What It Takes to Host a DIY Ultra Running Race – Part 1: Munich Breweries Ultra

I’m part of the core team that created those two events and have written about both of them before, but the reason I’m publishing this post is that in 2025 we have successfully lifted up both races to the next level and the arising challenges have become different and more interesting.

My goal here is to provide others who are thinking about putting together something similar with some tips and tricks, to share our learnings, and also hand out some plain encouragement for people to pull through to get it done. Because I think the hobby of running is something worth promoting for the benefit of all, and the positives of helping people achieve such a big goal as running a long ultra marathon race do outweigh the stress and workload for the team which puts it together. Even if it’s not-for-profit, as in these two cases.

🌱 How It Starts

New ideas often are met with initial resistance, especially so if their scopes expand beyond what’s imaginable for most. In many cases it’s also not easy to explain the reasoning behind the inception. People have struggled to rationalize them before, sometimes falling back to seemingly superficial answers such as “because it’s there” when asked why mounting the tallest mountain on Earth for the first time, or “weil ich es kann” after being questioned about what the point would be of doing 120 long distance triathlons in a row.

I’m not putting those historical feats on the same level as our two ultra marathons here. This is just to illustrate how weirdly our brains sometimes work – both in regards to coming up with new ideas but also in not being able to comprehend other persons’ motivations and enjoyments in life.

Often, it just can’t be explained. This shouldn’t be confused with it being weird or insane.

Just to outline the two events I’m writing about here:

1. The Munich Breweries Ultra is an 80 kilometer (50 mile) guided group run through the city of Munich, visiting all seven (soon eight) official breweries of Munich Beer while having one Hoibe each along the way. A Hoibe is half a liter of beer, about 16 fl oz.
2. BremenSanktPauli 100 is a proper race that leads from the Weserstadion in the city of Bremen to FC St. Pauli’s Millerntor-Stadion in the city of Hamburg while covering 100 miles (160.9 kilometers).

In both cases, I did not come up with the initial idea, but I was the first one to embrace it.

The Munich Breweries Ultra is an idea of my friend Nicolas Palme, who spoke to me about it at some point in 2021. I thought that this unusual idea sounded great, so the two of us then did the initial test run that same summer during the pandemic, enjoying it heaps.

In the case of BremenSanktPauli, it was also a friend of mine who came up with it first. It’s Michael Mankus, and he mentioned it during an episode of Runner’s World Podcast, when he and I were both guests in order to speak about our then new running project 42_16. That was episode #82 of that podcast, published March 11th, 2022. We were promoting one project but already thinking about the next one, as always.

While I did not come up with those ideas, I was the first to jump aboard. A good idea is nothing without execution.

🔑 On the Importance of the First Follower

There’s a TED Talk by author Derek Sivers called “How to start a movement” from back in 2010. It’s just three minutes long and one of my favorite talks. The guy has published a bunch of books, too, which are all amazing.

In this particular talk, he shows a short crude quality video of a lone guy dancing on a meadow of what seems like being located just outside of an outdoors music festival. People around him are having a picnic and he’s just doing his thing dancing, enjoying himself with no regard to what the others might think of him.

He is then suddenly joined by a second person who thinks dancing is a good idea right now. His first follower. He embraces the guy, they high-five, and continue to dance. Now they are two. This kicks off a snowball effect. A third person joins, number 4 and 5 just after. And this continues until it pivots to more people dancing than picnicking.

Derek Sivers realized that this first follower was the most important thing to happen to turn the lone nut – that’s what he calls the first dancer – into the leader of a successful movement that brings joy to many people. Without someone who first embraces the new idea the lone nut would have stayed a lone nut.

This is a powerful message. In my professional past I have most often been the lone nut with the new idea trying to find and nurture a first follower myself. That’s how I learned how hard it can sometimes be to find one, just as I’ve also learned how great it is to finally having succeeded at that and get a new thing going.

