- Location: Riemer Park, Stockholmstrasse, Munich
- Terrain: tarmac paths and hard gravel path
- Elevation: 5m, flat
- Parking: at RiemArcaden, payable
- Facilities: toilets, cafe
- Shoes: Road
- Laps: 1
- Attendance: small, 50-70
- Last visited on: 27 July 2024
- Number of visits: 1
- PB: 36:19
Another international parkrun adventure for me this week, with my first visit to Riemer parkrun, Munich! I had not been parkrunning outside of the UK for a while before this, with my last visits being my first German event at Nidda, Frankfurt in February and the second trip to Milano Nord parkrun in December last year. And before that, the great 2023 Swedish special event at Huddinge, near Stockholm.
I am in Munich several times a month for work, so I had been thinking about a first visit to one of the two local events for a while. Now that the Euros crazy is behind us, it was the right time to go for it! My choice came fair randomly on Riemer parkrun and it was confirmed when I saw on the event social media page that this week they were supposed to come back to their traditional route for the first time in a couple of months. I am glad I picked Riemer for my first Munich parkrun adventure, it was great! More on that later.
When you look at the map, it might seem that Riemer parkrun is very far away from Munich city centre. Now, it is definitely not central, but with Munich’s great public transport system, getting there is not difficult at all. And you might find yourself close to it by accident as well. The event is just by Munich Messe, the city’s massive conference and events centre. I had been there on business several times without knowing it!
One more interesting fact: Riemer parkrun is organised on the site that used to be home to Munich-Riem Airport, Munich’s international airport up to May 1992. As you might imagine, since planes enjoy hills even less than runners, this means the course is pancake flat. And it is nearly all on great paved paths, making it an ideal event for all seasons. No idea why I thought it was a hilly, forest course in the past, I could not have been more wrong. Huddinge-induced bias, I guess.
Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Riemer parkrun, Munich!
Trip to Riemer parkrun and parking
Right, this is important. If you are in Munich and look at a map, this event will look very far out. However, dont be discouraged, Munich enjoys great public transport! And if you want to go straight to the source, the official event page has good instructions on how to get there. Or even better, the Riemer parkrun facebook page hosts a dedicated post with even better step by step directions
Stealing directly from the latter here. The fastest (and cheapest) way to get here seems to be getting on the underground at Munich central station (Hauptbahnhof). Here, get on the U2 line towards Messestadt Ost and alight at Messestadt West (21 minutes). It is then time to walk South about 800 metres, passing by the RiemArcaden shopping centre and continuing down to the old Departures Sign. Passing by the RiemArcaden centre has the additional benefit of offering free toilets. Or, if you are early and need caffeine, plenty of cafes. I will plug the CityMapper app once more: it works great to plan trips using public transport in many cities around Europe.
If you are driving, according to the official event site, the RiemArcaden shopping centre offers an underground car park. It is not free, but it seems surprisingly cheap to my UK-biased eyes. From the shopping centre, it will be less than 5 minutes walk down to the meeting point.
If you are lazy like me, or in a hurry, then there is always the option to get a taxi. From the city centre, the taxi ride took me about 20 minutes and it cost around 30 euros. When in Germany, I use the FreeNow app to book taxis with clear directions and online payment. I set the Quax: Kinder und Jugendzentrum as arrival point. The app recognises it and it is just 100m away from the meeting point.
Riemer parkrun: start and briefings
If you are coming from the underground stop, go to the RiemArcaden and then continue walking South on a tree-lined footpath that goes along a small church. The arrival sign is not small, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you missed it, since it is rather low on the ground and surrounded by trees. One of the very welcoming local runners showed it to me, otherwise I would have completely forgotten it was there.
No fear though: on the day I visited the team was there early and it parkrun banner was easily visible from far away. Or follow other runners: it is not a huge event, but it seems to be popular with tourists and local alike. I think I got there around 8:30am and there already several volunteers setting things up and the first stray tourists wandering around and shyly approaching the team.
And this is where the team truly excelled. All (or nearly all) parkruns are very welcoming and friendly, but the Riemer parkrun team goes above and beyond. They are great and make a real effort to make everyone feel welcome and at home. One nice touch is them collecting a list of tourists and their home event on a whiteboard before the event. I am sure it is great to keep track of visitors, but it is also a great way to break the ice and get people talk. Everyone also seems to be fluent in English and keen to chat.
