Two-Part Blog Post and Podcast About Creating DIY Races Published & Much More

Moinsen, everyone! 👋

The year is coming to a close and one of the big tasks on my list to finish before the end of it was to publish a blog post (and podcast episode) about the two races I’ve been a team member of during this year. The Munich Breweries Ultra and BremenSanktPauli 100. 

Both took place just a week apart from each other on May 31st and June 7th, respectively, and still it’s taken me this long to get the writing done! Not usually my style. But, here they finally are. After completing a rough draft of them my friends who proof-read it suggested to split them into a two-parter. It made sense, so that’s what I did. Double blog post day!

If you’d like to dive in straight away, please do. Here are the big links, but underneath them I’ll share some more news with you, so stay here if you’d like that.

🍺 Greetings from My Off-Season!

I’ve had a few real beers over the past couple weeks, because for me it’s currently the season break. There are no races coming up which are very important to me until beginning of March. My last race of this year has been Röntgenlauf, a 63k ultra trail at the end of October. It’s been muddy fun, and afterwards I was happy to have a four month break from race events. It will get my motivation to really step on the pedals up again. 

So I had a few beers, signed up for Parkrun and did my first fun run there, tinkered on my Zwift bike, and collected streets for my EverySingleStreet Hamburg project (currently at 37% of all of Hamburg). Lots of group runs with friends as well. 

This didn’t mean I left out the intensity, though. Especially on the Zwift bike, I didn’t take any prisoners, trying to build a base for the next year already. Over the past handful of weeks I averaged around 250 kilometers per week on it, collecting lots of “Route Completed” badges. A focussed VO2max week with five sessions added to that. And my past running week ended at 113 kilometers, also not nothing and frankly above my average. So it’s not really off-season, just off-racing-season, I guess. It feels great, whatever its name is. 

🗓️ The 2026 Calendar is Shaping Up

At the end of each year I like to think about what things I did during the past twelve months, how happy they made me, and what I should therefore try to do next year. Many of the plans have already been set in stone and I’m really looking forward to lots of new highlights in 2026. All of it will be discussed in my next blog post which I’ll probably publish right around the turn of the year.

The first few trips are already looking like those of a Hollywood star: January London, February Tokyo, March Barcelona. Nothing to complain about 😄.

How, what, why – next time.

📚 The Bookshelf Additions of Recently

Going over the past few newsletters I noticed how I haven’t put the books I’ve read in them since April. But there were several interesting ones among those that came afterwards! So I’ll list them here for you to select and maybe go over the summary/review I’ve written for each of them. If there’s some inspiration for you, it would make me really happy. Because that’s the point!

Mistborn, Book One: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

It has been on my list for a long time because it’s such a huge cultural phenomenon. It was a good book, no question, but I didn’t feel the urge to continue reading the series right away. See for yourself.

Mama, bitte lern Deutsch by Tahsim Durgun

A German-language book about growing up as an immigrant in our country. Eye-opening and couldn’t have been more zeitgeisty. Also, funny! Recommended reading if you understand German.

You are Not So Smart by David McRaney

We’re all victims of our brains’ stupidness, even the smartest of us. This book shows us the many different scientifically proven ways and how we can hopefully make sure not to do so many stupid things anymore.

UAE – Culture Smart! by John Walsh

So many prejudices exist about the United Arab Emirates. Are they sensible? Where do they come from, and what’s the reality behind it all? I wanted to find out and this book is a good start.

My Inventions by Nikola Tesla

One of the greatest inventors of our time. He has written an autobiography and I found out about that by visiting his home city of Belgrade. The book is confusing, but entertaining. I feel the need to deepen the knowledge about him some more, later on.

Play by Johann Scheerer

Another German book. It’s an auto-fiction book about life as a freelancing music producer who has to care for his four children at the same time. I could relate a lot, being myself a dad of four. It was funny and intelligently written, but also heavy at times. It’s not an easy phase in life.

Mal gucken by Josefine Gauck

German as well. The author is the ex-wife of a close friend and she has written about traveling the world with the three kids that have together right before breaking up. I knew the story from my friend, of course, but reading the published version of hers was interesting to me, too.

Dubai by Jim Krane

The UAE and how they work is intriguing to me. It’s just so different from every other place on Earth. And Dubai as the protagonist of the country surely adds another spicy twist to it. This book goes all in and leaves no questions open, except maybe what happened in the years after 2009, when it was published.

A long list of additions! There’s another book finished on my virtual shelf, but no thoughts published yet. And I’m at 80% of yet another one. Both books deal with the possibility of impending doom for humanity (Nuclear War and AI, respectively). 

Yeah, I know, that sounds depressing, but it’s actually the contrary. Understanding how close we are to extinction and how rapidly and stupidly we’re moving towards it made me realize how that’s even more of a reason to enjoy life and make the most of it right now. We don’t have it under control at all what happens to humankind.

No one can know how long we have left on this Earth, and unfortunately it might not be much longer. But once it’s over for everyone, why would we care?

So let’s be kind to each other and do awesome things that make us happy until then. 

I’ll see you next time with some big plans for 2026! Let’s go! 
All the best to you,
– Teesche