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Hello, who dis?

The name’s TheBotBeyondTheBrainz.

Or, as my friends call me, Annie. My sports career began with climbing, when I ticked off nearly every single box of “Mistakes to Avoid While Trad Climbing”  on my first outdoor trad climb. As you can see, I survived, and went on to see what other Great Bad Ideas would not kill me.

My solo expeditions began with a kayaking trip, followed by a 3000KM bike ride to the Nordkapp (Norway) in 2019. A year later, in 2020, I ran a solo 1000KM Ultramarathon from the Lowest to Highest point of Germany. And in 2022, I bikerafted the river Elbe 1090KM from source to sea – while 5 months pregnant.

Speaking of experiments: I am a trained biochemist currently working on her PhD in neuroscience, and the comic artist behind BotsAndBrainz. Find my comics and the Bots here: BotsAndBrainz!

Podcast Episodes

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to share my stories on a few podcasts. Feel free to give them a listen!

One of my favorite episodes was recorded with Christo Förster for his podcast “Frei Raus“. You can listen to it HERE.

I also got to chat with Diamantrad on their podcast “Köpfchen Spricht” about my adventure “Chasing Currents”. You can find that podcast episode HERE:

On Tough Girl Challenges, host Sarah Williams introduces us to some of the most badass women out there, living the adventurous life and taking on physical, mental and overall incredibly inspiring challenges! (Gosh darn, am I lucky to have been featured!)

On this episode, we talk about the story of my 1000KM ultramarathon, chat about training plans, nutrition, gear, wildcamping and mental challenges.

But that’s not all – we also get into my TheBotBeyondTheBrainz origin stories: the reason why I decided to ride my bike all on my own from Berlin to the Nordkapp, and reflecting on how that one single bike ride changed me.

BinWegBouldern is a German podcast, which features Juliane Fritz and her marvelous voice chatting with climbers, routesetters, physiotherapists, trainers, and many, many more about the sport she (and I) love so dearly: bouldering.

And in May, 2021, BinWegBouldern interviewed me for a two-part series on “Riding Solo”.

A climber on a bike trip – how did that turn out?

And then there were the recordings by KCRW Berlin, an american radio station based in Berlin. As of this writing, July 2021, KCRW is no longer on air… but you can still hear the recorded episodes!

On-Stage Storytelling

Writing stories is one thing – getting to perform them onstage in front of an audience quite another. Thanks to The Bear Berlin Storytelling, and KCRW Berlin, I’ve gotten the chance to do both!

One of the performances on “Riding Solo” was captured on tape, and can still be watched on youtube HERE.

Adventure Writing

Some of my work has been featured in magazines, and I’d love for you to read them!

My latest article was featured by
The Female Explorer in their Magazine No. 6.

I write about what it was like to bikeraft along the length of an entire river – but not just any river. I traveled along the river I’d been born on the shores of, my own daughter-to-be stowed away safely inside of me…


If you want to learn more about Swimpacking, I can recommend you my piece called: “The Emerging World of Swimpacking” featured in Adventure Uncovered magazine.

It’s an 8-minute read that pairs well with a tea or coffee! 😉

FKTs – Fastest Known Times

From Lowest To Highest was just the start – check out how many FKTs I’ve snagged by now over on:

FastestKnownTime.com.

It’s a fantastic website that collects all known (…duh) FKTs by runners worldwide! You can also find established FKT routes in your area, download the attached GPX track and give this game a spin yourself.