It must have been partly that which made me jump when I was asked by Nico and Michael, respectively. I knew how much it would mean to them if someone – me – would just say ‘yes’ and join them on the journey to maybe even create a new movement but at the very least bring some joy to other people.

🍺 The Munich Breweries Ultra

My old friend from school, Nico, had been living in Munich for about ten years. Over the course of the time he developed quite the taste for beer. No surprise there. It’s probably the world’s most associated city with beer, thanks to Oktoberfest but mainly thanks to the long tradition and high quality of the products from the city.

During the pandemic, our friendship was rekindled by the social running app Strava. He took up the hobby which I had been into for about as many years as he had been into beer at that point. It wasn’t long until he suggested to combine the two hobbies and told me about the existence of the seven Munich Beer breweries. Breweries are only allowed to sell “Munich Beer” if they have their brewery building within the city’s limits and draw the fresh water from a well that’s also within the city.

The seven breweries are Augustiner, Hofbräu, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Giesinger.

The oldest of the seven is Augustiner-Bräu, founded in 1328. Nico researched the location of the seven breweries and planned a route which connected them all. It turned out to be just over 70 km (43 mi) long and covered many attractive points and sights in the city, too. Of course, he suggested we tried to drink one beer of each of the breweries while we ran the route.

I enjoy beer as much as the next guy, but I’m not into it like he is. But as I’m always open to amazing and slightly insane ideas, I went down to Munich and we had a truly awesome day running through the city drinking beers. A memory I’ll never forget.

It wasn’t long until people noticed what we’ve done and enthusiastically replied they would like to be informed of “next year’s edition” in order to join. Apparently, the idea struck a nerve.

We didn’t do any sort of marketing or promotion at all, but still, a year later, it wasn’t just Nico and me, but six people embarking on the journey. During the third year, we were around twenty, year four had about forty participants, and during the 2025 edition, which has been the fifth edition, we closed in on fifty total. That’s quite a crowd! It’s not possible to just take everyone to the gas station around the corner to replenish some water anymore. Suddenly, you need to think about logistics. Improve your tour guide chops. Prepare the beer stops. Recruit reliable volunteer helpers. Be on the phone coordinating it all while running.

It’s a completely different thing to just strolling through town with a buddy having a few drinks.

🙋 What It Took to Produce Fifty Happy Beer Runners

Firstly, you need to be aware that most breweries are just factories and you can’t just go there and order a beer to drink right away. During our first breweries run, Nico had just researched which nearby pubs and Biergartens sell the respective beers we needed to tick off because the breweries don’t sell them on location.

Easy with two people, impossible with fifty.

For the second edition, we already decided to deliver the beers in crates to the breweries which don’t sell them. This is one of the main challenges, because many of the buildings are in the outskirts, far away from the city center. We needed help. It turned out that this run (and all other races as well, for that matter) would never have been possible without a bunch of friendly and reliable volunteers to take care of key organizational aspects.

A type of crowd control became necessary. We needed to find out how many people were likely to show up in order to plan the amounts of beer. With an event that has the power to go viral – to a degree it did –, you don’t want to find yourself with a number of runners that’s impossible to guide and who might get angry if there’s no beer left at the stops.

For that reason, I set up a website with a small signup form so we at least had a list of people we could email with some details. An Instagram account was created, too, so people could stay in the loop as well. For practical reasons, Nico opened up a WhatsApp group and we added all the signups into it. During signup we asked all of them if they preferred standard or non-alcoholic beers. This all helped a lot in getting an overview of how much beer is necessary.

Next on the list is the planning of the route. Nico refined the route he and I used during the first run so it would include more of the sights of beautiful Munich and lead through more scenic parts instead of along big busy streets only. Castle Nymphenburg and Olympiapark became parts. It’s also necessary to check the new routes before the day of the run for possible blockages, such as construction sites. Munich local Guy Almog helped us do that. It’s a bit of a challenge that both Nico and I don’t live in Munich – he moved to Amsterdam a couple years back. Still, it’s all possible if you try hard and have a few good friends chipping in.

