What was I thinking, run till you Love it - Jakob Herrmann. EP-017

Running Strong Mind-Body Connection

• Born (1971) and grew up in Switzerland
• Moved to the US in 1998 to get my computer science degree (Santa Monica College) and planned to go back home afterwards
• Met my wife in the first semester, got married in 1999 and now have 4 daughters (7, 16, 21, 23)
• Worked for companies like Sony and Disney as a web developer
• Became self-employed in July 2016 working on my social media website which now has over 3 million members
• Started running in 2005 (did not do any sports whatsoever for 20 years) after gaining a lot of weight almost topping 200 pounds on the scale
• Ran my first full marathon 2 months after starting running
• Ran my first ultra (JFK50) the same year
• Ran my first 100-miler (Rio del Lago) the next year (2006)
• Now I've done 244 races including one 144 miler, 25 100-milers, 4 100Ks, 18 50-milers, 61 50Ks, and 84 full marathons.
• Started helping out ultra marathon races by designing/coding the race website for free (I've helped 11 ultra running events like SD100)
• I've been involved in AC100 for 10 years and am a 49% shareholder and will get the other 51% once the RD retires
• Had the idea to put on a race in Switzerland in 2015 but most people discouraged me claiming it's not sustainable
• Kept going and had the inaugural race in 2017 with 50 runners in the 80KM course (also offered a half marathon distance that year)
• Had 1,021 registrations from 53 countries this year
• Opened the 2025 registration October 1st (9 days ago) and already has 135 registrations from 19 countries
• It took 43 days in 2023 to reach 135 registrations, hence I believe we will sell out the event next year (max. 1,500 runners)
• Most memorable event was last year when Kevin Schmidt ran the 160K and his wife, Courtney Dauwalter, paced him the last 53 miles