The First Timers Briefing starts at about 8:50 as usual and it is held by a bench under tree cover next to the meeting point. The shade was very welcome, it was scorching hot on the day I visited. There were several tourists on the day and everyone joined the First Timers briefing, so it morphed into a blend of traditional FT welcome and Main Briefing. And it was great, mixing milestones, praise for the local team and welcome to visitors in a great, natural way. I said it already, but I will say it again: huge thanks to the local team. They really seem to enjoy welcoming new faces to their nice event and they do it wonderfully.
After briefings are done, everyone walks about 100/150m South on an open path to reach the start line. Like little parkrunners planes taxing over an approach and then joining the main runway. The RD-Control Tower will then make sure all pre-run checks are done and airspace is clear before unleashing the parkrunners horde.
The countdown then comes, loud and clear. 3,2,1.
Go!
Riemer parkrun, Munich course review – star ratings
| (0-5) | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
|---|---|
| Location | ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Parking | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ |
| Facilities | ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Hills challenge (lower is easier) | ⭐️ |
| Surface challenge (lower is easier) | ⭐️ |
Riemer parkrun, Munich course review – route highlights
There were 64 parkrunners on the day I visited. This is similar to last few weeks, after a peak experienced during the Euros weeks. It is also interesting to see that attendance seems to remain consistent also during the summer, with the scorching sun being unavoidable in such an open course. On average, the event seems to receive between 50 and 70 runners weekly, which is a healthy level for a non-UK event. The course could welcome many more runners without feeling congested, but I think this level is the sweet spot for to feel as intimate and welcoming as it clearly does.
We are talking about an event that is run, at least in part, on former airport runways. As such, I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that there are no bottlenecks or spots where overtaking might be difficult. The usual parkrunner tends to be smaller than a commercial aircraft. Also, the history behind the location made it so that the whole course is run on long, perfectly straight segments. No, it’s not just German engineering 🙂 Turns are wide enough and even the couple of narrower ones would be considered extremely wide in your average British course.
Surface-wise, it is mostly on very well maintained tarmac paths. A couple of short segments are on dirt paths with some gravel on them, but they are extremely flat and well pressed. Frankly, they barely feel different from the paved segments. This can be a PB course if you don’t run it at 30 degrees. You can sport your carbon-plated speed-monsters if you want to. You might actually benefit from them on a course like Riemer parkrun. Definitely road shoes though.
Elevation-wise, at 5m elevation gain over 1 single lap, this course would make pancakes fell self-conscious. They have bubbles after all, so they don’t live up to their reputation when compared to Riemer parkrun. When you approach the first turn to head South at the end of the lake, if you watch right you will see runners in front of you tackling what seems to be a gentle hill. And it is there, but it so gentle and long that when I got there I was surprised I didn’t really experience any real elevation. It is flat, end of discussion.
In terms of course design, it is described as an approximation of a figure 8 on the official course page. I guess it makes sense if you look at the plot above, but it isn’t really how it feels while running it. The way I would describe it is as 2 parallel out and back segments, both 1km long, leading to the lake. And a full lake loop. Bear in mind, the lake loop could be an oval, but we are in Germany, so it is a sequence of 6 perfectly straight segments. 🙂 A lake hexagon.
A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.
As course descriptions go, this will probably be fairly simple. It will be a lot of ‘long open straight segment’, ‘gentle turn’ and ‘keep going straight’. Don’t read it as boring or uninteresting, this course is actually a lot of fun. But it is fairly consistent in terms of scenery and running conditions.
As said, parkrunners charter 169 taxied to the runway after the briefing. Once everyone is there, people can line up on a wide path heading East. It is time to start running, and there is no congestion at all: the path is wide, surface is great and it is perfectly straight. It was a very hot day with clear skies, so you will be exposed to the sun for nearly 100% of the course. Even the occasional spots with trees barely provide any shade because of the width of the path. Both straights to and from the lake are roughly 1km each.
As you start, you will be carried by the usual energy and enthusiasm. Even the weather will feel less painful than it actually is. Don’t be fooled, there is a lot more sun waiting for you, so pace yourself. As you run towards the lake, you will get through a couple of areas with tall trees on both sides, where people will tend to move to the sides of the path to enjoy a bit of shade.
