In 1987, 20-year-old Christian Schiester weighed 15st 10lb and smoked 40 cigarettes a day. But the Austrian turned his back on that life and within two years had completed the New York Marathon in 3hrs 3min, before going on to win a series of half-marathon titles. In 2003, he finished 12th in the six-day Marathon des Sables race in the Sahara desert, and followed that up with victories in the five-day Himalayan Run and the Antarctica Ultra. Now 46, he is currently training for a 745km race from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole.
How did you come to ditch your unhealthy lifestyle and start running? I found that living in a small village, the people I knew had no goals. The easiest way was to sit and drink a lot of alcohol. I was drinking and smoking every day and I ended up very overweight and unhealthy. Our family doctor told me I would be dead in a few years if I didn’t stop living like that.
How did you make the change? I started really slowly – running and then walking for a few minutes. But since then I have run every day.
Do you think anybody can turn themselves into a runner? Yes, for sure. My secret is my [running/exercise] diary. I write something in this every day – I run daily but I also go biking, swimming and many other things. I also don’t think it’s necessary to run a marathon, or compete against other people. The most important thing is to try to find your own goals.
What’s the best thing about running? Running is easy – you just take your shoes and run. You don’t need a machine, you just need good running shoes for protection – and you can keep running. Wherever you live on this planet, you can run.
In road marathons there are so many people – everybody tries to be fast, always looking at their watches … But when you run on trails, it’s not necessary to run really fast. Forget the watch, forget the speed, forget everything. If you run in nature you fill your mind with nice pictures.
You say you need running shoes for protection. What do you think of barefoot running? For the kind of running I do in the desert or the mountains, you need specialist shoes.
What’s your favourite place to run? There are so many places – the mountains, the desert … but for me one of the greatest places is in the jungle. [Christian ran the 200km Jungle Marathon in Brazil in 2006]. It’s beautiful, but there’s a little bit of danger … you have to be careful.
What’s your favourite post-run indulgence? A cold beer. If you run in the desert it’s very hot, as you can imagine. The race organisers only give you water, and have to carry all your food for the race in a backpack – so, after five or six days of running, you’re really happy to get a cold drink at the finish line. After the race you can drink three, four, maybe five beers – then you can fly to the hotel. You feel no pain.
When you decided to start running and get healthy, you didn’t cut out bad food and alcohol completely then? No. You have to find your own way. It’s not necessary to forget alcohol and all the other stuff. Your body wants things, it asks you and you have to listen and give it what it wants.
But I don’t take chemicals. I try to eat everything fresh – lots of vegetables and fruit. I don’t use electrolyte tablets or energy drinks. I only take salt with me.
If you don’t eat gels or energy bars, what do you eat on a long stage race? When I ran the Sahara Race in Egypt I was with Bedouin for 11 days. I tried to learn from what they eat and drink in the desert – oil, nuts, corn and dates.
On a stage race, I carry a bottle of olive oil into which I’ve mixed nuts, corn and dates. Apart from that I only take hot water. After a week it’s not very tasty, but it contains a lot of calories. Then you’re really happy to get a cold beer and a pizza at the finish line.
What’s the furthest you’ve run in one day? It was the 100km I ran in Antarctica. I prefer to run stage races. You have to do only three things – run, eat and sleep – and that’s a really special feeling.
Do you have a favourite running gadget? My GPS, without doubt. I use it every day – not to see my pace – the most important is just to run. But when you come back from training you can see all the things you’ve done, and check your miles and heart rate and so on. And I never run without a backpack – for safety and to carry a drink, some nuts …
And a final question. Who is your favourite runner of all time? Haile Gebrselassie. I met him a few weeks ago at the Vienna City half marathon [Gebrselassie won the race in 1:01:14]. He’s not only a great runner, he’s a great man. You know, it’s not only the pace, it’s the personality.
Christian Schiester is an ambassador for sports performance brand ASICS. He stars in the new Journey of Improvement video which can be viewed here
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