Frankfurt Marathon 2018 Mystery Cache
Hidden : 10/20/2018
Difficulty:
5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


The Frankfurt Marathon is one of the most prestigious marathons in the world. Organizers have angled the event into one of the three top races in Germany (along with the marathon events in Berlin and Hamburg); Frankfurt now has a permanent hand in attracting the greatest marathon runners in the world each year.

This year the event took place on the 28th of October on the same day this Mystery cache was published.

The first Frankfurt Marathon was held in 1981, organized by OSC Hoechst 1960 e.V. on May 17th 1981, with 2588 finishers. Only a few thousand spectators watched the race that Kjell Erik Ståhl (SWE) and Doris Schlosser (GER) won with the time of 2:13:20 and 2:47:13. Over the years, the marathon grew larger and larger. Despite the number of finishers rising to 7297 in 1985, Hoechst AG stopped sponsoring the event. As a consequence, the marathon did not take place in 1986. In 1987 the city of Frankfurt and the athletics department of Eintracht Frankfurt reinstated the race. The date was moved to October and the Messegelände became the new site for the start and finish.

At the German Championships on October 25th 2015 Arne Gabius set a new German marathon record with 2:08:33. He beat the previous record set by Jörg Peter in 1988 by 14 seconds.

The start of the course is on the Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage next to the iconic Messeturm. Upon reaching the Platz der Republik the course turns left into Mainzer Landstrasse. After a lap of the Taunusanlage athletes return to the start of the course and continue onwards to the Bockenheimer Warte, before going to the Alte Oper via Bockenheimer Landstrasse. Then athletes continue to the most westerly point in Höchst. The last three kilometres back passing the Alte Oper and via the Platz der Republik into the Festhalle, where athletes run the last few metres on a specially-laid red carpet before crossing the finishing line.

Over the last couple of years the marathon was dominated by runners from Kenia and Ethopia. Wilson Kipsang (KEN) ran his record of 2:03:42 in 2011, while the womens record was set by Meselech Melkamu (ETH) 2:21:01 in 2012.

At the Frankfurt marathon of 2017, the German geocacher Swerik was on the starting line with three of his old friends and there were quite a lot of geocachers to cheer for them and for other geocachers running in the prestigious race. I think we were at least fifty geocachers in our hotel in Sachsenhausen and at least four of us were there on behalf of Swerik. The start of the race was overwhelming - almost 12,000 people! And the crowd that was there to watch the marathon was enormous! It seemed as if most of the people living in the fourtyseven city districts of Frankfurt were out there, cheering and mingling.

Swerik and his teammates were placed far back from the start line when the race started at around ten in the morning. We, a group of spectators, hurried (even if the public transport system was extremely slow) to get to Höchst where we expected that we would be able to see Swerik and his running friends. In fact, as Swerik ran quite quickly on the east bound path of the marathon, I glanced up at the official clock in the very moment when he passed us at kilometer 27– precisely at 2:17:39. Amazingly, instead of the usual digital display, officials had placed an oversized analog clock from circa 1981 (the first year of the event) at this place of the course with beautifully ornate hour and minute indicators. I thought that was a really nice historical angle; I really had to hand it to the organizers.

And I must tell you that it was a real kick to watch Swerik charging North up to the finish line. Unfortunately Swerik had over paced slightly and could not keep the pace as he angled to the finish line, but we were still proud of him and gave him a huge hand just for competing in this prestigious race with a time of 4:21:00. One of the coolest things about the Frankfurt Marathon is that the finish line is right in the Festhalle, where athletes run the last few metres on a carpet and the crowd is cheering.

At the above coordinates you will only find the split for kilometer 32 of Frankfurt Marathon.
Keep an open mind and approach this problem from as many different angles as you can, and soon you'll have a small waterproof container safely in hand..

Additional Hints ()

Rirel frpbaq znxrf n qvssrerapr jura lbh eha n znenguba!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

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