The running culture is simply amazing. Years ago I felt like I was one of the only girls at my age who enjoy running – now I know there are so many girls out there who run and I love connecting to them! Beside all the amazing run crews (Hello to Run Fleet Hamburg & NBRO Running!) out there, for me, the most important part of the running culture is the movement “Voltwomen”. Nothing gives me more physical and mental power than all these badass women out there. Really amazing and truly inspiring every single day. 

I don’t measure achievements on races and new PRs I run. I mostly measure it on the everyday level. When I look back, I remember how hard it was to run 21km years ago – now I believe that you can always run a half marathon because “21km aren’t that far”. I love to see when my body is able to do things it wasn’t able to do some time ago. I love challenges. 

But – of course – it’s also really nice to have goals and to be able to achieve them. I mean, that’s also what we’re all training for, right?

Social media is the craziest shit out there. I met so many incredible people via social media, it’s simply amazing. Last year I was invited to run Hood2Coast in Portland with an amazing team of even more amazing young ladies from all over the world, the Voltwomen. Because we were connected on Instagram. Seriously, THAT IS CRAZY. 

Also, social media is the biggest motivation for myself – whenever I feel lazy and don’t want to go outside, I check my Instagram and see the posts of all the amazing people out there, so that I just NEED to run. BUT I also think that during those days when you feel out of shape or you suffer from an injury, social media is the worst thing on the world – it can make you feel even worse. 

Pink? Not my colour at all. I never liked it and I will probably never really like it. However, I just got some running shoes (the New Balance Fresh Foam Zante) and they are pink – I was so sad that the really amazing green colour is only for men. (I still don’t get this shit.)

Sometimes I feel like there’s not a single day when nothing hurts. It’s like on every day I wake up and somewhere in my body there’s always a muscle that is sore. As a runner you know pain very well, during training, during a race, during rest days. But I always think that sore muscles are a sign for the hard work I put into my body – you are either sore or sorry. 

Also, one of my favorite quotes is “Pain is temporary, pride is forever” (this is not for Blackrolls – on Blackrolls pain is forever). 

The question is not “Why should women run” – the question is “WHY NOT”. We live in the 21st century, women are allowed to vote and hey, we slowly start accepting homosexuality (wow). Women are strong, women are badass, and women are amazing. I once read an article in which they wrote that it’s easier for women to push really hard, to go to the absolute limit – because women are made to go through much more pain than men (I mean, we have to give birth to children, that’s hard enough, isn’t it?). Also, my favorite thing ever is an article of the Runner’s World about who will ever run a sub 2 marathon and they write that who ever will be this person, “he’ll have Paula Radcliffe’s efficiency (and vertical leap)”. There you go.

It hopefully didn’t happen during a flight (my biggest fear) – and I hopefully already achieved everything I wanted for my life. But dying sucks anyway.