2024 and other funny figures

This year marked a timid but very welcome return to running, and some magnificent adventures on two wheels, once again… the winning mix

In 2024, I covered 8,804km with the strength of my legs… but after a year of no running in 2023, and a cautious return to running to spare my discomfort, I covered most of those km sitting still… on my bikes (MTB and Gravel).

Standing in my running shoes

In 2024 I ran ‘only’ 1,032 kilometres, just to convince my meniscus that it wasn’t as bad as all that, that we’d stay flat, and that it would hold out without surgery. So a far cry from my last few years in terms of kilometres (record year 2021, that was crazy). But for 2024 that still equates to :

• 2,580 stadium laps, 
• 24.5 marathons
• 86 km per month only, due to a very, very timid start to the year, and fears about the reaction of the meniscus
• 93 runs
• 11km per run on average (I wouldn’t have thought so)
• 89 hours and 15 minutes, which makes 3 days and nights, 17 hours, and 28 minutes in running shoes.
• Average speed 5'11/km – 11.57km/h, which I’m pretty happy with given the start of the year
• Insignificant positive elevation gain, as I promised my knee I’d stay flat
• Longest run: 21.3km, i.e. a half-marathon, off, which I finished sobbing at the pleasure of being able to go the distance again (and at a respectable pace of 5'15/km).  

Sitting on my bikes

On the bikes, it’s fun too.

• 7,772km seated on a bike, that’s more than 447 hours (18 days and 15 hours and 7 minutes day and night, without even having a pain in the arse).
• 16 climbs to the summit of Mount Everest (142,205m D+). 
• 3,360km on my mountain bike, with which I’ve climbed Everest almost 9 times (77,174m of D+), including on short bikepacking adventures. 
• 4,411km on my gravel bike (just over 7 Everests, 65,031m D+), with which I’ve reached the sea in the spring, cycled around large lakes, and reached a 2nd neighbouring capital (of the 5: Vaduz. In 2023, it was Bern-Berlin and it was really cool.
• 172 bike rides with an average of 45.8km and +827m per ride. Despite 2 bikes: I think I’m now ‘officially’ a mountain biker… as if being addicted to running wasn’t enough of a problem…

Sweating out metres of bananas

In short, a total of 265 activities (running or biking) in 365 days… that’s not bad at all. And that’s more than three weeks, day and night, non-stop, sweating…

This burnt a few calories: 375'220, whether running or cycling (approximately, and according to Garmin, a calculation I don’t trust at all but which makes me laugh), which represents : 

• 750.5 chocolate bars (500cal/100g), or around 75.5 kg (2 bars/day), or
• 938 litres of beer (40cal per dl), i.e. 1,876 cans (16.8cm) of lager (I promise I didn’t drink that much, well… I think), i.e. a stack over 315m high, i.e. an Eiffel Tower, or  
• 3,573.5 bananas (105 cal/banana 18cm), which is more than 10 bananas a day, and a total of 643.2m banana length
• 469 pizzas, or 
• 402kg of pasta, or just over 2,345 plates of spaghetti and tomato, without cheese (160cal per plate of 200g of cooked pasta) and therefore 6.42 plates of pasta per day…

Report these distances on maps

But that would be the equivalent, for example, of having run these routes, from and to places where there are urbirun tours :

• From Bern to Budapest
  
• or from Barcelona to Florence
  
• or from Geneva to Berlin
  
• or from Rome to Vienna
  
• or from Washington to Chicago
  

And for example equaling MTB distances, it would be :

• From Séville in southern Spain to Krakow (Poland)
  

Or with the total ridden on the 2 bikes, some amazing bike trips, like :

• From Atlantic ocean beaches in Miami to the Pacifice ocean shores in Los Angeles biking through Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco
  
• A big round-trip across Europe, from Vilnius Lituania, to Lisbon, and then back east to Krakow, through Barcelona, Milan and Budapest.
  

