Episode #90 - Emilie Mullier
Compromise, not sacrifice: building a life without apology with the ironlady
This episode was recorded on 19.06.2026 in Berlin.
Name: Emilie Mullier @work_run_travel
Topics: ironman, marathon, sport, performance, Berlin
Landed in Berlin: 03.01.2013
I am delighted to welcome Emilie Mullier straight after her incredible five-week run: two marathons (Helsinki, then Cape Town, the 8th ‘major’) and two full Ironman triathlons back-to-back (Hamburg and Cairns), with 26 hours’ flying time and a 7-hour time difference between them. She completed both Ironman events in under 12 hours and bounced back without a single injury. And no jet-lag.
During this interview, you’ll discover how Emilie manages to organise between 20 and 26 hours of training a week all on her own, whilst also managing 75 properties and over 400 tenants in Berlin. But above all, we’ll follow the dazzling journey of a rising star who is only just beginning to shine.
Enjoy listening!
Notes from episode #90
Emilie, 37, French, Berlin-based since 2013, is not a professional athlete in the official sense. By day she is property manager: « my life is an Ironman every day anyway, » she laughs. By the other twenty hours of her week, she is chasing something most of us can’t quite picture: the nine major marathons, twice, maybe three times, before she turns 40. A spot in Hawaii. Possibly the seven-marathons-on-seven-continents-in-seven-days challenge, if a sponsor ever says yes.
What stays with you isn’t the medals, though, it’s how she talks about control. You separate what you can control from what you can’t, and you let the rest go. Fifty-kilometer winds in Cairns, a watch that broke down a week before Hamburg (Garmin sent her a brand-new Fenix 8, free, after seeing her stats), a body that asks for only five hours of sleep. She’s built a life with almost no margin for error, and somehow that precision is what gives her room to breathe.
The conversation drifts, too, into tenderness you don’t expect from someone built like a machine: her 89-year-old grandmother tracking every race from Berlin, friends flooding her WhatsApp with hundred messages mid-Ironman, Boston 2023 and a couple with prosthetic legs crossing the finish line ten years after the bombing. Emilie talks about choosing a life without children, without a conventional shape, without regret.
It’s a conversation about extremity, yes, but really it’s about what it costs and what it gives to build a life entirely your own, on your own terms, and to mean it when you say you’d do it all again.
More about the guest
Date of your arrival in Berlin: 03 January 2013
Why did you move to Berlin? I seized the opportunity to become a freelancer and discover a fascinating profession. I followed a French investor who had recently acquired two apartment buildings and was looking for someone on the ground to manage them. It started as an internship and the basis for my business school thesis, allowing me to learn the market before eventually launching my own freelance business.
What do you like most about Berlin? The green spaces, the fact that you can do almost everything by bike and optimize your daily life around it, and of course the multicultural atmosphere.
What bothers you the most? The winter: grey, cold, long, and lacking sunlight.
Your three favorite places in Berlin? Insulanerbad (haha), FitX Südkreuz, and Tiergarten.
What is the most “Berlin” thing about you? Good question! I’d probably say punctuality.
Your recipe for successful integration? Building a multicultural business. Keeping your doors open not only to your host country but to the entire world.
Your remedy against homesickness? Travel as much as possible and turn every reunion with loved ones into intense, unforgettable memories.
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? My best friend Jean-Baptiste, my friend Maïs, Maxellende, Patrick Sang, and/or Eliud Kipchoge, Kristian Blummenfelt, and Lucy Charles-Barclay.
Why should people contact you? I’m always ready to take on the craziest challenges. I commit myself fully, heart and soul, and I’m constantly willing to push boundaries and show what women are capable of. I’m extremely flexible, with an exceptional ability to recover and adapt. I have no family obligations and my work can be organized remotely, which gives me complete freedom.
Anything else? Plenty of challenges ahead (especially with sponsors!): completing the current 8 World Marathon Majors three times over (and 9 when Shanghai officially joins the series), the idea of running 51 marathons in 51 days across all 51 U.S. states, the World Marathon Challenge (7 marathons, 7 days, 7 continents), and much more… No limits!
Contact Emilie
Acknowledgements
Thank you dear Emilie for this while and fascinating journey you brought us on! Wishing you wonderful and exciting projects and looking forward following and being part of your success!