Ultra trail faces
In what physical and mental state is one when arriving close to the finish of a long distance mountain race?
I had been asking myself this question for several months, so much so that the idea of covering more than 160 km on the mountain paths seemed to me to be superhuman.
So I set up a mobile studio at the last feeding station of the Grand Raid des Pyrénées ultra trail and offered a portrait to the runners. An express session that was not to last more than 30 seconds. At this point in the race, the first runners have been gone for at least 20 hours, and the last ones for almost 40 hours. They have already covered 150 km on rocky paths and climbed up and down almost 10,000 m. All of them are extremely tired, many of them suffering from various pains, but they only have 2 km of climbing and 11 km of descending with 1,400 m of difference in altitude left to cross the finish line. They are therefore all pretty sure that they will finish the race, which no doubt explains the joy that shines on the faces of some of them. A strange shoot that lasted 20 hours non-stop and during which I met champions who all showed incredible mental strength.
François Laurens
