GR20 in 35 hours and 50 minutes: "You can be a mom and an athlete"

Virginie Phulpin 11:10 a.m., June 15, 2022

EDITORIAL

It's a somewhat crazy project that is all about sporting achievement, surpassing oneself, fighting exhaustion and adapting to the laws of nature.

Anne-Lise Rousset speaks more of a personal challenge than of the sporting record itself.

And yet... She smashed the women's record by more than 5 hours!

Running 170 kilometers flat in less than 36 hours would already be huge.

But on the steep and oh so technical paths of the Corsican mountains, with breathtaking elevations, pitfalls and temperature changes that put the body to the test, it adds a few capital letters to the feat.

The GR20, you know.

You may even have walked a few miles.

It is the mythical hiking trail, which attracts walkers and runners from all over the world to Corsica.

And it was when she discovered this route two years ago that Anne-Lise Rousset fell in love and the idea of ​​attempting the impossible germinated.

The trail runner was then pregnant, and the project matured in her mind as the baby grew in her belly.

Her son was born less than a year ago.

And two months after her birth, the sportswoman was already on the GR20.

Monday, at 6am, Anne-Lise set off in search of the record and sensations.

And seeing her baby in her arms during her first refueling is one of the strong images that sport has to offer us.

Yes, you can be a mom and an athlete.

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The "GR", these long-distance hiking trails

Running 170 kilometers with the heat wave on top of that doesn't help...

It's the difference between a high-level sportswoman, accustomed to extreme conditions, and us poor earthlings with little resistance.

The heat wave was not planned in the program.

But when you pick a date for a record, there are a lot of things that come into play.

Mid-June is when the days are the longest.

You have to take advantage of it to run as much as possible in daylight.

And in the night from Monday to Tuesday, it was the full moon.

Here again, it is a question of taking advantage of the exceptional luminosity.

This night was not easy for the athlete.

Several times she wanted to stop to rest.

But the two 'pacers', those who accompany her, pushed her to get back on the road.

Between the night and a day of heat wave, you have 20 degrees of difference.

The body suffers.

Staying hydrated, eating properly, in small doses, is one of those details that make a champion.

Anne-Lise Rousset's doctor told me that you only recover physically from such an effort after 8 or 10 months.

That tells you the effort.

We agree that even if you have the chance to go on vacation to Corsica this summer, you are not trying to imitate Anne-Lise Rousset.

You won't, sorry.

We don't imitate, but we inspire ourselves."