A marathon runner faced accusations of taking his passion a little too far after he filmed himself running in circles inside an airplane bathroom during an 11-hour flight, logging what he claimed was a full 5K on Strava.
The TikTok racked up millions of views as viewers flooded the comments with toilet jokes and complaints about bathroom hogging, with some joking he deserved a spot on the "no-fly list."
Maybe just run to your destination next time?
From runway to runway: A 5K at 30,000 feet
Last weekend, TikToker @dom.stroh posted a video of himself doing a runner's workout in a cramped plane bathroom, turning in circles and stepping on the toilet repeatedly until his route was nothing but a squiggle.
The German athlete gained over 1.4 million views with this unusual entry.
"11 hour flight, but 5K Run on the plan," the caption reads.
According to the Strava data, he was doing that for just under an hour, reaching a distance of 5.53 km. If true, there must have been at least one other stall available. Otherwise, the flight staff would have had to drag him out of there.
Marathon runners can be very serious about their craft, and this TikToker posts almost exclusively about running and related workouts. Training disruptions can, of course, impact a marathoner's time, but missing one day for a long flight probably would not have been a big deal.
In 2023, University College Dublin published a research study on the topic based on user data from Strava. However, they only considered training to be significantly disrupted if it stopped for at least a week straight.
Regardless, if no one came a-knocking, the hour-long bathroom run probably didn't hurt anybody. Now it's just a silly thing on the internet.
"The runners are taking it too far"
Pretty much everyone thought of the same joke on this one. Getting to the bathroom on a plane can be a harrowing experience in normal circumstances, so you can imagine the result if someone was holding up the only stall for a "run."
"Meanwhile people outside be like," wrote TikTok commenter @miskaamiley with a photo of a lavatory line.
The account for the cheap flight finder Skyscanner wrote, "so that’s why there’s always a queue."
Others had concerns for the non-regulation workout equipment.
"The toilet is probably not designed to be a stair master," @roevgoek pointed out.
The video racked up an additional 3.9 million views on X, where sentiments skewed a bit negative.
"The runners are taking it too far," said @EsDeMamador.
"Bogarting the lav for an hour in an 11 hour flight? STRAIGHT TO THE NO-FLY LIST," @dancenav declared.
Still, few could resist making the obvious joke.
"The other passengers waiting for this poor idiot to vacate the bathroom," wrote @ReSolidSnake with the bulging veins kid meme.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @dom.stroh for comment via TikTok.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
