Marathon runner locks himself in glass box and runs for 15 days for charity

Bulgarian marathon runner Kharasa Georgiev announced on Sunday that he will live and run in a glass box for 15 days in Bulgaria's Sofia Park, to raise money to help young people fight addictions.

Georgiev, an athlete and activist, began the experiment on May 1, 2023. Since then, he has been living in a glass box placed in front of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, for 15 days. Georgiev only has a bed and a treadmill at his disposal - no computer, phone, any kind of screen or even a book. All he is able to do inside the box is run. He is allotted thirty minutes each day to talk to passersby. 

"I want to challenge myself," Georgiev explained as the reason behind the experiment, "I want to show when you put someone in a box how psychologically they change. It's not a physical experiment, it's a psychological experiment." 

Donations collected during the project will be transferred to various initiatives working to prevent addiction in children under the age of 18 to drugs, alcohol, digital media and energy drinks.

Georgiev's past marathons

Georgiev has run 30 ultra-marathon runs, which are runs longer than 42 kilometers. He has run all over the world, from the North Pole to Cambodia, including a 217-kilometer race in California's Death Valley.

This is not the first time that Georgiev has used his running abilities for a social cause. In 2019 he ran 1,200 kilometers through Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania to urge governments to build better infrastructure.