In early February of this year 2025, I stumbled upon a video of a woman running an ultra marathon across the Mongolian steppes for an entire week. Something about her grit, the solitude, the sheer commitment, the “keep going” mindset, stirred something in me. A memory.
I used to run too.
Back in Salta, my beloved hometown, our PE teacher in high school would take us running up the hills (wherever you are, thanks, Prof. Lozano!). It wasn’t that high. For example, the San Bernardo hill has an elevation of about 300 meters above the city of Salta. The nature though, is so beautiful. The views from above looking down the valley of Salta and in front, the Andes mountain range, are mesmerizing. Sometime later, I started running on a track. The grumpy coach and another runner, Laura, helped me with my posture, stride, arm movement, breathing, even stretching. I didn’t have any proper running shoes, just regular sport ones. But I remember I loved the feeling, the wind in my face, the afternoons running until the sun was setting. Eventually life happened, high school ended and I never ran again apart from trying to catch a bus, and when I did, I had to catch my breath too.
Anyway, that woman running in Mongolia was Eva zu Beck (thanks for the inspiration!) and it got me thinking “what if I run?”. After all, how difficult could it be for me? I’m an avid hiker and I’m working out and doing fitness, all on a regular basis without skipping a week.
I was so wrong.
When I tried running again for the first time after all these years, reality crushed me and my body gave up only after 2.5 kilometers (for those of you measuring in eagles per second, that’s 1.55 miles). See, doing fitness where you do it on intervals is nothing like a sustained activity like running. You have to moderate yourself. I didn’t. I went too fast, too eager, too rash. I didn’t even own running shoes. I ran in an old pair of HanWag low hiking shoes (another big thanks to HanWag for making awesome shoes).
That short, cold, breathless run was enough. Enough to know: I want more.
I felt so free during that time running in the dusk of Hamburg, at 18:30 on March 9, 2025. Oh yes, because like in my memories of Salta, I ran late at sunset. The cold breeze in my face, the last thin line of twilight, the hum of the water of the channel I was running next to, the birds singing their last songs. Running in this simple trail inside Hamburg made me very happy.
So I refreshed everything I once knew, and dove deeper. I read. I learned about food and fuel, protein and vitamins, pacing and patience. I got myself proper shoes, the amazing Brooks Cascadia 18 trail running shoes, and started running consistently. Once again I’m so grateful to Hamburg for being so green and having so much nature and water streams inside the city. I don’t need to go anywhere to start running on a trail, and yes, there might not be hills or mountains but the nature is still gorgeous.
Now, Hamburg in March and April is cold. I loved going out but quickly became a game of endurance and it was hard. But slowly, I reached 5 km… then 7, 8 and finally 10k! I experienced for the first time what runners call the Second Wind: that strange feeling when after almost dying for 4 or 5 km, your body suddenly begins to move freely again. You’re flowing. You’re light as a feather. You feel happy. It’s thought to be related to glycogen use and a shift in energy metabolism, but science hasn’t fully explained it yet. All I know is: it feels like coming alive.
At some point came the chance to run in a place that got stuck in my heart, Reit im Winkl, at the edge of Germany, right at the border with Austria. I went there because, first, I initially asked on Reddit where one could do trail running in mountains, and someone pointed me there. And second, because around the same days, someone very close to me told me she was going to Reit im Winkl for a week. I took that as a good sign and I went there. That place, wow. It reminded me so much of Salta, having mountains on each side of the valley. It felt familiarly new.
Then came the chance to visit Switzerland for the WordCamp Europe and I got my eyes on a couple of places to go run there. I got myself a running vest, the fantastic Rab Veil 12 L, and I ran in Basel. I also planned to run up to the Oeschinensee from Kandersteg, but fate had a different plan. A fortuitous encounter changed the course of that day. And I’m not complaining because instead of just reaching the lake, I ended up hiking above it at 1980 meters, and that turned out to be even more amazing.
Back in Hamburg, I started running through the Alsterwanderweg and kept adding distance: 12, 13 km. During all this time I didn’t have any goal. I was just running because I enjoyed it.
But.
My heart and thoughts kept coming back to that place in Bayern, or rather, in Oberbayern.
Reit im Winkl.
Everything about it pulls me so much. You know when you connect with a person very deeply? It was the same but a place. Eventually, I decided: I have to go back.
I signed up for a trail running competition in Reit im Winkl: the MountainMan, part of the UTMB Index (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a prestigious trail running series). The course I chose is the M size, 26 km long with 938 meters of elevation gain.
So now I’m still running training towards it. I’ve hit 20 km. Then 23 km. I’ve run through rain and sun, and up the Müllberg in Hummelsbüttel more times than I can count. But running also gave me more: I joined a nice running group on Sundays, and I get to socialize and connect with people. And now, going back to Reit im Winkl is going to be a full circle for me, connecting it to my chosen home in Hamburg and ultimately to my home in Salta.
I’ll be sharing more of this journey towards Reit im Winkl and beyond. I’m so excited about it!
Let’s see how far we can go.