🏢 Getting the Breweries Involved

Over the years, Nico had reached out to all of the breweries, naturally. Although a relatively small event, we guessed that they might like to support it and use the story for their social channels or something similar. And some took the opportunity. I’d like to mention them here, because we’re very grateful for their support.

🍺 Hofbräu

These guys might be best known internationally. They are a huge company with restaurants all over the world – in places like Singapore, Las Vegas, Dubai, Shanghai, and I’ve even personally seen a Hofbräu Biergarten called “München” in Wellington, New Zealand. They were hard to reach, but Nico finally succeeded and this year we got one free crate of beer in exchange for some pictures of the run. 3/5 Stars

🍺 Paulaner / Hacker-Pschorr

Those two breweries belong to the same company these days, and both are located next to each other quite far off the city center. And on a Saturday, which is the day we traditionally do the run, nobody would be in those buildings working, except for probably a core team and the security folks. Still, Johannes Rieger of Paulaner showed up right on time as coordinated with us up front, pulling a cooling trailer full of free beer for us all and even handed out some goodies. Legend. 4/5 Stars

🍺 Giesinger

These guys are the latest addition to the exclusive Munich Beer club, having built their first factory in 2006. Compare that to the oldest one, Augustiner, who have done so in 1328, soon celebrating their 700th anniversary. Imagine 1328 – I think those were the days when everyone was wearing super tight pants, pointy shoes, and sported a bowl haircut. And drank Augustiner beer! But Giesinger, being a modern and quite frankly awesome company, have fully embraced our idea early on. This year, they topped their efforts. Not only free cold beer at their brewery for the fifty of us, but they even went out of their way and offered water, fresh bananas, and salty warm Brezn, the Bavarian style pretzels. Steffen Marx, who is a founder of the company, even came over to mingle and have a few beers and pictures with us. What a guy! 5/5 Stars

🍺 Honorable Mention: Münchner Kindl

These folks are about to become the eighth official brewery to produce Munich Beer, but their factory is still under construction and the product isn’t ready. In previous years, they have been wonderful in providing an aid station for us nonetheless. We even once got a mid-run brewery construction site tour from one of the CEOs! Food and drinks as well. This year, the construction site was in a status that didn’t allow for us to visit, but we still made the southern loop to at least run by it. 4/5 Stars

In the past we had a connection to the connected Löwenbräu & Spaten breweries, but the guy unfortunately switched employers. Leaving only the ancient Augustiner folks, who have still not shown up in support of the run. But I guess if you’re 700 years old you wait a while to see if a new thing is actually going to stick around and worth supporting. I hope one day they’ll be part of the fun as well.

🎥 Other Types of Preparation

We have thought about producing some goodies for all runners and probably will in the future, but so far it hasn’t come together.

And for some reason it has become a tradition that one of us (usually Nico and/or Guy) prepares wooden clothespins with each one’s name on it to pin to your running vest. The idea being that people will get to know each other more easily, although in practice those tiny names are tough to read when you’re running and someone is running next to you. Still a fun addition.

For edition #3 in 2023, Nico was able to get some friends involved who would film the whole run and make a nice video report about it, just for the heck of it. It turned out great and is a nice impression on where the run was at two years ago. Things have changed since then, but still.

During the last few weeks before the run Nico was quite busy coordinating with our volunteers. We needed to plan the timing windows during which all or at least most of us would arrive at the brewery stops, so that the volunteers and brewery folks could be ready for us. Syncing this with their busy schedules wasn’t easy and we definitely needed to replan a thing or two last minute. Nico took care of most of that. He sometimes asked my input and we came up with solutions together, and I was able to introduce two Munich friends of mine into the bunch, Till Fischer and Joachim Steven, who were both of huge help during the past two editions of the run.

🚗 The Day-Before Prep

With around half of the brewery beers taken care of, Nico and I had to drive around and coordinate to take care of the rest of them. This takes about a day and we have to be in Munich in person. First order of business is buying the remaining beers we wouldn’t receive from the breweries.

