The fifth Rondo 1 Run-up is now over, and yet I still get excited at the thought of what the participants of the event managed to achieve. Eleven steps and a left turn, eleven and a left turn – repeat eighty times. If reading this makes your head spin – just think about what the competitors had to go through.
The first-time contestants had been expecting the race to be a worse ordeal... and this seemed to give everyone the encouragement to take part again next year. While the veterans of the run bore the demeanour of people who were merely going to the top in a lift – smiling and relaxed. This was in contrast to the firefighters in the race, but they were to run with loads of almost 30 kilos: their full fireproof gear with an oxygen tank and breathing through a mask. However, the view from the windows at the finishing line seemed some compensation for the exertions they put themselves through.
The fifth Rondo 1 Run-up, which took place on March 14th, was attended by app. 600 people. During the enrolment for the run, the 500 available starting places were as usual taken up within just half an hour. The participants included professionals of the discipline who were fighting it out for the ranking points needed to take part in the international Towerrunning World Cup. Fifty representatives of the tenants of the office building, which is owned by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, also featured in the run. In addition, one of the events was the first Polish Firefighters’ Towerrunning Cup, attended by a hundred of the best firefighters in the country.
So how fast can you reach the top of the Rondo 1 skyscraper? Piotr Łobodziński, who crossed the finishing line in the impressive time of 3 minutes and 31 seconds, won the men’s category once again. He was two seconds faster than Christian Riedl of Germany and six seconds quickly than Tomáš Celko of Slovakia, who came in third. Like last year the fastest woman to reach the top was Dominika Wiśniewska-Ulfik, who accomplished the feat in 4 minutes and 40 seconds. The other women on the podium were: Lenka Švabíková of the Czech Republic (4:48) and Anna Ficner of Poland (4:52).
“We are happy that we were able to continue the tradition of the Rondo 1 Run-up and maintain the prestige of the event as well as its charitable character,” declared Marek Jakubiak, head of the real estate department at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, which is the owner of Rondo 1. As usual, the Rondo 1 Run-up was raising funds for the SOS Children’s Villages Association. All the proceeds from the starting fees, a total of PLN 23,000, is to be transferred to the charity’s account.
This year’s event in Rondo 1 was granted Grand Prix race status once again. There was also the Towerrunning World Cup on the last weekend of March, with the venue being The Torch building in Qatar. The run-up to the 86th floor of Empire State Building in New York is the most famous race, but it has a slightly lower Premium Race ranking.
