Denys Inhul

i have no business running 60km

date: Jun 17 2026

so I went for a lil afternoon run. I’ve been wanting to do this for the last 2 weeks, I imagined I would wake up at 6am, eat a good breakfast, start the run, enjoy the morning wind, stop at REI for electrolytes and fancy snacks, get some coffee around 10am, be healthy and all. nah, I consistently was failing to wake up before 10am, or it was too hot, or I was hanging out with friends. so at 2pm on a random monday I decided enough is enough, I am running regardless of what happens, and with a heavy stomach full of burrito, tea and cookies I stepped outside.

this is the 2nd time I tried to run around manhattan, last year I ran 50km but due to bad planning, pace, shoes and lack of will at 1am I stopped 7km short. also my phone died, and if it’s not on strava, is it even real.

in general, I am not a runner at all, I don’t like running and have to force myself every single time. which amounts to not running for 8 months, and then doing 5k every 3 days for like a week or two. which makes a 60km even more fun.

I’ve never run a marathon (outside of these ultras), but a couple years ago I started doing hard things that I should not be doing every once in a while. the main reason was to just prove to myself that I can, without training, without prep, just go and do it, push to the limit.

biking in NY

the first time was in summer 2023. I don’t remember why I decided to, but I went to central park, rented a simple bike for 24hrs, took amtrak outside of nyc, and started biking on the empire state trail. the goal was to ride as far as I could. for context, I haven’t biked or trained for 8yrs before that. I lasted around 55km. by the end my ass was in excruciating pain, my legs were having strokes and cramping worse than I’ve ever experienced. it really got spooky when after a couple minutes of pain I realized I could not move my leg at all, sitting in the middle of nowhere, as it was getting dark. it fixed itself at some point and I did manage to get to a station 5min before the last train going to nyc. nothing motivates you like the possibility of being stranded.

from that moment on I decided that this was fun.

biking in singapore

november that year I was in singapore and decided I could do a 130km ride around the whole of the island without training either. I mean how hard can it be. 30km/hr -> ~5hrs of biking. easy. I got a couple friends with me, and we hit the road.

turns out at 30kph pace I could last 10min max. well, I could do 20kph, and I needed to stop a bunch for food, and for rest, but we had the whole 16hrs of the day in front of us. well, 16hrs of night. see, singapore is hot and humid af, so we figured it would be a good idea to start around 6pm and ride through the night, and finish around 3am. we started at 8pm. and by 1am we were only halfway there. but, the morale was good and red bulls were working.

unfortunately, this was my 2nd bike ride in almost a decade. I didn’t know how to ride with one hand. which usually should not be an issue. but for me, going down at 25kph and accelerating, filming myself with one hand, and then hitting a pebble, for me that was an issue. I lost control, did a front flip with the bike, and then dragged my pretty face and body across the asphalt. the nearest ER was ~7km away, so we biked there, on my bent bike. it wasn’t anything super serious but I was worried that I needed stitches, turns out I didn’t though. I will say, singaporean hospitals, what a lovely place, loved my experience, would come again.

well I wasn’t gonna let this little incident stop me. the bike shop decided they would rent me their bike again, and 3 weeks after the first attempt I tried again, this time by myself. I again started too late, bad planning and lack of skill cost me an additional 20km and lots of stops, but by 6am of the next day I finished my ride. one thing I did not account for, is that caffeine only helps in the first couple hours, at some point your body and mind get so exhausted that drinking more redbull does not do much other than stop you from passing out on the spot. although that too has its limits. regardless, I successfully finished the ride.

what’s next?

since then, I’ve done a bunch more bike rides and longer runs, 60k in singapore, in nyc, now this latest attempt. I would do this kind of stuff once every 8 months or so. from this point I guess I just keep running further and faster, Ironman (although I would want to prep for this one so I do not drown), ultramarathons in the woods or mountains or desert, it will just keep getting more and more extreme. and the only reason is because, once in a while I want to feel something, and to prove to myself that I can.