The ultra-trail specialist will try to bring down, on Saturday, this record dating back more than 20 years, in the desert around Phoenix. A leap into the unknown.
Audrey Tanguy has crossed entire massifs by the dozen, descended more than a hundred thousand meters of vertical drop, fought against the overwhelming fatigue of the endless ultra-trail courses but what she is tackling this weekend n has nothing in common with these extreme events. The 33-year-old Savoy, who has made the mountains her kingdom, from the Alps, to Hong Kong via Réunion or Portugal, sets off on Saturday (3:00 p.m. French time) to attack the world record of 100 km, on the road and no longer on the trails where it excels. In its viewfinder, a benchmark time that resists time and attempts since it was set by the Japanese Tomoe Abe in 2000, in 6 hours 33 minutes and 11 seconds. A stratospheric chronograph for this little woman (1.49 m and 38 kg), specialist in the marathon.
A target pace of more than 13.4 km / h for more than seven hours
Audrey Tanguy in her hotel room in Phoenix.
“I would never have thought of getting into something like that”, laughs the PE teacher in videoconference from her hotel room in Phoenix. “The world record is going to be super hard,” warns the young woman (33) aware that the Japanese featherweight has set the bar very high. “I am aiming more for Laurence Klein’s French record in 7h26’44 ” which has been holding since 2014 and at least trying to get close to it”, smiles, modestly, one of the best ultra-trail specialists in France . This would bring it to an average speed of 13.43 km / h, or 3.75 m per second all the same for a little more than seven clock turns!
But spinning like an ibex in the mountains (at around 7 km / h) does not represent at all the same effort as that required on the asphalt. “On trails of more than 100 km, I sometimes have a big pump. We eat, we let the bad time pass and the form ends up returning. There, the pains are increasing ”, admits this mother living in La Rochette, a small town in the Bauges massif.
Arrived a few days ago in Arizona, the Frenchwoman went to reconnoitre the route, a loop that she will have to cover nine times. But she has never imposed an effort of this length on the road, testing herself over 47 kilometers in recent weeks. “It has to hold,” repeats Audrey Tanguy who will not set off alone on the course on the edge of an Indian reserve.
“During the Diagonale des Fous (2e of this ultra-trail in Reunion in 2018), I did 29 hours of running without sleeping, I was on the verge of hallucinations but I held on. ”
Audrey Tangu is aiming for the French record rather than the world record.
It is at the initiative of its equipment supplier, Hoka One One, which is launching a new model of shoes equipped with carbon plates, that the Frenchwoman was invited to this record attempt which will engage around twenty athletes at the same time as ‘she, in total 6 girls and 15 boys. The brand was, at the same time, to allow another group to try the record in Japan but the health crisis pushed it to postpone this meeting. “I know I’m going to be in pain, even very badly and I fear that it will happen early and then get worse”, adds this fan of the group Scorpions who does not fear exhaustion: “At the Diagonale des Fous (2e of this ultra-trail in Reunion in 2018), I ran 29 hours without sleeping, I reached the limits of hallucinations but I held on. ”
“Kylian was a little crazy to attempt this challenge under these conditions”
Fatigue, this double winner of the TDS race (145 km and 9,100 vertical meters) at the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc will be able to tame it without batting an eyelid. Resisting the “stab wounds” in the calves on a ground that is more traumatic for the legs, with identical support throughout the attempt, will be a whole other challenge. Kylian Jornet, one of the greatest ultra-trailers, knows something about it. On November 28, the Spaniard winner of the most prestigious events on the planet (UTMB or Western State) had been forced to retire in his attempt at the 24 hour track record. “The ultra-terrestrial”, victim of a pain in the right leg, had surrendered after 134.8 km and 10.24 hours of effort after running all night in a polar cold.
“Kylian was a little crazy to attempt this challenge under these conditions. It was so cold (2 ° C during the day). But I still heard people criticize him! We do not realize the magnitude of the challenge. Running 24 hours is absolutely terrible on the joints. It was superhuman, ”slices the runner who will not take unnecessary risks for her health. “I do not want to put my season in the air if I see that it is too hard, she lets go before recovering. Finally the season … If we are lucky enough to have one with the Covid-19. “
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