Neckar Challenge - May 14.-17.

 

What is the Neckar Challenge?

• A 375 km run from the source to the mouth of the Neckar.
• Start is Schwenningen in the Black Forste.
• Finish is in Mannheim where the Neckar meets the Rhein.

Why are we doing it?

• To raise funds for the Mayana Community Project - Mayana is a community in Northern Namibia. Projects already planned include building a youth centre, providing local teachers with teacher training, holding sporting events, providing scholarships for children to attend school.
• Each year students from Grade 11 at H.I.S. will have the opportunity to visit the Mayana region to initiate/continue projects. This will be part of the IB Diploma course requirement for Creativity, Action and Service (CAS).
• To cover half of the flight costs for accompanying adults on the 2010 trip.
• It will be a great achivement and lots of fun.

Who is taking part?

• members of the H.I.S. Community including students, parents, staff members and friends have been invited to join The Neckar Challenge.
• 10 runners will run 350kmin relay from Schwenningen to H.I.S. Each runner will  cover 50-150km over 4 days. Runners will join them at any stahe on the last leg from H.I.S. to Mannheim.

Interested?

Want to know how you can help?

• Make a donation.
• Collect donations from family, friends.
• Distribute posters and tell others about the challenge.
• Accompany runners on your bike.
• Help transfer kit/belongings/runners from one stage to the next (motor vehicle or bike).
• Join us for the last 25km from H.I.S. to Mannheim.

After months of training and planning and four days of continuous running during daylight hours, the Neckar Challenge was completed on Monday 17th May. Although an event in its own right, the Neckar Challenge was conceived to raise awareness and funds for the first year of our CAS projects in the Mayana Community, Namibia. The goal of raising €5000 through sponsorship for the individual runners and from donations was a challenge as were the goals of the runners in covering between 50 and 170km over the four days. We are proud to say that the group of 8 runners all met their distance goals and in total ran in excess of 950km. In addition approximately 250km was covered by members of the H.I.S. community on the 17th May either running, walking, cycling or on scooter for the last stretch towards Mannheim.

When the idea of the Neckar Challenge was first discussed at the end of 2009 there was sufficient interest from the community to believe that we could realise the goal of covering the distance from the source of the Neckar to its mouth. Although in the 6 months that followed, a few of the main group of runners had to withdraw due to injury, relocation and upcoming examinations, we went down to Schwenningen on the 13th May with 7 runners ready to take on the Challenge. The runners were Sarah and Stuart Campbell, Lexi and Jody Cire, Uwe Schumacher, Kathleen Macdonald and Allyn Raw. Noelle Ellis, having realised that she would be away in the U.S. planned to run her 50km over the same period of time on the Snoqualmie Valley and the Yelm-Tenino trails in Washington State.

The hard rain from the night before had finally receded, but we began our historic journey at the historic source of the Neckar (Neckarquelle) under grey skies and light rain. The Neckarquelle had been made part of the Baden Württemberg Garden show and was usually only accessible after paid entry to the show, and the opening hours did not fit in with our start time of 8am. However, as we found throughout our journey, people were interested in what we were doing, and why we were doing it and every effort was made to accommodate us. We managed to gain access to our starting point and all the runners began the 371km journey upriver on a cold, wet morning. The first day had a number of stages in which runners would run solo (but still with an accompanying cyclist). The realisation of how much picking-up and dropping-off of runners, equipment and family there would be soon made it clear that it was not only the sporting aspect that would prove a challenge! After a few difficulties over the first stages, things calmed down and the day was complete as the final stage runners entered the campsite in Tübingen at 8pm. There was a great welcome and large plates of carbohydrates and protein to refill empty stomachs. We were all agreed that we had run through 104km of beautiful countryside and historic towns such as Rottweil, Sulz and Rottenburg and it was interesting to see how the Neckar compares at its start to the wide, busy waterway we know in Heidelberg. Outside, the weather was getting worse with the rain back again, but Day 1 was complete.

After a very wet night and some less than happy campers, we were joined by Monika Handwerker and friends as they began their 25km walk from Tübingen to Neckartenzlingen. Joachim Vette was the accompanying cyclist for the day and after a delivery of hot coffee and breakfast we set off, slightly later than planned, on the first stage of Day 2. As we ran through Tübingen, Nürtingen and Stuttgart, the Neckar had widened considerably and the signs of heavy industry were getting bigger as were the boats on the river. Days 2 and 3 were logistically easier than Day 1 as we had fewer stages and there were always at least 2 runners at one time, but as we finished in Marbach, the late start in the morning had extended the day to almost 8pm for the 98km distance. The evening was a very relaxed affair with the Dulany family in Neckarrems. A great barbecue, campfire and good company rounded off the evening and, although we had all originally planned to camp in the garden, the experiences of the previous night in a very wet Tübingen ensured that all runners and their families spent the night underneath a watertight roof.

We were prepared to begin Day 3 without an accompanying cyclist as we were unable to contact Eric Day as he was returning from holiday in the early hours of the morning, but as the clock approached 8am we breathed a huge sigh of relief as he pulled up all ready to ride the 100km from Marbach to Eberbach. We had shared the accompanying cyclist role among the runners on Day 1, but it presented extra logistical difficulties and used up valuable energy. Once we were underway, Day 3 went very well. The Neckar took us through the vineyards of the Swabian wine route and the towns of Heilbronn, Bad Wimpfen and Mosbach and we remained on schedule whilst enjoying the best weather of the whole 4 days. The final stage on the 104km route finished just before the scheduled time and we all looked forward to a bit of rest before we came back altogether for the last 27km from H.I.S. to Mannheim.

Day 4 began again at 8am with the last 2 stages to cover the 38km from Eberbach to Heidelberg. The runners were given a fantastic reception as they arrived at H.I.S. and they shared a few of their experiences with the students and teachers before Ruscha Kouril led aerobic sessions on the gym rooftop with students, teachers and parents. Reporters from the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung came to interview the runners and to wave everyone off on the last stage of the Challenge.

As we left school, the excitement of the event got to a few of the participants and we had to slow the group down to the planned walk for the first 3km towards Ladenburg, but as we headed out into the fields, the group stretched out and runners and cyclists found their own pace. We were given a fantastic welcome as we crossed on the ferry from Ladenburg to Neckarhausen and it was clear that all present at the Neckarhausen ferry crossing were having a great time with games, races and activities. After a short stop the slightly depleted group continued on towards Seckenheim and Neuostheim. As we neared the finish at the Neckarspitz, the rain came down hard in a final attempt to stop us reaching our goal, but rain, pain and exhaustion were not going to stop us. Shortly after 7.30 the last of the runners crossed the line and we all celebrated our arrival at the end of our journey. Noelle completed her distance on the other side of the world and The Neckar Challenge 2010 was complete.

The Neckar Challenge was a great experience and achievement, but it was only made possible by the support of many people including our families, hosts, those we met on the route, the PTG  and many many more. We would like to send a massive thank you to all of you. If you sponsored any of the runners, pledged a donation or would like to donate please use the bank details given below or hand money in to the school office.

name of account holder:H.I.S. GmbH

bank: Sparkasse Heidelberg

account no: 907 77 90

sort code (BLZ): 672 500 20

IBAN: DE95 6725 0020 0009 0777 90

SWIFT-BIC: SOLADES1HDB

Reference/Verwendungszweck: The Neckar Challenge

We hope that having reached our personal sporting goals we can also reach our fundraising goals and help to Make Change Possible in the Mayana Community. The total amount of funds raised by this event will be announced in a future Newsletter and will also be posted on the Neckar Challenge donation board in the school entrance.

The Neckar Challenge Team