After 1K, you will start approaching the lake. The only marshall who was out in the course was here. As you get close to her, she will point you to a half left turn and you will start running by the lake. You will not be running right by the water, but on this side of the lake you are close enough to it to enjoy its view. On the other side, there will be fields blocking the view.
When you taken the slight left turn, you will soon reach a squat concrete buildings which probably serves as hub for watersports. Soon after you have run by that building, you will reach the Western side of the lake. Here turn 90 degrees left and start running ‘up’ a very very gentle hill to reach the South side of the lake. The path turns a bit gravelly, but it continues being great to run on. From here on, open spaces and tree copses will alternate more frequently, providing variety and shade.
Once you get to the end of this short segment, it is time for another right turn to start tacking the South side of the lake. Here you are probably running around 100m away from the water, so you can still see it but it doesn’t really feel like a lake-side segment. The South side of the lake is split across two straight segments broken down by a light right turn. If you are going for a PB, turns here will not be slowing you down much, if at all.
At the end of these two segments, turn right again, for the short side and soon after a sharp right to conquer the North side of the lake again. Roughly half way through this side, you will reach the marshal again and turn hard left to go North for a short bit. Technically, the course crosses the initial segment here, but since it is a 1-lapper, it is extremely unlikely people will mix. The short North-facing segment runs by a playing field and what I believe was a skate park. It is not long, so very soon it will be time to turn hard left and enter the final straight. A 1K final straight.
This is probably the segment which offers the most shade, with frequent trees on both sides. It sides a residential area, which probably explains the increase in vegetation.
At the end of this straight, it is time to briefly transition to some grass, but just long enough to reach the short finish funnel. And there it is, we have done it.
Congratulations on completing Riemer parkrun!
Facilities at Riemer parkrun, Munich
Riemer parkrun takes place in a large park over the former runways of the Riem airport. The area was fully re-zoned and developed in the late 90s/early 2000s into what is today a modern and vibrant urban environment. The focal points are the conference centre, the RiemArcaden shopping area and the park itself.
Recent planning and coherent urban development mean that the area is fully planned to be convenient and offer adequate facilities. The shopping centre offers a great food court for breakfast or lunch if you decide to stay longer. The large lake seems to be popular with swimmers and sunbathers. Several children playgrounds and exercise areas are dotted around the park.
Toilets and food court at the shopping centre are within very easy reach from the event, both before and after the event. Furthermore, public toilets are dotted along the course, in case of emergencies.
I went to a cafe by the RiemArcaden entry, just North of the finish funnel location. It was on the right of the ‘bridge’ area pictured below and it offered a nice outside sitting area.
As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?
At Riemer parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a diet Coke and apple pastry. This cost E7.0, which is relatively honest.
Riemer parkrun, Munich: Video Highlights
As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂
The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.
Achievements and performance
The trip was not challenge-motivated, I wanted to add a German location to my travels and Munich was way overdue consider how often I am there. So no surprise there was one major parkrun challenges achievement this week. With the exception of the obscure pC index. What is it? Similar to the p-index, but for countries. Do 2 events in 2 countries, and you are at 2, 3 different events in 3 different countries and you are at 3…. My index is now up to the incredible level of 2! 🙂
The great 5K app was down for a couple of days. That thing is addictive. Many people missed it, showing how the community came to rely on it. I recommend people support the developer in his great job: click on the 5k parkrunner patreon to do that. I do that.
I finished in about 36 minutes. Pretty awful on a fast, flat course. But let’s take the scorching sun and lack of shade as an excuse, just this time.
Now, back to challenges, here are the achievements progressing today:
- Cowell club: now at 88%
Conclusions
I really enjoyed Riemer parkrun in Munich. It was really hot and sunny and the exposed kind of course probably makes it feel even worse, but that did not detract from the experience. A one-lap course close to the centre of a major European city is not easy to find and this location comes with a lot of interesting quirks. On top of all that, a wonderfully welcoming local team.
There are a lot of other locations I want to visit when in Germany, but I would not discount the possibility I will come here again. Ideally, when the weather is grey and miserable 🙂
Finally, obviously, danke, Riemer parkrun team for your hospitality!
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