For François D’Haene, running 171 kilometres, the distance of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), is not enough. So he decided to double down on the race that made him famous — he leads the list of winners with four victories, the same as Kilian Jornet — in the 330 of the Tor des Géants, an extreme adventure with its epicentre in Courmayeur, on the Italian side, in the Aosta Valley, with some 25,000 metres of cumulative elevation gain that he covered in 69 hours, eight minutes and 32 seconds. Because the odyssey not only involved managing rhythms, but also how to sleep. A feat, because what he defines as “technical madness” due to the complexity of the route took him seven days the first time he tried it. With that explorer’s approach, he crossed the finish line on Wednesday. “For me, the ultra trail is not about lowering a segment by five seconds, or your heart rate, or training in hypoxia. You have that crazy route ahead of you, do it. I think less about performance than about adventure.” Not only does it sound good: it won.
D’Haene, 38, appears at every start with a look of excitement: “Now you have to run!” Without thinking about how much time he needs to get to that refreshment point, without calculations, because the mountain breaks them. “In UTMB everyone arrives dead at the last descent. It’s nice to run at 20 kilometres per hour at the start in Chamonix; let’s see 20 hours later.” That’s why he defines himself as an explorer rather than a runner and writes his own method. “When you do something many times, you already know it’s like that. For example, I’m always more tired at dawn or dusk because of the change in light. I do the same with hydration, nutrition or shoes. I listen more to my feelings than to science.” That’s why he ignores his pulse in an ultra, a guide that many need.
Despite the magnitude of his challenges, fear is not among his feelings. “Of course, this is my life, but my life will continue if I am not at a UTMB start again. If I have a bad day, I can go home to my family. If you think you are going to fall, you will fall, for sure.” The fact that he does not look at numbers does not diminish his commitment, his two years of preparing for a goal, his ten consecutive days of training in the area, his good feelings from his last race with a friend. He rubs his hands together because it is the book that he has written. That is why he does not feel relief at a finish line. “I feel a bit sad because it is over. Of course, you are destroyed and you want to get there, but it is the end of the party.”
Especially at UTMB, a race he refuses to run every year to maintain his freedom. “Why? To prove that your performance can be better? I don’t run for that. Of course I could win the following year, but four years later… (puts on a mischievous smile) That’s not so easy anymore.” He won in 2017, in 2021 and plans to return in 2025. And a challenge for himself. “Can you do it again? You don’t even know.” That’s why he doesn’t mind leading the list of winners, adding more than Kilian. “Maybe he’s a little more competitive than me,” he suggests. “We’re totally different. He likes to measure things, he’s dedicated his life to his performancefrom the beginning; I spend more time training than I did 10 years ago, but it’s not my life. If not, I would have a lot of pressure and I wouldn’t feel comfortable. I have a lot of respect for what he does and if we were together on a ride we would have a great time, but for me it would be impossible.”
A scarred career, because bad ultras leave their mark, those memories reappear. “If it happens to you it is because you should not have been at the start. It has happened to me twice because I was not there for the right reasons, because that race was not really my choice.” That is why the why is non-negotiable. “For UTMB I have to win many races, organize everything, have my head there for three years before. If you do it because your friend did it, it is impossible for you to finish it. If you really want to do it, if it is your dream… of course you will go through pain and bad times because it is crazy, but if you are humble, you will be able to improve.”
He expects that one day he will stop winning races, or even competing in them. “But retiring from spending long days in the mountains? No. For me it is not a job, it is a passion. I do not do it because I have a sponsor.” And he makes up for that difference with Kilian. “I did not win UTMB because I wanted to win UTMB; it happened because I wanted to do UTMB and in the end I won it. Runners who only want to win it will never achieve it.” The guy who combined cycling with mountain skiing or running, because he liked it, because of the feeling, is one of the best runners in history. But his priority remains exploring. “If competing prevents me from being here in 10 years because I destroy my body or my mind, I will stop right now. My goal is not to win UTMB, but to continue doing the route with a friend in 20 years.”
