At noon sharp, Friday June 24, 2022, the sound of a fog horn will ring out at Parc de la Combe à la Serpent, in Corcelles-les-Monts. This will be the start of the Infinity trail for around a hundred runners. The principle ? A race on a 6.7 kilometer loop in nature, starting from the car park. With one difficulty: you have to complete each round in less than an hour, otherwise it’s elimination. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., etc. Every hour, a new start, …. until there is only one participant left, the winner. Knowing that if you finish in 50 minutes, you will have 10 minutes of rest, but if it is in 59 minutes, you will only have one minute before leaving!
Objective: exceed 40 laps
This concept of extreme endurance, born in the United States at the end of the 1980s, arrived in France only a few years ago. Since then, races have been organized in the Landes, in Normandy or on the Ile d’Aix, in Charente-Maritime. This is the first time that the format has settled in Dijon. Maud Debs, the co-organizer of this event, does not envisage that the world record of 90 laps – 603 km – will be beaten. On the other hand, she would see the record of the “Infinity trail” organized in France, 42 loops, being exceeded. “I would like us to reach 48 loops, we have two or three leaders who come to fight, it could be interesting”she believes at the microphone of France Bleu Bourgogne.
An ambitious local: Matthieu Tharion
If the race takes place in Côte-d’Or, it is partly thanks to Matthieu Tharion. Passionate about trails, and especially ultra-trails, he has already participated in several editions of the Infinity. He proposed this course in the Combe à la Serpent. His record? 38 laps, or just over 264 kilometres. This time, he would like to exceed 40, helped by a course he knows by heart. And by his “staff”, that is to say his companion and his friends, who will take care of him during the few minutes of rest between each round, by preparing him to eat for example. Matthieu Tharion plans to complete the laps in 55 minutes during the day and 50 minutes at night. See you on Sunday morning, surely, to find out the winner!