Faster than planned: Ultrarunner Hubert Karl crosses the United States

Ultrarunner Hubert Karl from Zell am Main in the Heasberg region achieved his goal. On March 27, he began a 4,000-kilometre run from Chicago along Route 66 to Los Angeles. He has now arrived, six days earlier than originally planned. Carl successfully completed his ultra running project 66/66/66. At the age of 66, he wanted to run the historic Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles in 66 days.

The super runner reaches the goal earlier than planned

“Now I've actually missed my target,” he joked, when it was actually expected, in a phone conversation with BR24. “I'm glad I was able to do this, because I was able to implement my weird idea in such a positive way.” Hubert Karl has become a social media star on his way to running. More than 80,000 people now follow him on Instagram. Before he started running, he had 900 followers. “I think it's really good to be a role model so you can age well,” he told BR24 shortly before his goal.

Now, 60 days later, he is looking forward to a “normal breakfast” with coffee, bread and chocolate again. While running, he only ate porridge in the morning. He initially planned to run about 60 kilometers a day. But for, among other things, crossing the Mojave Desert, he was “doing well” during the first 2,000 kilometers of running. He covered a distance of 84 kilometers in one day. At the start of his Super Tour, he had groin issues for four days. He only walked one stage.

The police stopped him

In Arizona, he had to turn to secondary roads because running on highways is not allowed there. The police even stopped Carl. His running route extended from Chicago, Illinois, through the US states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Los Angeles, California. He ran over 2000 meters on mountain passes and through the desert. He was accompanied by his wife, Christine, and his brother, Edgar, in a mobile home.

Hubert Karl is already a record-breaking ultrarunner: in mid-October last year, he completed the 246-kilometre Spartathlon in Greece from Athens to Sparta for the 25th time. More often than anyone before him. Before running in the USA, he had run about 193,000 kilometers in his life. This is more than four and a half times the circumference of the Earth. He has completed more than 130 ultramarathons to date. The longest was the “Peace Race” from Hiroshima to Nagasaki in Japan, at 457 kilometres. Hubert Karl completed it 27 years ago in 85 hours. He lost eight kilograms of his body weight.