
The maxim for the event: "Get off your office chairs and put on your trainers. That was the slogan for the B2Run, which was again held in Cologne on Thursday. There was another good turnout from Bayer 04 staff among the 23,000 runners for the third time at this big event. "It was really great fun again," said Jenny Weber, who has now taken over the organisation of the Bayer 04 running group.
The response was similar to last year with some 40 sports-mad Bayer 04 members of staff from all departments taking part in the run, which is one of the biggest in Germany. For the participants in Black and Red, who again prepared for the run under their coach Tatjana Rüber, the start in Cologne is always a special highlight in their sporting calendars. "We're already looking forward to next year's run, said Jenny Weber on behalf of the Bayer 04 group.
The course through the city forest was 5.4 kilometres long and the finishing line was at the RheinEnergie Stadium as usual. A glass of Kölsch beer was raised for the people completing the run and several members of the Leverkusen running group took advantage of the invite to the after-run party in the VIP area at the Cologne Arena. The star guest at the event was B2Run ambassador Magdalena Neuner, double Olympic Gold medal winner and twelve-time biathlon world champion.

Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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