ENGLISCHER GARTEN 100

©Muenchen

In the midst of the pandemic, and with people coming up with all kinds of challenges, I decided to run a 100 kilometer around Englischer Garter in Munich on Good Friday. It was a spontaneous undertaking, inspired by Elisha Nochomovitz running a marathon on his balcony and Jan Frodeno, who set out to complete a full Ironman at his home in Girona the following day. I had written about the importance of supporting your local before, and I kept thinking about what I can do to help my favorite businesses that are serving my daily cup of espresso. During my Thursday run, I came up with the idea of running 100K to raise funds for two my favorite locals - Morso in Munich and Cafe Kraft in Berlin.

Upon my return from the run, I set up a donation page on PayPal, I posted about my initiative on Instagram and I prepared my food for the next day. A few hours later, I found myself running laps in Englischer Garten. I had defined a 5K lap through the park and set up a little “aid station” behind a tree. The aid station consisted of a paper bag that included some water, Clif Bars, Clif Shot Energy Gel and Clif Bloks Energy Chews and two good old German brezel. I woke up at 4:00, enjoyed a bowl of porridge and headed out to Englischer Gartern to start at 5:00 sharp. I was set to run 20 x 5K laps, looking to raise awareness and funds. With the help of the donations, my plan was to purchase products from Morso and Café Kraft, which I would then donate to local hospitals and their brave medical staff that stepped up to treat people suffering from Coronavirus.

I must admit that it felt slightly surreal at the beginning. I had only come up with the idea a couple of hours ago and now I found myself running in circles. It was pitch black, with only my head torch shining light on the path. Milometer after kilometre passed and I was really enjoying what I was doing. It was also the first time that I was sharing a run of mine through social media. It turned out being a pretty special experience. I was sharing short updates on Instagram’s Stories along the way and people messaged me, while the funds slowly accumulated on my PayPal. During quick refueling pit-stops, I was reading the messages, listening to short videos and voices messages from people that were scattered around the World. I was pretty touched and I did not expect that response for such a random last minute activity.

After 50 kilometers of running, I went home for a quick lunch break. I had prepared some pasta to recharge my batteries, before heading into the second part of my run around the park. The weather was beautiful throughout the day, with a clear sky and a bright shining sun. I run lap after lap, pacing at around 10KM/H, slowly heading towards the 100K mark. 75 kilometers into the run, I started to feel my ankle playing up. I decided to take it slowly, switching between running and walking every two kilometers, but eventually being forced to walk with around 15 kilometers to go.

I had set up my aid station behind a tree. I was really excited to refuel with some Clif Bars, when I found out that some our four-legged best friend’s must have indulged into my energy gels. This was actually for the third time that day, after my pretzel and two Clif Bars had already been eaten before. I guess I could not blame them. I had some water and Red Bull, entering the final stretch of the race.

I saw the park being populated in the morning and people slowly walking home towards the evening. With two laps and 10K to go, I was enjoying the slower pace, and appreciating this little challenge that I had created for myself. Then, with only a few more meters to go, I picked up the pace again, until my watch eventually showed 100 kilometers. After around 11 hours of running and an accumulated one hour of breaks in between, I was done. I felt content. Similar, to when I run 100K on the treadmill at the end of last year. I picked up the remains of my “aid station” and walked, not run, home. This was a Good Friday (pun intended).