Robby Clemens – On foot from North Pole towards South Pole

Friday, 22 March 2024 00:00
Written by Portal Editor

We got to know Robby during a lecture about his hike, perhaps better his run “On foot from the North Pole towards the South Pole” on the occasion of the Finnelauf 2022 in Billroda,

and were already very impressed by his exciting presentation with the involvement of the audience, so we then did the personal one We looked for a conversation and it turned into a long and intense evening.

On foot from the North Pole towards the South Pole

In his lecture, Robby describes the moving experiences and encounters with people he was able to meet along the way and who were motivation enough every day to get back on the road in order to one day achieve the goal in sight. Supported by numerous, fascinating pictures and videos, a variety of impressive and deeply moving stories about the highs and lows of his dream of hiking from the North Pole to the South Pole, fascinated the listeners and ourselves. His open words about his life so far with all of the highs and lows we experienced in our modern world were deeply impressive.

Robby Clemens now describes himself as an extreme athlete, motivational coach and author who, with the help of running, found his way out of a severe alcohol and nicotine addiction in 1998, which he had fallen into due to his company going bankrupt.

Growing up in the GDR, Robby took over a craft business and, after reunification, expanded it into a medium-sized company with over 100 employees. In the mid-1990s, insolvency was unavoidable after clients failed to make payments. He and his family lost everything. What was much worse for him, however, was that he not only undid 40 years of self-sacrificing work by his parents, but also lost their belongings due to existing guarantees. The suffering he had caused his family was unbearable. A few months after the bankruptcy, Robby slipped into a serious addiction to alcohol and nicotine.

Robby: “I only received drastic words from my family doctor. Motivated by attending a seminar, I started running. From one day to the next I managed to free myself from the addiction. Over time, with a rapid weight loss, clarity in the head also returned. Numerous half marathons and marathons followed. A gift that I also gave to other people through many charity runs. For example, in Iraq in 2003 from Basra to Baghdad for war-damaged children or from Athens to St. Michael for the benefit of the Salzburg Children’s Cancer Society.”

Almost ten years later, I ran one of my biggest dreams with the WORLDRUN - walking around the world on foot over 13,262 kilometres through 27 countries on 4 continents in 311 days.

Sporting career Robby Clement

1998 – First active encounter with running, with a body weight of 125 kg
2000 – Robby runs his first marathon
2001 – Run for humanity and tolerance, 493 km from Hohenmösen to Ludwigshafen / Ruchheim
2002 – 3-country run with Jens Drebenstedt, 520 km through Central Germany for the Central German Children's Cancer Societies
2003 – Extreme Street Run Basra – Baghdad with René Gose, 500 km for children damaged in the war
2004 – Extreme Street Run Athens – St. Michael (Salzburg), 1800 km for the benefit of the Salzburg Children's Cancer Society with René Gose
2005 – 925 km run to benefit children with diabetes – from Bad Friedrichshall to Hohenmölsen with René Gose
2007 – WORLDRUN, 13,262 km through 27 countries on 4 continents
2008 – Runtalya team marathon
2008 – Strongman Run, Weeze
2008 – 6-day race for the Grünau special school
2009 – “Berlin – Leipzig” run with the Günau learning support school
2009 – Via Regia (Görlitz – Vacha), 470 km through Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia
2012 – “Plautze” project – a self-experiment
2012 – Non-stop Rennsteig hike
2017 – 2018 – Walking from the North Pole towards the South Pole

My kilometres are the people I was able to meet.

With the realization that he had been given a new life after alcohol and nicotine addiction, Robby fulfilled a dream and set off on the biggest adventure of his life on April 9, 2017. Starting at the North Pole, his path took him from the ice of the Arctic and the glaciers of Greenland to the wilderness of Canada. Past the metropolises on the east coast of the USA, into the scorching heat of Central America and the tropical climates of South America, and then, after about 22 months in the ice of Antarctica, he was able to complete his new lifelong dream full of gratitude and humility.