By the way, we paid for all of it by asking all participants for a donation of twenty euros. Nearly all of them were happy to send over the money and we even once had one guy who was so intrigued with the idea he decided to wire a hundred bucks. People are awesome.

Apart from the beers and some logistical costs, we used the remaining money to buy gift cards for our amazing volunteers afterwards.

It was a bit of a challenge to find the non-alcoholic versions of all the beers left to buy, but Nico did some research before which made it easier. Loading up all the crates into a rental car, we just needed to deliver them to the correct spots. The Spaten and Löwenbräu went to a friend who lives near the two breweries and has a basement cooler. Perfect fit. Augustiner needed to be delivered to a different friend living closer to the brewery. Both Spaten/Löwenbräu, which are located on the same block, and the Augustiner brewery beer stop would be serviced by the wonderful Till Fischer, MVP of the day.

Hofbräu is a challenge due to their remote brewery location, but we solved it by driving out there, buying lots of ice and a car windshield insulation sheet, and just hiding it in the bushes near the building overnight. Even on a hot summer weekend like this one was, the amount of ice in a handful of bags sufficed to keep the beers cold for the next roughly twelve hours.

🍻 Day of the Race, Munich Breweries Ultra 2025, May 31st

With all of it taken care of that we were able to take care of, this was a promising day. In one regard we failed, and that’s finding a medical professional to accompany us during the day, just in case. Of course everyone is responsible for themselves but not everyone is able to handle all the beers and running, and on a hot day like this a situation can become troublesome. In the past year we actually had a medical emergency, but that wasn’t related to the beer or weather, but rather a prior medical situation. It doesn’t matter what the cause is, you feel better if someone’s there to help just in case. We’d love to find that someone for the next edition. (Let us know!)

At 5:30am sharp the Marienplatz in central Munich was filling up with excited runners. Nico gave a little speech, welcoming everyone and going over what we could expect today.

We had sent out the GPX track file of the route to everyone, so that many people would be able to navigate and we wouldn’t be the only ones to guide the massive group. This worked out very well. Groups formed, people got to know each other, and before we knew it the first beer stop was reached at Hofbräu. The iced beer crates were still in the bushes where we hid them and everyone was thirsty enough.

While I stayed with the group the whole day, running the full 80k plus another 20k as a bonus per request of Nicole, a participant who wanted to go for her first 100k run, Nico wasn’t in the best physical situation, plagued by minor injury, wanting to take care of his body. He therefore ran parts of the route and got a citybike for the rest. He also took on the responsibility of making sure every single one of the runners got their beers, including those who came too late or had trouble finding a certain beer stop where they planned on joining. This was definitely going the extra mile – I didn’t think it was necessary, but it’s a nice effort from Nico. I think he also enjoyed all the extra beers which came with helping the late comers.

The big highlights today next to the wonderful people who joined us running the full course where the breweries who went above and beyond to make us happy today, as well as the volunteers who made sure the cold beers were in the correct location during the right time. A few phone calls made that possible – Nico took care of it.

When we arrived at the finish, which we had set at the Giesinger Bräustüberl because they were super nice and accommodating, everything was ready for us to celebrate the great day we had. Nico and I were happy and relieved everything worked out according to the plan. Just one guy had a bit of a circulation problem near the end, probably due to lack of electrolytes during the hot day, but he recovered well. As far as I could see, all runners were happy at the end of the day.

The one thing left to do afterwards was buying and sending out the gift cards for all the volunteers and people helping at the breweries.

My own conclusion after this year’s edition was to definitely keep this going as long as we can. The effort it requires is not crazy high, but it depends a lot on the people on Munich soil we can get to commit to helping on the day.

I think we could handle a few more than fifty people, but when the number crosses over into a hundred, we would need to rethink some aspects.

If this sounds fun to you, consider putting your email into the field at munichbreweriesultra.beer ❤️

Next up, a completely different event and how we made that one happen.

Continue on to reading Part 2: BremenSanktPauli 100