Before the start, when I think about all the kilometres I’m going to have to cover
it scares me.
But it’s also something that makes me want to do it to know my limits and
to see how far I can go.
I am Théau Marmey, 31 years old, living with my family in Grenoble
where I work in a leisure centre for teenagers and kids.
This year I wanted a serious challenge and the TransGranCanaria was on at the very start of the season.
Myself and my pal Julien thought it would be a really good race for us.
You don't just wake up one day and say "I'm going to run 126k" It's something you need to work up to progressively.
You start with a 20k race then you do a 30k You see that it goes well, that you enjoy it
then you move on to a 50k race and every time you try to go a bit further.
If you see that it's going well you keep at it and eventually
you're doing races of more than 100k and taking on challenges that last in excess of 20 hours
What I love about trail running is that it’s such a simple sport. You really don’t need much.
A pair of shoes, a small bag, a little water, and off we go!
you can head off into the mountains for hours, exploring, spending time in nature.
What is great is that you really try to push yourself,
to go longer, higher, faster. It's really great times.
So we're off, we're at the airport. Heading for Las Palmas and the Canaries.
Right, feeling a bit of pressure now but that's ok we're gonna enjoy it.
My biggest fans are my family I love spending time with my wife and daughter.
They are always great moments and it's them who get me through the difficult times.
It’s hard because I have fairly tough training to do,
throughout the year. I have to find time
to spend with my family and also doing my job
which is quite demanding so I try to maximise my time
for example, by running to work, getting up early, running at night, running whenever I can really
while at the same time maintaining a functioning professional and social life.
I'm lucky that I live in Grenoble. The city is surrounded by mountains.
They're literally everywhere which makes it so easy to go training.
It's not very far, there are several kilometres of cycle paths to run on, and beyond that
we’re in the mountains, in the forests. It's a really beautiful playground to train in.
I was happy that I had a pretty solid base as I managed to get a lot of training in.
But not at all at the level that I had planned for.
There were some hiccups along the way, Covid, work, family life...
It's not always easy to manage but I had a solid enough base
to feel confident going into the race.
We started too hard but we expected that!
There's more and more wind about and the rain's getting heavier. It's starting to get much more muddy.
We're slap bang in the middle of the night and the cold has really set in. It's getting hard now.
I'd just broken my pole and the pain in my calf was
getting worse. I wasn't in good shape at this point.
The doubt sets in at times like these and you start to question yourself: "Can I do this?"
"I'm only at the start of the race, I hadn’t even got through the night and I was a mess."
I thought to myself, the Canaries, that's great, the sun will be shining and it'll be like springtime.
That wasn’t the case!
The ground was greasy and wet.
It was raining too, we were battered by the wind as we ran, conditions were crazy.
That really makes you want to do a trail run!
The idea of abandoning was running through our heads. It's scary because
we’d been preparing for this race for months and we didn’t want to quit so early.
It's tough. But when it gets hard or you are in pain, and you're cold, you're not in a good place.
These things are always in the back of your mind, you don't want to think about it
but it certainly scares you.
I see that he is having a lot of trouble warming up.
He's not in good shape, he's a little pale.
I know it's going to be hard. I managed to motivate myself and keep going
by saying to myself: C'mon let's go, one step at a time. The family is waiting at the next aid station.
and we carry on and see that we're getting there.
I saw a chink of sunlight and it makes me feel good!
Arriving at the aid station it's..... As soon as you see people it really gives you
a massive boost, it really does you good. It's an emotional high that you don't experience
very often. That's one reason why I run. I love this feeling.
So I get my "Come on Dad" on her little sign and cheers.
That really makes me happy and gives me the motivation to carry on.
Also there's warm food, the change of clothes, a chance to get dry, put on warm layers.
And away we go into 10 rainy kilometres!
That's how it is in an Ultra, There are times when it's really hard, really difficult.
The human body is mad because if you just dig in and tell yourself:
"You got to get there, got to keep going" you sometimes find unexpected reserves
and even times when you actually feel ok and find yourself running with ease, like it's just a 10k.
I've always loved the descents gaining a bit of speed on the technical tracks.
I manage to find my legs and I'm going well, and for 10 or 12k I'm moving nicely,
enjoying myself and that's what I've been looking for since the start! Finally, we're there!
And then there's this big track. It's so difficult, I can't go on.
Someone passes me, my mind's gone, I want this to finish.
Finally I make it to the end where I see my family, that does me a lot of good!
Finally it's over!
All's good at the finish, I'm really pleased to have hung in there and finished.
It wasn't easy with all those stages, hard knocks along the way
and the really tough start.
Delighted to see everybody too,
and to be able to share the experience with my family, friends and everybody else.
There's lots of pain, lots of tough times but without doubt, overall
there's a lot more positives than negatives.
So yeah, I'm definitely up for doing another one.
I probably wouldn't have said that on the finish line! But now yes, ready to go again!