Tiberiu Ușeriu

Born in rural Romania during the country’s communist period, Uşeriu suffered an abusive childhood,
dropped out of school, and after completing Romania’s compulsory year of national service, joined
friends in Spain and got involved in petty crime. A man Uşeriu claims was part of the Serbian mafia
recruited him to help carry out organized crimes.

“We started by stealing luxury cars, changing their identities and then selling them in different
countries,” Uşeriu explains. “We moved on to robbing jewelry stores, and then security vans moving
money between supermarkets and banks.”
Uşeriu says he was motivated first and foremost by the need for money. The robberies took place
mostly in France, Germany, and Austria, after which the group would disappear back to the Balkans.
This continued for three years, until 1999, when Uşeriu was caught and sentenced to 15 years in a
German prison.

In 2009, after serving 9 years and 8 months behind bars, Uşeriu was released on good behavior and
deported to Romania. He working for his brother’s NGO, and slowly rebuilt his life. He also got two
dogs, which he would take on runs out in the mountains. “I realized how much I liked it, it made me
feel good running away from my problems,” he says. He discovered that running also gave him time
to think and deal with his troubled past.

In May 2012, Uşeriu entered his first marathon, and that September, competed in his first
ultramarathon, a 115-kilometer race in Romania in which he finished fifth. Uşeriu pushed his body,
continuing to race all over Europe, and found that he was well suited to long-distance and low-
temperature conditions.

Uşeriu soon began looking for tougher challenges, and in 2015 learned of the 6633 Arctic Ultra, the
race in the Arctic Circle.

He trained hard for six months, the last three of which he was running in shorts in 32-40 (-1) degree
weather and snow, and then immersing himself in the icy waters of a lake to prepare his body.

Uşeriu says the Arctic race is mostly mental endurance. “Ninety percent of the time you are alone,
you carry your own food, equipment, pulling a sledge,” he explains. The aid stations on the course
are as far as 75 miles apart. Competitors are required to wear an SOS transmitter button on their
person as they are assaulted by powerful winds and temperatures as low as -56 (-48) degrees
Fahrenheit.

Uşeriu would push to cover 62 miles every 24 hours. The first year he completed the race (a shorter,
350 miles) in about 173 hours, almost an hour ahead of his nearest rival. The following year he beat
his previous time on the same course by 15 hours.

Uşeriu’s success brought attention back home, and newspapers began taking an interest in his past.
In 2017 Uşeriu published a book, 27 Steps (27 de Pași), that laid out in stark detail his criminal past,
life behind bars, and his rebirth as a long-distance runner. The book was an immediate success, and
sold almost 50,000 copiez.
And having opened up, Uşeriu looked to even greater challenges. After completing the arctic race in
2018 he headed to Everest to take part in the Everest Marathon. While the distance is far shorter –
just 60km – the race comes with its own unique challenges. “You start at an altitude of over 5400
meters, and to deal with the lack of oxygen is very hard. You can panic, and it’s very difficult to run,”
Uşeriu says. Despite this, he finished 11th, with a time of 13 hours and 45 minutes. The first seven
spots were taken by Nepali runners far more accustomed to the conditions.

Uşeriu pushes to cover 62 miles every 24 hours in the 6633 Arctic Ultra.

Uşeriu says his ultimate goal is to complete the five most difficult endurance races in the world,
which along with the 6633 Arctic Ultra and the Everest Marathon include, he says, the Yukon Arctic
Ultra, the Tor des Géants in the Italian Alps, and the Marathon des Sables in Morocco’s Saharan
desert.

This February he was forced to pull out of his first attempt at the Yukon Arctic Ultra, on the advice of
doctors, after suffering from frostbite in his right foot. Only 12 of 40 runners competing in the 430-
mile race reached the finish line.

Meanwhile, Uşeriu’s role in the NGO has grown over the years, and now he has motivational camps
where he s teaching children outdoor skills. He also conducts team-building exercises for large
multinational companies.

After the life he’s lived, and the years behind bars, the miles of endless roads and tracks have
become a source of therapy, as well as a driving force in Uşeriu’s life.