Tuscany Crossing 103K Ultra Race Report is Public

Moinsen, everyone! 👋

The big race is over three weeks in the past and the blog post and corresponding podcast episode are fresh out the oven. I think it turned out quite well – I tried a new approach this time, thinking about the visitors who arrive via web search a little bit more. But this doesn’t mean that you faithful newsletter subscribers won’t get what you expect.

So yeah, it’s been a huge highlight race for me down there in Italy. You really can’t go wrong with spending time in Tuscany, I realized. Such a beautiful place. And the food! Both make for a solid foundation to do some ultra running. But see for yourself:

🦶 Recovering From Tuscany

The little mishap that occurred during the race is that I messed up my left big toe by stubbing it hard on a fixed rock. The throbbing pain gave me a hard time for many days after and it took around two weeks to be finally okay. Good timing, because that day I ran the Hamburg Marathon. It went well and I finished in 3:09 hours with just a tiny bit of blood coming out of the toe. 

It feels great to have accomplished my big goals of running a marathon PR and finishing a Western States 100 qualifier race this early into the year.

🤦‍♂️ The Boston Mistake

You might remember that my primary goal with running a new marathon best was to again qualify for the Boston Marathon. I set that in October 2024 and did all I could to achieve it. The flu took me down but I bounced back and did a great Barcelona Marathon in 2:55:47 hours, which would quite certainly get me into Boston 2026. 

But when I was optimistically booking hotels, I realized a big mistake I made. I hadn’t looked for the exact date of the Boston Marathon in 2026! And that year, it happens to fall exactly on my third daughter’s 10th birthday! No way I’m going to miss that. My wife Sophie and I thought it through and went over ideas such as taking the whole family to Boston, but sanity prevailed. No Boston Marathon 2026 for me. The next time I can do it without missing my daughter’s birthday will be 2028, so that’s the new goal!

😎 Fun Stuff Coming Up

Now, summer is here and with it, lots of opportunities to do some running without big goals attached to it. A prime example, the great 5th Munich Breweries Ultra! It will take place on May 31st, 5:30 am on Munich’s Marienplatz, and we will again run 80 kilometers through the city, visiting all 7 big breweries and having a beer each. So far, there are over 50 people who have signed up – it will be hugely fun! Consider joining in if that sounds good to you. 🍻

A week later on June 7th, a few friends and I will again host the “BremenSanktPauli” ultra marathon race, offering a 100-mile, 100-kilometer, and 50-kilometer option this time. There have been over 80 signups as of yet and that makes us very happy. Preparations for it are buzzing and excitement is building up. A few more slots for runners are left!

📚 Bookshelf Addition: Everything Is Tuberculosis

The author John Green might be known to you, but for different reasons. His newest book is a departure from what he’s done so far, but it’s no less great. His writing is so good and his enthusiasm for spreading the information on this topic really makes you care. Tuberculosis still is the world’s deadliest disease, killing over 1.2 million people each year. And that happens despite the existence of the cure! 

🚧 What I’m Working On Now

With all that going well and having spent many weeks of spring taking my side project speechbox.chat to the next level, the summer makes me want to spend more time outdoors. An upcoming physical project will be to deconstruct and get rid of my rotting tiny house in our garden.

I’m also starting with some speed training again to maybe improve my half marathon best to below 1:20 hours in late June. Some triathlons are coming up, too, so swimming and cycling will be on the table as well.

My next blog post will quite possibly deal with my new fascination with running “EverySingleStreet” in Hamburg – I’m currently moving through the ranks there, on my way to the Top10.

Two more writing projects are my “Beginner’s Guide to Running Your First Marathon” book which is currently being proofread by a handful of helpful friends of mine, as well as making a concise training plan for people trying to break the three hour marathon barrier, because my blog post dealing with how I did it is my most popular one every single week since its publication over a year ago. I can help those visitors some more, I think.

Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions, ideas, thoughts, or whatever. It’s always so nice to get into conversations with you subscribers over topics we care about.

All the best to you and have a great day!
– Teesche