2023-11-06 20:39:40
Sports Jonas Deichmann
After crossing the United States twice, there was a special victory lap
Status: 06.11.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
There it is done: Jonas Deichmann in front of the New York skyline – the start and finish of his adventure
Source: dpa/Benno Schwinghammer
For Jonas Deichmann it can’t be challenging enough. He is an adventure hunter. Now he has finished another one – first on the bike, then in running shoes. A total of more than 10,000 kilometers.
You can spend a few hours on a plane or a few days in a car to get from one end of the US to the other. Or you’re an extreme athlete and don’t need a motor, but you do need four months. Jonas Deichmann from Munich cycled from New York to Los Angeles at the beginning of July – and then walked back. The 36-year-old got to know the United States in a way that very few people before him did. And he now understands the country better, he says.
Physically, the well over 10,000 kilometers were not a big problem, Deichmann told the German Press Agency after his arrival in New York at the weekend. The 36-year-old has experience with extreme sports: He has already completed several extreme adventures such as a triathlon around the world and long cycling challenges. Now he has just run the last few kilometers through Manhattan, through Central Park, across Times Square and still has a special lap of honor ahead of him: the New York Marathon.
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His beard is long, his hair is disheveled under his red cap, his face is weather-beaten. In fact, he’s very reminiscent of the main character of his favorite film, Forrest Gump, who has a similar run in the Oscar-winning masterpiece. And like Gump, Deichmann ran through the spectacular Monument Valley in Arizona, through the incomparable landscape of Utah, jumped into the Pacific on Santa Monica Beach and sweated in 50 degree temperatures in the Mojave Desert in California. What became clear to Deichmann during his weeks alone on the street, he says, was the vastness and great differences in the United States.
He now understands better why the superpower is so divided exactly one year before what was seen as a fateful presidential election. Deichmann ran through rich areas where “everything works” – and through “extremely left-behind” regions whose residents are deeply frustrated. “It is the land of opportunity, but not for everyone.”
Mental Challenge: Loneliness in the Midwest
Deichmann’s preferred means of transport is actually the bicycle, with which he made it into the Guinness Book of Records in recent years: in 64 days he rode 16,000 kilometers from Portugal to Vladivostok in Russia. This was followed by tours from Alaska to Patagonia and from the North Cape in Norway to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
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With the “Triathlon around the world” – from September 2020 to November 2021 he cycled, swam and ran for more than 400 days – Deichmann received international attention. In contrast, Deichmann’s adventure in the USA seemed almost relaxed, with around 200 kilometers on the bike or over 50 kilometers on foot every day.
But the more than 2,000 kilometer long running route through corn fields in the Midwest that always looked the same was mentally demanding, he says. “The main thing is to distract yourself.” He then listens to podcasts, music and audio books. “Sometimes, when it’s really, really monotonous all day, I call someone.”
US tour with a difference: Jonas Deichmann with his bike in front of the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills in the USA
Source: Markus Weinberg/Jonas Deichmann/dpa
Deichmann usually didn’t have a team at his side on his tour, but instead transported his minimalist luggage, which weighed only a few kilograms, on a bicycle or in a cart that he pulled behind him while jogging. For the last distance in the USA, he ran the famous New York Marathon on Sunday along with thousands of other people. Now he’s heading back to Europe, where Deichmann is particularly looking forward to his favorite dish: cheese spaetzle.
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Afterwards, new adventures await. The extreme athlete says he will start his next project in May. What it is won’t be revealed for now. Just this much: It will be “a little harder” than the USA tour. “No one has done that before.”
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