Thijs de Buck is realizing that his pet hamster outperforms him in running and is gaining significant attention.
Mollie has garnered fame in the running community after de Buck, a physicist from the Netherlands, devised a method to monitor the hamster’s activities on the running platform Strava.
“I prepared for a marathon for about six months and put in a lot of effort, but I received around 40 ‘kudos,’ which are similar to ‘likes’ on Strava. However, Mollie receives approximately a thousand kudos for each nightly run,” de Buck shared with As It Happens guest host Rebecca Zandbergen. “It’s unjust.”
This isn’t just because Mollie is adorable with his black fur, pink nose, and tiny paws. He is also an exceptionally proficient runner.
The small hamster covers an average distance of 10 kilometers every night on his exercise wheel, with a top performance of 11.15 kilometers, according to de Buck.
“He’s surpassing me,” De Buck admitted. “Nearly 70 kilometers per week, a distance that many individuals training for marathons would aspire to achieve.”
Similar to most hamsters, Mollie runs throughout the night consistently. To track his movements, De Buck, residing in Utrecht, the Netherlands, constructed a speed and distance monitor.
This monitor employs a magnet to register each complete rotation of Mollie’s exercise wheel, measuring around 65 centimeters.
“By incorporating additional steps, such as a timer, we can determine his speed, which I can then record and eventually share on Strava, where he is on the path to stardom,” De Buck explained.
He mentioned that this project merges his two primary passions: running and Mollie.
“I also engage in a considerable amount of running and meticulously track all feasible data,” he stated. “It bothered me that I lacked information about Mollie’s activities, including his distances covered and speed.”
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