What is success?
Recently I got inspired by this poem and I want to share it with you:
What is Success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
Read the rest of this entry »
No Limits
Live your life to the fullest
September 28, 2016
September 22, 2016
Butcher’s Race for Real
If you asked me what the tastiest dish was I have ever been served, I would answer: “A roll with jam in Smerek food station, at the kilometer 56 of the Butcher’s Race.” Read the rest of this entry »
September 15, 2016
The Butcher’s Race
“Somebody behind me is gasping wheezily. The branches are beating my calves and face, the stones splattering from under my shoes. I hear the voice of tens of feet. Around me the woods and the darkness. High in the beech branches, the flashing moon.
I stumble – hands forwards, face up. Falling down for a moment, the jump to my feet immediately, for I hear a scurry of feet behind me. How many are they? I don’t know. I dash to escape them. It is too narrow to look back. The light of the headlamp barely diffuses through the dusk.
Faster, faster. You can’t stop now. Ahead still 70 kilometers to run.” Read the rest of this entry »
September 11, 2016
What I Learned In My First Ultra Marathon
I am prepared thoroughly both physically and mentally. Also my organizational preparation is close to perfect. I am ready for every eventuality and can’t await the race to begin. For months I have been visualizing me reaching the finish line of “100km del Sahara” desert stage foot race, my first ultra marathon if you like. I have been training heavily in every possible weather conditions and now it’s time to “check the cards.” Read the rest of this entry »
August 12, 2016
Kiev – The Crazy Passport Roller Coaster
In a previous article I described how I managed to find my passport five hours after losing it in Seoul. But this feat pales in comparison to what my friend has accomplished 7 years ago in Kiev. Read the rest of this entry »
August 7, 2016
Seoul – Doing The Impossible in The Big City Jungle
Hotel reception desk in Seoul. I want to check in after a long, two-day flight from Germany.
“Your passport Sir, please”, says Grace, an attractive receptionist with a strong, Korean accent.
“Sure, here we…oh shit, where is it?”
This is the moment where I realize I have lost my passport in a giant 10-million-people city, 10,000 kilometers away from home, in a country whose language I can’t speak, and whose scripture is incomprehensible for me like the enigma code. Read the rest of this entry »
May 31, 2016
How I run a Spartan Race with a broken rib
I have been planning to compete in the Spartan Race for some time. It is kind of an obstacle run with many walls to be jumped over, many hills, ropes and rope ladders to be climbed, ditches and rivers to be crossed and other more and less treacherous obstructions to be overcome. After running several ultra marathons I felt I needed another challenge, which would make it necessary for me to do more strength workout instead of losing more and more muscle substance with long distance running only. After some time of “getting used to the idea”, the choice fell on the Spartan Race in Spain, Saint Augustin near Madrid.
I have to confess: I wasn’t prepared nearly as good as I was for my ultra marathons in the past. Due to numerous (mainly health related) problems in the preceding period, I actually wasn’t able to do any of the needed strength workout and I only sporadically could do running training. You can see it in my “curves” on the video below. Maybe I didn’t take the competition too seriously, since it definitely looked less serious to me than any of my ultra marathons, although some of the participants told me completing Spartan Race was the greatest achievement of their lives.
The moment of truth came in May 2016. The fate made me a surprise in order to toughen it up a little bit. Read the rest of this entry »
May 6, 2015
How I got into ultra running
My mentor Thomas Wittek and me in Senegal
If somebody had told me 3 years ago I would become an ultra marathon runner, I would have declared them insane. Fact is, now, 3 years later, I have run 4 ultra marathons, one in the mountains and 3 in the hottest deserts on earth. Sometimes I wonder how it is possible. How was it possible for me to come so far? How did it all happen? And it happened as follows…
April 29, 2015
Putting determination into practice
This interview was recorded 10 days after the ultra marathon Sahara Ultra 111, which I describe here (part 1) and here (part 2):
I wonder how this article inspired you. Share your impressions, remarks, conclusions with me and other readers in the comments below. I will also happily answer your questions.
January 7, 2015
Mt. Elbrus – climbing in the death zone
Mt. Elbrus, 5,642m (18,510 ft) is the highest peak in Caucasus, close to the border between Russia and Georgia. It is the highest mountain in Europe (not Mount Blanc, being only 4,848m high) and it is part of the Seven Summits Challenge (7 highest peaks on each continent).
Although technically easier than Mt. Everest, on average 26 people die trying to climb Elbrus every year, which is a higher death toll than that of Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world.
How do they die? Read the rest of this entry »
No Limits 