Trotzendorff

When Failure Gets a Standing Ovation (And Why Knowing When to Quit Might Save You)

The room in that unas­sum­ing, almost ugly office build­ing smelled like spilled beer and sweat. Con­crete walls, neon lights, cables run­ning along the ceil­ing, a cheap PA sys­tem hum­ming some­where in the cor­ner. Peo­ple leaned against each oth­er on fold­ing chairs, scrolling through their phones, wait­ing for the next per­son who would walk on stage and say the one thing we are all trained...

You Want to Start Running? 10+1 Very Personal Tips for Beginners

A while ago, a friend of mine told me she want­ed to start run­ning – and asked if I had any tips. That got me think­ing: wait, didn’t I write some­thing about that ages ago? And yes, I did. Ten years ago, to be exact. Back then, I had just gone through the ups and downs of learn­ing how to run – the excite­ment, the...

The Pace of Presence

In Octo­ber last year, when my Achilles ten­don had final­ly made its opin­ion known, I found myself in a park in Cologne. I was­n’t run­ning. I was jog­ging, slow­ly, with my eyes cov­ered and one hand light­ly rest­ing on the arm of some­one guid­ing me. We were part of a work­shop for sight­ed run­ning guides—learn­ing how to help blind and visu­al­ly impaired run­ners move...