Dundee Roadrunners trip to Würzburg 2026

Friday 24 April 

Dundee Roadrunners were invited to travel to our twin city Würzburg by the local running club LG Würzburg in order to compete in the annual 10k race Würzburger Residendenzlauf 2026. Eight of us made the trip, travelling to Germany on Friday 24th of April. Surprisingly all of our travel went extremely smoothly, and our fabulous host Chris picked us up early at Würzburg railway station, so we had time to get checked in at our hotel the Maritim, prior to the official opening of the Würzburger Residendenzlauf 2026. A short walk along the river Main took us to our restaurant, ‘Alte Mainmuhle’, where the official opening of the race was taking place. We were guests of honour along with runners from Würzburg twin city in Czechia, Trutnov, as well as topGerman runners, sponsors, and the organisation team. We were treated to welcome drinks, an evening meal and many speeches, and a jolly night was had by all. 

Saturday 25 April

After a rather late first night and a healthy amount of complementary alcohol being consumed (although some of us stuck to alcohol-free beer), six DRRs decided to do parkrun on Saturday morning (9am in Germany).

TheKurt Schumacher promenade parkrun is a beautiful out and back along the river Main in Würzburg. parkrun is hugely popular in Scotland, so it really was a different experience given that we made up quite a huge percentage of the 37 runners taking part. Everyone was lovely though and we all made it back to the hotel in time for a busy day being treated like A listers by our fabulous German hosts!

Our day of touristing started with a short speech given by a member of the local Würzburg government within the Rathaus, in their main chambers, which was like something you’d find in the UN, and had a lovely mural, including a depiction of the twinning with Dundee in the form of bagpiper and the Dundee flag.

After this and a bit of free time to explore, we went to the Residenz Würzburg to be shown around the catacombs below the oldest part of the building, which is where they used to produce wine. The catacombs themselves are a venue now, and they're set up really beautifully, and we had a lovely tour and got to try a number of glasses of amazing local wine. Our day was topped off by our carb loading evening meal at an Italian restaurant, ‘Quo Vadis’. 

Sunday 26 April – RaceDay

After the wine and more beer on the Saturday night, we came to the day of the Würzburger Residendenzlauf 2026 10K run. Most of us were in the mass race starting at 14:15, with the exception of Michael, who was running in the elite race at 15:45. The course was a long undulating 2.5km loop ran 4 times, essentially around the Residenz Würzburg and gardens. The amount of folk out supporting the runners around the entire course was immense, and saw us all have great runs, despite the relative heat and hills!

The great thing about Michael being in the elite race was that after we had completed our race, we could all get a beer from the beer stall and really enjoy the spectacle of watching a fast race live, whilst cheering on Michael. The 4 loops made it really fun to watch and cheer Michael on every time he passed us! Michael did really well coming 20th overall in the men's elite race with a fantastic time of 34:04. 

After watching Michael in the elite race, we hung out in the Residenzplatz, as it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon, and had a few beers with our wonderful hosts for the duration of our trip, Chris and Harvey.

That evening we had yet another fab meal at ‘Wirtshaus am Dom’ with a number of members of the LG Würzburg running club and the Trutnov crew. It was a lovely evening of food, chat, more beer and awards, with less than 1.8 seconds being between the average time of runners from all 3 cities. Our hosts were as hospitable as ever and each of us went home with a fantastic stein and a cast iron image of a runner, made by the disabled adults that are supported by the sports club.

DRR presented Würzburg with a shield that we had bought for them, which they can use for a prize to someone in the club every year for whatever category that they want. 

Monday 27 April

On Monday morning we all had free time and went off exploring. Laura and Mel went to the Residenz gardens, which were absolutely stunning. You could just see how much work went into them. They really were beautiful with all different flowers, loads of tulips, manicured lawns and also areas where there were daisies and other wildflowers in the lawns. With the backdrop of the Residenz and blue skies it was really, really beautiful.

Chris and Harvey took us on a wee minibus outing in the afternoon to Rothenburg, which is famous for the Plönlein, which is a charming fork in the cobbled streets of the town, and is highly photographed. Rothenburg is also super famous for its medieval fortified walls which surround the town, which you can walk around. Apparently, there are only 3 cities in Germany where these are still intact! Not all of us appreciated the narrow walkways and steep exposed staircases but it was a fab experience all the same! The most surreal thing we did was visit the all year-round Christmas shop and museum which is quite famous, and which was huge. If you love Christmas and have too much money, you’d love this!

Our day and our trip ended with a meal in Harvey's village, Gollhofen, before saying our goodbyes! We all had the most wonderful trip and cannot thank our host German host enough for really looking after us. I think we can all say we became close on the trip and made friends for life. It really was like a trip that will live long in all of our memories, and I’m sure we would go back in a heartbeat.