Dominique Granger after the finish at Red Bull 400.
© Flo Hagena/Red Bull Content Pool
Exploration

Running the Uphill 400-Meter Dash

Follow Dominique Granger as she runs what might be the world's hardest short race, Red Bull 400.
By Dominique Granger
2 min readPublished on

3 min

Dominique Granger at Red Bull 400

Dominique Granger at Red Bull 400

A 400-meter run up a 36 degree incline. It's just like climbing stairs, right? Wrong. With each step up the hill, your footing slips, you struggle to catch your breath and fatigue sets in. Red Bull 400 is a unique and demanding challenge — one we were too chicken to try ourselves.
So we sent reporter Dominique Granger to Titisee-Neustadt in Germany to try it for us. Check out POV footage of her run above and read her thoughts on the difficult event.

Hear from Granger herself:

Four hundred meters: It can’t be that bad! That’s what I told myself up until the moment when I saw the ski ramp I would have to run up. Uh-oh. What did I get into? Well, what I got into was the toughest 400 meters of my life.
I felt like my lungs were going to burst, that my heart was pounding so hard I thought we would hear it on the camera, and calf muscles so tight I was wondering if they would ever relax again. As tough as it is physically, the challenge is also mental. I knew my body could do it, but pushing through pain is where the real challenge lay.
Dominique Granger after the finish at Red Bull 400.

Now that's out of breath

© Flo Hagena/Red Bull Content Pool

But challenges are amazing: Once you succeed, it’s like the aching muscles, taste of lactic acid in your throat and sweat stinging your eyes just fade like old memories to leave room for a thirst for another challenge.
So, would I do it again? Of course!
Want to try Red Bull 400 for yourself? Sign up now!
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