Novasign at the Vienna City Marathon 2019
Updated: Apr 10, 2020
Last Sunday, we participated in the 36th Vienna City Marathon (VCM). The VCM takes place each spring since 1984 and is Austria’s biggest sports event with about 40.000 runners from 125 nations. The course led to Vienna’s most impressive sites like the Vienna Secession, the castle Schönbrunn and the Opera. The relay marathon was divided into four parts consisting of 15.5, 6.0, 9.3 and 11.4 km.
Novasign at the VCM
Our relay team consisted of Novasign’s core members Benjamin, Roger, Maximilian, and Mark. Even though the idea of participating came up in summer 2018, we only registered two months ago. The main reason for this was that we are exactly four people in our team, bailing out was not an option. When the starting pistol was fired, Benjamin was already waiting at Reichsbrücke with thousands of other motivated runners, while the rest of the team was preparing and following the start from home.
Novasign finishing the marathon as a team
Tracking Benjamin’s progress, I soon realized that I had to leave home earlier than expected. The next time I checked Benjamin’s position, he finished his part and Roger was already running. I quickly left home and hurried to my hand-over area. After a five minute warm‑up, Roger already came around the corner; exhausted from the final sprint but satisfied. He handed over the imaginary baton, a motivating high five, and now it was up to me. After holding back the first kilometers in the center of Vienna, I sped up down the canal and Prater. Usually, I always conceived the Prater Hauptallee as a beautiful 4 km long, wooded road that is perfect for cycling and skating. This time, however, it became a long monotonous tunnel with no light at its end. When I finally reached the next hand-over area, Mark was already waiting. He high-fived me and started running.
After a short break, Benjamin, Roger and I met and headed towards the finish line to welcome Mark. Ten minutes later, we saw him running towards us, cheered him on and joined on the last 500 meters for the fantastic finale on Vienna’s Ringstraße.
Why relay marathon?
The entire marathon was something bigger than all of us, but the relay gave us the chance to overcome these forty-two kilometers together. We took the event seriously and it became part of many lunch conversations in the past months. We knew that everyone has to do his task: if one member does not deliver, everyone loses. This can be directly translated into our way of working. Novasign consists of a small team of highly motivated members and to reach our goals, we have to work together by balancing out individual weaknesses and bringing out the best in each other.
The Vienna City Marathon showed us that we are able to do that!
See you in 2020, VCM!
