to convince the running enthusiasts of the combination `running and sightseeing` in Düsseldorf“, said Mr. Winschermann.

This international persuasive work is rendered also at the US-marathon events in Los Angeles, New Orleans and San Fransisco as well as in Tokyo (Japan), Barcelona (Spain), in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven in the Netherlands; London (UK); Copenhagen (Denmark); Stockholm (Schweden), Brussels (Belgium), Rom, Venice and Florence (Italy), Luxembourg and at the Jungfrau Marathon in Interlaken (Switzerland).

In Germany the expos of the marathons in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt are visited too. Thus, Jan Henning Winschermann was more than 100,000 miles on his way to make the METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf a major success on 27 April, 2014.

Julia Ehrich

METRO GROUP Marathon Düsseldorf