In excellent weather conditions, the IKV team lined up for the 30th Lousberg Run in vests sponsored by a member of our Sponsors' Association, Windmöller & Hölscher. All IKV runners reached the finish in fine condition, where they were welcomed by their enthusiastic colleagues. They all celebrated together in the evening with plenty of cold drinks.
According to an IKV tradition, the internal Lousberg trophy – the "golden running shoe in silver" – is presented to the department of the fastest runner: With an outstanding 20 minutes and 38.6 seconds, Tobias Hohlweck ran the best time in the IKV team, which means that the trophy went to the Precision Injection Moulding / Mould Technology department. Overall, he finished in 46th place in the men's rankings, an excellent result considering there was a total field of 2,000 runners.
The event, which is held regularly in July, was accompanied by a stage show and live music, attracting numerous spectators. It was opened this year by the Mayor of the City of Aachen, Marcel Philipp. The event was organised by the University Sports Centre of RWTH Aachen University (HSZ), together with sponsor Stawag, and, traditionally, also the residents of the student hostel "Die Türme", on whose initiative the run was held for the first time more than three decades ago.
*The so-called Devil's hill: The Lousberg is located on the northern edge of Aachen city centre. According to legend, the Lousberg was created by the devil as an act of revenge. The devil had been tricked by the people of Aachen once before. He was so enraged about this embarrassment that he decided to cover the city and the cathedral with a mountain of sand. For this purpose he collected a large bag of sand from a beach on the North Sea coast. On his way back to the city, he was labouring under the heavy load and the heat when he met a farmer's wife carrying a tough piece of old bread and wearing badly worn shoes. He asked her the way to Aachen. The woman was "lous", which means "clever" in the Aachen dialect. She had recognised the devil and told him she was on her way back from Aachen. She said that she had bought her new shoes at the city's market and they were already totally worn – this was how far it was to Aachen. Hearing this news, the devil dropped the sand sack, angry and exhausted. The spot where the devil dropped the sack is today's site of the Lousberg.