From Classroom to Trail: How Studying Abroad at UTS Prepared Me for a 100-Mile Ultramarathon

Dylan Walker

Autumn 2025 Study Abroad student from Hochschule Fresenius

Berlin, Germany

When I signed up for a semester abroad at the University of Technology Sydney, I expected to come home with stories—maybe a few cultural lessons, maybe a better understanding of global business. What I didn’t expect was that the real test of everything I’d learned would happen months later, deep in the Blue Mountains at 3:30am, crewing and pacing runners through a 100-mile ultramarathon called the UTAMiler

Let’s go back a little bit. My name is Dylan Walker, and I am an exchange student from Hochschule Fresenius Berlin, Germany. I have a history with cross cultural engagement. I was born and lived in England for a while, before moving to the United States for Highschool and then to Germany when I turned 18. So when I signed up for UTS and found out I was in a transnational management class, I didn’t expect to learn anything I didn’t already know, and certainly not anything that I would implement in Sydney. But just a mere few months later I found myself sitting in my final exam, except it wasn’t a lecture hall with fluorescent lights, it was on the trails of the Blue Mountains, under the illumination of dying headlamps in the middle of the night.

I didn’t expect to have to employ any cross cultural skills when I signed up to pace runners at the UTAMiler, but the world is a weird place when you're on mile 73. There’s no script for a race like this. I had been asked by a friend of mine to crew and pace him for his UTAMiler race. In a race like this, you have to read people, interpret things and come up with rapid solutions. When your runner comes in 40 minutes early, clearly dehydrated and struggling you have to recalibrate and fix things on the fly. Back in Sydney, I spent countless hours in team projects with students from all over the world—negotiating different communication styles, redefining goals when plans derailed, and learning to manage tension diplomatically. That experience taught me to listen before acting and to lead collaboratively rather than commandingly. Those exact principles applied here.

My runner was an older man from India. People from different generations tend to respond to stress, ask for support, and need encouragement in different ways. I, personally, strive for emotional encouragement, others work better with split times or just the presence of another. The intercultural sensitivity I developed at UTS helped me know when to adjust my approach. I remembered working in group projects where some students preferred direct confrontation, while others were more indirect and valued harmony. Late into the night I knew I needed to apply these same principles to the runner.

Originally, I was supposed to pace a friend of mine from the USA, and I knew the way she responded to stress, what she needs to keep moving and how I need to act to keep her spirits up. Unfortunately, her race ended around mile 75, when stomach problems made it impossible to keep going. I was there sitting with her as she got ready to drop, when the aid station captain came up to me, asking if I wanted to pace the next runner to come through, apparently his pacer had dropped and he was struggling. Of course I agreed to see him to the finish. However, I knew nothing about this guy, where he’s from, how he responds to stress, nothing.

At UTS I took a class that emphasised the importance of Servant Leadership, and establishing trust in multi cultural teams. Through this I learned how to recognize when someone needed motivation versus when they needed quiet support. Whether that’s in a multicultural team project or on a windswept trail at mile 87, the skills are the same.

The runner was older, from India and clearly deep into the pain cave. He’d been out there for over 18 hours. I didn’t know his name (Roshan) until a few miles in, didn’t know how he took his electrolytes, or how he managed the DNF thoughts. All I could go on was instinct, my own experience. My own experience of working with international teams, and decoding what people actually want, and learning how to move in sync despite having grown up on different frequencies.

So I watched and adjusted. Quietly at first, offering encouragement at first, a quick little “Looking strong” or “Keep moving”. Watching how he responded to each phrase. I tracked the subtle shifts in his body language, pace, breathing, everything I could to see how he responded. I learned how he looked at me when he needed words of encouragement, when he looked towards the ground, headlamp pointed down at the 3 meters in front of him, he needed a kick up the backside to keep moving. Everything I learned in the classroom came into play, reading his unspoken cues, trusting him when he said he didn’t need to walk just yet, empathising with his pain when we saw the Furber Steps just ahead of us.

When we started running together he was in pain, over the next 6 hours we stomped it into the finish line, finishing the last 6 hours at a faster pace than the 12 hours beforehand. What started as a favor for a random stranger led to me becoming part translator, part therapist, part logistics manager, part crisis management. All skills I had learned from my classes at UTS.

I came to Sydney thinking I’d study global business. Instead, I practiced it, on the trail, under headlamp light, with a stranger who trusted me to help carry him to the finish.