This TikTok user ran a 5K in a plane bathroom. But instead of making people laugh, this challenge gained him a lot of backlash.
If you scroll on social media, it seems as if running is now more popular than ever before. Between casual runners, people preparing for marathons or half marathons and others going all out in an ultra marathon, there's also a wave of people setting themselves bizarre running challenges. This TikToker, for example, ran a 5K in a plane bathroom.
The Rise Of Odd Running Challenges
More and more people have started filming their unconventional running challenges. A lot of them, however, look very similar: Running a 5K pretty much anywhere except for a place where running is actually possible. This includes 5Ks under a bed, on top of furniture or in a car.
Most of these challenges can not really be considered "running" in the traditional sense. The reason for these videos does not seem to be physical fitness, but rather fun, views or simply the possibility of using one's free will. And people like to watch: Creator notreallywellness, for example, has gained millions of views and thousands of followers with his videos.
5K Challenge On A Plane?
While @notreallywellness perfected his content idea months ago with challenges that mainly inconvenience himself, a different TikToker under the name of @dom.stroh ran his unconventional 5K in the bathroom of a plane on a 11 hour flight. He even shared the time and distance he tracked during his run, showing that he must have occupied the bathroom for almost an hour.
@dom.stroh Timeless - The Weeknd & Playboi Carti
His challenge might have looked very uncomfortable, as he simply walked around in circles the entire time, but in terms of content it worked beautifully: He managed to reach 4.4 Million views on Twitter and 1.4 Million views on TikTok. Despite the success of his content, people were mad. The TikTok comments pointed out his disregard of other passengers:
"so that's why there's always a queue"
"meanwhile me waiting to go to the toilet"
Others pointed out that forcing yourself to follow through with your running plan even when you're spending 11 hours on a plane is probably not healthy. Since the creator mainly posts fitness content, the assumption that he is taking his fitness journey a little too seriously in this instance doesn't seem too far-fetched. A comment reads:
"It's okay to have a day off"
But what do you think? Is this a light-hearted, fun trend, blatant disregard of other passengers or even potentially dangerous? Let us know in the comments!