DECRYPTION – Science studies the physical and mental consequences of these tests of more than 100 km, where the limits are constantly pushed back.
On August 26, at 6 p.m. sharp, just over 2,300 men and women will set off from the Triangle de l’Amitié square in Chamonix, with the hope of completing the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc, a mythical loop of 170 km with 10,000 meters of elevation gain around the famous Alpine massif. The best will take about twenty hours, obviously without a single minute of sleep, to finish this event considered the most prestigious in the world, if not the hardest. But around 40% of the participants, although all of them qualified according to demanding performance criteria (and who will have been lucky enough to be drawn), will not see the finish line. Exhausted, injured or finishing after the deadline, they will end up giving up on their dream. A high skimming rate but ultimately quite common in the world of these so-called ultra-long distance races.
For twenty years, the practice of trail running (literally meaning “trail”) and…
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