I’ve mainly run around my home town, on usual routes, during my lunch break… but I’ve also had the chance to put my running shoes down in new places, like the shores of Lake Constance, Interlaken, Elba Island and the Spanish coast. I’ve also been able to improve several urbirun tours that I’ve run with great pleasure in Bordeaux, Florence and Prague, for example…

A feast for the eyes and legs

Regarding urbirun tours, the TOP 5 for 2024 most used are as follows:

1. Rome
2. Florence
3. Edinburgh
4. Berlin
5. Valencia

You’ve also made the most of the more than 230 tourist running routes available in GPX format, which you can simply download onto your watch (learn how to do this). 

Among the new .gpx 2024 routes, you can now run & visit Bratislava, Riga, Antwerp, Tallinn, Ghent, Oslo or Nuremberg, for example… or enjoy sightrunning routes in all the most beautiful parks in the world (Central Park, Olympia Park, TIergaren, Villa Borghese, Hyde Park, and so on), so you don’t just run there at random, but discover the best of it. 

urbirun is also available in a bike version, with some really cool mountain bike routes…

Some cool little bikepacking adventures

Bored with the interminable winter on my bikes, I had the crazy idea of going for a beer by the sea at the end of March. On paper, it was supposed to be pretty cool: cross the snow-covered Alps by train, then 3 and a half days of gravel riding to reach Genoa, Italy, without too much of a climb… I spent 3 days in an icy downpour, punctured once, and drank my beer in a small bar that was very nice but well sheltered from the elements and the waves crashing into the little bay of Boccadasse in Genoa. In short, not such a good idea, but I’ve learnt that after a while no clothing is waterproof, but skin is…

When it came to mountain biking, I treated myself to a few nice little trips with the van, in the Jura or the Haut-Valais, to discover new SuisseMobile MTB routes (I’m still planning to ridd them all), and I had the pleasure of crossing several iconic passes like the Grimsel, the Furka, the Grosse Scheidegg, the Kleine Scheidegg and the Susten, all on my mountain bike.

At the end of August I covered part of the MTB Route 1, from Filisur in Graubünden to Interlaken, 5 days enjoying the high altitude, the little passes that really sting, the sometimes tricky descents and the sublime scenery… Discovering Switzerland on a mountain bike is truly magical, once again…

In gravel, I continued my little plan to link Bern to the 5 neighbouring capitals, but due to lack of time, I settled for Vaduz in Liechtenstein this year. That leaves to be done : Vienna and Rome (both around 1,000km) and Paris (around 600km).

I had a brief 2-day trip around Lake Maggiore, and my first 200km, slightly extending my annual (for 2 years, but I’m going to make it a classic) Tour of Lake Geneva…

Van & Bike for two

The Lover and I have done lots of van&bike trips and it’s always great. We love our Bubusse, and it took us to Bavaria, to discover Tübingen (magnificent), and lots of other charming little towns and their surroundings, and we spent a great day discovering Munich, its parks and its surroundings by bike (of course you can also visit Munich by running). 

We also explored north-west Spain, Tuscany and the Isle of Elba. In Tuscany I took part in the Grinduro race with a friend, which was an excellent experience (only a few sections of the 100km course are timed) but a difficult one. Nonetheless, I can’t hesitate to recommend this race, which bills itself as the ‘best party to race ration bike race’.

Another great discovery, very close to Switzerland, is the Ivrea region in Italy. If you’re not afraid of a bit of climbing, you can enjoy some fantastic, never-ending single-trails, within everyone’s reach (our suggested itinerary). 

In Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland, Schwyz, western Graubünden and, of course, our beautiful Valais also offered us some magical moments. Switzerland is definitely a paradise for cycling, whether it’s gravel or mountain biking… 

Running, always

It’s been another great year for sport, without a race number, just for the pleasure of staying in shape, sweating it out, enjoying “the pain”, deserving the sublime scenery, discovering new places and being moved.

There’s always a time and a place to run, don’t forget… and to pedal (although that’s more complicated, you need a bike).

For 16 years now, my running shoeshave been bringing me pleasures and joys I’d never have imagined… and they’ve already taken me more than halfway around the world (23,113km).

So what I hope for myself, and what I hope for all of you in 2025, is to enjoy yourself, to let yourself be surprised, to dare, and to avoid injury…

To run, again and again, because

“Running is not something that we do, it’s part of what we are” (Michael d’Aulerio)

Happy New Year 2025 to all and each of you !!