It is 7:30 p.m. this Saturday, July 23 when Alexandre Boucheix tumbles around the corner of Place Victor Hugo. 174 km of race, with more than 11,000 meters of elevation gain in the paws, he circles the square, and even takes the time to greet the public before jumping with both feet on the finish line. He who had to settle for third place last year, here he is now winner of the queen event of the UT4M: the 160 Xtrem.
Despite the jokes he finds the strength to make at the speaker’s microphone, his drawn features betray his fatigue, inevitable after such an ordeal. “I am extremely tired, but also very happy. Does “very happy” compensate for “tired”? Yes, clearly!“, he exults. And yet, he sees himself already start another race of the UT4M this Sunday: the Chartreuse 20. A small portion of the course he has just completed, “to run with friends“, 20km which seem to be a trifle in his eyes.
Between bad weather and distractions, successes snatched in pain
His race, however, did not not always looked like a health walk. Especially in the Belledonne massif when the rain got involved: “I was not expecting it, we were more on heat wave vigilance. And in fact we were very hot at the start and finish. But _in Belledonne it started to fall a huge downpour_. It took me from ultra-hot to ultra-cold. There was no one, I couldn’t articulate. So I sat on a rock waiting for it to come back. I think that was really it the worst time“.
galleys, Stéphane Bishop Mourroux also experienced it. The Savoyard crossed the line a few minutes after Alexandre Boucheix, but by completing another course, the 100 Masters. A journey that notably took him through Chamrousse where he got lost: “I got lost under the Chamrousse cross and I came back, I had about twenty people to take over. Mentally it was very difficult, I was on the verge of saying: “I’m stopping, I’m going back to Chamrousse and I’m going down again”. But I still carried on, _nothing left until the end_and I won! This Sunday, July 24, many runners will once again flock to Place Victor Hugo, the finishing point for several routes, in particular the 160 Challenge.