This weekend, another trail run… the Eco-Trail de Paris, which offered several distances.
This year, I chose the 50 km.
All along the course – at least while I still had a little lucidity left to reach the finish – I caught myself wondering what drives these hundreds of competitors to push beyond their limits…
And even more than the race itself, what strikes me more generally is the increase in the distances on offer.
A few years ago, marathon runners were a handful. Marathons are now selective events bringing together tens of thousands of competitors, for the best-known races, in every capital in the world.
Trail races seem to want to keep a particular spirit, since they mostly take place in the open countryside, and they make comparing results difficult, so great is the impact of the weather on how the race unfolds.
But while marathons are heading for gigantic participation – and the involvement of professional sports-event organisers – the trend in trail running seems to be towards longer distances: ultra-trails are now springing up everywhere… races of more than 100 km… by day and by night, far from the asphalt of the big cities.
Last month, running the Défi Glazig, I was listening to a podcast – you have to find some distraction over the hours of running… – that discussed precisely this trend.
The interviewee – I did not have the presence of mind (or rather the opportunity) to note his name – attributed this increase in distances to today’s consumerism, which supposedly pushes everyone to want more, faster, stronger, and if need be with stimulants.
I would need to listen to his arguments again to answer them precisely. But spontaneously, I do not fully agree.
When I look at my fellow runners – and there are always many more ahead of me than behind – the following ideas keep coming to mind:
– many are driven by a competitive spirit, and the age group of these men and women (even if the bulk of the field is rather male) is also the age of “challenges” in companies: the 30–35-year-olds, who want to mark their territory and prove themselves… But this is not the main motivation, and many examples show that, for the great majority, the goal is not to finish first;
– France still has reserves of resilience. In the event of a major crisis, I find myself hoping that this fine energy could be made available – and would spontaneously make itself available – for the needs of protection and solidarity (the real kind, not that of welfare benefits);
– and then I think of the dozens of books by consultants and “sociologists” depicting a depressed France, tired “elites”, demotivated “managers”… I do not know whether it is a form of pessimism or a sales pitch. But in any case, I tell myself they should come and take a walk outside, on the cliffs of the Côtes d’Armor, in the woods west of Paris, and on all the wonderful playgrounds offered for the expression of individual will and the pleasure of meeting to share a challenge – because here as elsewhere, a lot of time is spent recounting previous races and planning the next ones.
This energy is not found only in sporting events. It is present in professional life, as long as one takes the trouble to look, to listen, and to build a collective dynamic together, with its champions, its contributors, its participants… and also its supporters, its volunteers. Because around each of these races, dozens of willing people are at work, without whom none of this would happen. And it is one more sign that “mercantilism” is probably also a tattered rag waved by some, for want of a better idea.
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