Civic endurance below zero: The ultra marathoner who moved his office in front of Romanian Government

After running some of the hardest marathons in the world and challenging himself to finish other tough races, Romanian ultra-marathoner Andrei Rosu has started a new challenge: a civic one.

As cars pass through the Victoriei Square downtown Bucharest, some drivers honk and wave in admiration, whereas others open the windows for a little while and scream “Go to work!!!”. This has become familiar for Andrei Rosu, the Romanian protester who has moved his office in the Victoriei Square even since street protests started in Romania in the beginning of February. It’s been over two weeks since the Government passed an emergency ordinance amending Romania’s criminal laws and partly decriminalizing corruption offenses such as abuse of office. But Andrei doesn’t even count the days anymore since he moved a big part of his daily life to the Victoriei Square, in front of the Government. Meanwhile, the ordinance was repealed, but thousands of people continue to gather every evening in the Victoriei Square. They feel the huge injustice and believe it can’t be repaired unless the Government resigns. Andrei wears ski equipment. It is cold as hell. On some days, the temperature drops to -10 degrees Celsius. But the 41-year old Romanian is no stranger to freezing cold and is very much used to endurance. His first ever marathon was at the North Pole, back in 2010, when he started running. He ran 7 marathons and ultra-marathons on 7 continents. He finished 2 IronMan competitions and run the hardest ultra-triathlon in the world, Arch 2 Arc. He was the first Romanian to cross the English Channel swimming in 2015. Last year, he ran some 566 km in freezing cold in the 6633 Ultra race. This year, he’s also heavily training for the ocean sailing race Atlantic Challenge. For the last two weeks, Andrei has been dropping his kids to kindergarten, then head to his outdoors office in front of the Government, taking in the cold. A few other protesters also gather every morning to keep the flame burning. They want the Government to know they’re monitoring it.