Via Carolina Lauf 2023

Friday arrival with dinner in Prague, Saturday lunchtime meeting at the Old Town Hall – the programme could be found in a travel brochure if it were not for the start of a 32-hour running event, non-stop from the Czech capital to the Franconian metropolis. And as if the distance was not challenging enough, this year the runners had to contend with temperatures of up to 38 degrees and had to dodge a heavy thunderstorm front at night.

Nevertheless, it was a point of honour that the team was once again one of seven participating teams at the starting line in 2023. The city connection along the historic ‘’Golden Road’’ trade route has an incredibly special significance for Rödl & Partner – the first foreign location was in Prague and true to the international consulting approach, two Czech team members – Andrej and Silvie – also took part in the race.

After a group run across the Karlsbrücke, the first scoring stage started at 1 PM. The first runner, accompanied by a team cyclist with a navigation app, took on the first eleven kilometres with the next stages following at hourly intervals. Due to the heat, a bike & run mode was permitted at times this year, so runners and cyclists were allowed to switch at any time and share the route. The rest of the team accompanied them in cars and VW buses, cheered on the active athletes and endeavoured to replenish their water supplies at every opportunity to brace the sweltering heat on the sun-baked country roads.