David likes extreme sports: ‘Sometimes I run up all the stairs at all the tram stops at night’

He ignores cramps, pain, cold and exhaustion, continuing is the only option. David Duarte Silva (43) likes to challenge himself and wants to feel how far he can go physically and mentally. But sometimes he just takes the elevator to the fifth floor in his mother’s apartment.

It was half past eight in the evening when we saw David running up the stairs at the Bali Bridge. In shorts, sweat on his forehead and a concentrated gaze on the steps. He had been doing this since half past three in the afternoon. “I am training for the Trappenmarathon in Landgraaf on October 7,” he said. “I then have 9 hours to go up and down the 507 steps 42 times.”

Fifty times up the Rozenberg

Don’t be surprised if you meet David in sportswear at night at a tram stop, the Mandela Bridge or along the A12. “I sometimes run to all the tram stops in Zoetermeer, going up and down the stairs fifty times in between. At the Mandela Bridge I run up and down the escalators twenty times and then visit the gym for a workout along the way. Then I go to the Burgemeester Hoekstrapark and run up and down the Rozenberg fifty times.”

A little more extreme

At the age of eight, David started with judo and handball. “Then I started doing karate, after which I became more fanatical about the sport. In karate I learned what you can achieve with mental strength.” As a teenager he discovered fitness and after step lessons he turned what he had learned into his own workout, but with more of a challenge. “I want to know how far my body can go, so I always go one step further. Going to extremes has become a bit chronic.”

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Avoid lamppost

Every time David comes up with different creative circuits with which he challenges himself. Pulling tires in the grass along the A12. Or run a half marathon during a heat wave in two winter sweaters, rain gear and a warm hat. With temperatures below freezing, he happily runs around the city in shorts and a T-shirt. “A van driver was barely able to avoid a lamppost, because he suddenly saw me running across the street half-naked in the freezing cold.”

Visitors to the four McDonald’s restaurants in Zoetermeer and Bleiswijk are surprised when one day David decides to run into the restaurant in sportswear for a snack. “During my 21 kilometer run, I ran to all McDonald’s branches for a burger or a milkshake. I usually avoid the looks, but sometimes the attention is tempting.”

He was just able to avoid the lamppost

Familiar face in Zoetermeer

Due to his outdoor training, David is often noticed by fellow citizens. It regularly happens that people speak to me or film me,” he says. “During the lockdown, I was busy working on my car tires at night when suddenly police officers asked what I was doing. An officer said ‘Better you than us’. The next morning they came to see if I was still there.”

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Taking health into account

During his night training, David sometimes collapses from fatigue. “I do extreme things, but I take my health very seriously. I try to push myself to the limit, but I know when to stop. If I don’t feel good, I just don’t do it and I do it the next day. I have to accept that.”

Stairs marathon in Limburg

On October 7, David was at the start, in front of the Wilhelminaberg, in Landgraaf. Together with twenty other extremes, he wanted to climb those stairs more than 42 times. But after a few hours he got cramps and had to rest for a while. “I didn’t want to stop so I started walking, stretching, eating, drinking and taking sugar, salt and magnesium and then on again. On the fortieth climb I got my strength back.” David finally finished after 53 laps of a total of 49.5 kilometers of stair climbing. And believe it or not: when he came home he wanted to clear his head after a long car ride from Limburg. “I walked a 21 kilometer loop through Zoetermeer at a leisurely pace.”

Would you like to stay informed about David’s training and experiences? Then follow him up Instagram.