Marathon couple Horst and Mareike from Frankfurt: Wedding break for love runners Regional
Frankfurt – They want to walk 12,000 kilometers across Africa, celebrating their dream wedding in between. This must be love…
“When you run through the desert together, you finally know whether you’re a good match,” says Horst Schauer (67), trainer, gallery owner, globetrotter and president of the Höchst swimming club.
BILD had previously reported on the crazy “Cap to Kap” tour by Schauer and journalist and triathlete Mareike Röwekamp (40). From the northern tip of Africa to the southern tip. Stage 1 through Tunisia is done. A good 20 marathons in the heat of the transmitter. “Although Corona laid us flat at the beginning and we struggled with it for a long time.”
They increase their daily goal from 50 to 30 kilometers “runner”, but still run six days a week. Usually accompanied by a local guide plus car.
Highlight: The run at Chott el Djerid, the largest salt lake in the Sahara. Mareike: “For two days you only see a white salt flat and the horizon.” The few cars that drive by honk their horns. Every now and then someone gets out and gives fruit. Or invite her. Like a camel breeder in the middle of the desert.
They interrupt the tour for their wedding and get married in Paris on December 3 – with a view over the city of love. “After the first 800 kilometers or so, we took the ferry back to Europe. We wanted friends and family to be able to celebrate with us.”
Now the big adventure begins. Mareike: “We start this week in Alexandria in Egypt, want to go up the Nile, through the Sahel zone, Sudan, then into the tropical rainforests of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.” Restriction: “If it’s too dangerous somewhere, we have to reschedule.”
In the summer we go home to the Main. For a breather and a job. Then back.
They invest 150,000 euros out of their own pockets, the rest is to come from sponsors. Thanks to blog, podcasts, travel reports.