House Running: Frankfurt
Two years ago, my siblings gave me an adventure voucher as a gift. Since then, it had been lying in some corner of my room. When I was rearranging it, I discovered it again and noticed that it was only valid until the end of 2020. So without further ado, I registered on the website of the voucher and decided to take part in the House Running in Frankfurt, where I was supposed to go down 100 meters on a wall.
In house running, you run downhill along the wall of a house. There are several locations with different heights all over Germany. I chose the 100- meter Leonardo Royal Hotel in Frankfurt.
Before takeoff
An hour before the “takeoff” I arrived at the hotel. I wanted to have some spare time to mentally prepare myself. However, I was allowed to get started right away. I was presented with a piece of paper that I was supposed to sign. Then they put the equipment on me, and I was supposed to take the elevator up to the 25th floor and walk up another three floors.
Downstairs, I decided to let myself film by the crew of the house running event, which had an extra cost of €30. One video was shot by a crew member on the other side of the building and the other was attached to my chest strap and filmed my face. Whereby the recording of the face was not successful. At least there was one good video and two 8 GB SD cards for free.
Bad Company
Arriving at the roof, I heard one of my favorite songs booming out of the boom box, which is “Bad Company” by Five Finger Death Punch. It was the perfect song for this moment! On the rooftop, things got down to business quickly. I was greeted by a woman who immediately clipped a carabiner to my chest and explained that pushing off the wall would give me the most kick. Then I moved on to the scaffolding and there a man fiddled with my gear. I was already standing on the top of the wall of the building, looking into the abyss. That was the moment when I didn’t know why I decided to do something like this three weeks before. With the voucher, I could also have had a half-day march with a llama at my side in Italy….
The woman removed the front carabiner from me, and then I heard the man tell me to put my arms under the camera and move away to the front. I leaned forward, took a few steps and found that I felt pretty secure in the equipment. So I tried pushing off the wall and from there the thrill really started.
The Fall
I fell and screamed like a real man (not). Arriving at the wall, I pushed off again strongly and then fell straight towards the balconies. I thought that was it with me, but then I was slowed down. That made me spin, and I flew with my arms against the wall and kept spinning. I couldn’t find my balance anymore so instead of running I flew down the rest of the way. When I reached the bottom I was so happy that I didn’t choose the llama in Italy.
Conclusion
That was an awesome experience, and it gave me a big adrenaline rush! Even if it only lasted just under a minute. There are many things that only last a minute that feel good. House running was completed and there was also a little “gravity winner” certificate at the end. I highly recommend this run to everyone!
P.S. On my Instagram account you can find a short video about this. 🙂
