56 days

56 days.

That is how long I get to spend in Europe. I am a very lucky person :)

With the time away from work, I thought I would write a little about my experiences travelling and racing in Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy. Substack allows longer form to properly share these experiences and lessons learnt from the trip.

I have lined up some awesome races, every weekend. The first of which is the day after I arrive. Fingers crossed I can get some sleep on the long journey and that all my luggage arrives safely!

• 26th July - Grossglockner ultratrail, 37 km (main challenge = altitude and jet-lag!)

• 3rd Aug - Salomon Pitz alpine glacier trail. 44k

• 10th Aug - Swiss alps 50k

• 18th Aug -Trail des Etoiles, 36km

• 24th Aug - Matterhorn Ultraks, 32km

• 29th Aug - OCC, 55km

• 7th Sept - Jungfrau marathon, 42.2km

• 14th Sept - Wildstrubel by UTMB, 53km

For me, this is about exploring. One of my main passions and drivers in life, especially before I found running, was travel. When I was 17 I worked two jobs and scraped together every penny I could so that I could travel to Africa on a 10 week overland trip, then to China for 4 weeks in rural Yunnan province. It was very much on a shoestring, which I think can be the best way to travel. After this I was hooked. I would work as much as I can throughout university, sometimes two jobs, so I could spend whatever I had left after food and rent, on trips to new places around the world. As a medical student you get minimal summer holidays as compared to other degrees, but I would try cram every hour adventuring somewhere different. Lots of Asia, South America, Africa, India, Iceland, many European city breaks. All of these I think helped shape me into the person I am today.  I remember the morning after graduating my partner and I left for a 4 week budget overland trip in Rajasthan in India, arriving back 2 days before our first hospital jobs.

This same mentality transferred over to my running. One of the primary motivations for running and participating in events was to explore new trails and mountains around Aotearoa. More recently this has been to events around the World. There are so many incredible experiences you can have in life. I think many of the best of these can be found on the running and hiking trails.

So that is my M.O for the next 8 weeks; Go find some of the best and most exciting races in Europe. Pack it all in. Savour the time. And reflect and write something about it here. Come along for the journey if you are interested.  

(You can also follow me on Instagram for shorter form content: @davidzebedee)