Extremely-trail, which incorporates a run of no less than 80 kilometers, fascinates and draws a rising target market. What are the runners on the lookout for on this race made up of lengthy efforts and lengthy internal transitions?
Inside the apply of working (path walking-running), ultra-trail sticks out in a singular approach from the Nineties to the 2000s. This self-discipline will revolutionize working within the herbal surroundings for 1 / 4 of a century, providing a rising vary and assembly the expectancies of extra runners looking for extremes and in different places. However greater than the relative selection of recorded arranged ultra-trailers and ultra-trailers, the creativeness related to this tradition contributes to its present recognition, transcending the universe of fans and attracting the media.
Experiencing ultra-trail has turn out to be without equal for a undeniable section of the inhabitants, as a result of this self-discipline embodies the hybridization of the creativeness of efficiency, journey, self-search, team spirit and nature.
3 main pioneering occasions endure witness to this. Once a year, the Mont-Blanc ultra-trail (UTMB) breaks data for registration requests (75,000 requests in 2025) and other folks provide within the Mont-Blanc house right through the week of the development (100,000 other folks), now not forgetting the numerous selection of on-line audience at the Reside Path. The similar is going for Le Grand Raid de Los angeles Reunion which additionally reached its height attendance this yr (7,143 registered for 60,000 requests), together with 2,845 registered for the mythical Diagonale des fous. The Templars preventing within the Causses round Millot (Averonne) whole the mythical trio. In 2025, 15,000 runners will probably be registered (for 90,000 entries), together with 2,800 within the Grand Path des Templiers, the premiere race, and 1,500 within the Staying power ultra-trail.
However why do such a lot of other folks make a choice to visit such excessive lengths? We attempted to grasp this by way of carrying out about 100 interviews and 300 micro-questionnaires with contributors of Diagonale des Fous and UTMB between 2021 and 2024.
Paradigm of hypermodernity
Within the transition from the Nineteen Eighties to the Nineties, hypermodern society values the pursuit of efficiency, the intensification of way of life and the spectacle of oneself.
Sarcastically, ultra-trail could also be a race that encourages slowing down. UTMB
The cult of efficiency has turn out to be the dominant manufacturing fashion of its lifestyles: everyone seems to be invited to discover their limits, to turn their excellence and to reinvent themselves. The apply of ultra-trail working responds to an worried cult of the “performing self,” to make use of Allen Curtin’s time period, that transcends Western societies by way of distinguishing itself from the “submissive self” and echoing the generalization of “mass heroism.”
The ultra-trailer loves to revel in excessive sensations by way of going through odd scenarios on the limits of its functions. He likes to control the unpredictable and symbolically flirts with loss of life to re-enchant his existence. Extremely-trail compensates for excessively monotonous on a regular basis existence and proves to be an antidote to a defeated identification. Residing isn’t sufficient anymore, it’s a must to really feel such as you exist.
The spectacle of himself completes this image. The ultra-trailer is principally on the lookout for a scene of visibility of his unprecedented feat. The tougher it’s, the extra he thinks he’s going to turn out to be a hero within the eyes of others and have the ability to reap advantages with prime symbolic returns on social media and the social existence scene. It’s the person who turns into the main theater of analysis, the object-subject of revel in.
This paradigm is pushed by way of the common sense of acceleration this is particular to the globalized capitalist financial system that calls for everybody to optimize their assets as a way to acquire potency, getting into a race in opposition to time, the usage of the most recent technological inventions, but in addition increasingly more adopting doping habits. The latter may also be noticed in the usage of non-steroidal anti inflammatory medicine (NSAIDs) which are ate up with the purpose of maximizing the possibilities of assembly the problem, whilst those are medicine that may be damaging to well being in scenarios of utmost effort.
Eddie, 42 years outdated, Parisian and senior government in a big corporate testifies:
“To meet yourself against the Diagonale des Fous, there is no better way to prove to yourself that you are still capable of achieving intense things. It is an extreme and brave challenge that suits me perfectly, because you set the time and try to do everything to achieve it.”
Paradigm of transmodernity
Confronted with those excesses of lifestyles and new social demanding situations, any other cultural shape emerged right through the last decade of 2010: transmodernity as thinker Rosa-Maria Rodríguez Magda calls it. Impressed by way of the paintings of sociologists Edgar Morin and Hartmut Roza, he brings in combination two fashions: the outdated however nonetheless lively technocapitalism and the rising ecohumanism. Transmodernity renews the imaginative and prescient of inhabiting our global by way of hybridizing reference fashions. The seek for which means then turns into central to regulating this modern stress by way of in quest of to create coherence in our life. Ecohumanism may also be noticed within the vulnerable indicators of a brand new artwork of residing, visual in a brand new angle against oneself and time, a brand new angle against others and against the surroundings.
A brand new courting with oneself and time is established to the level that the ultra-trail revel in is a part of a continuum that is going from the pursuit of efficiency to the internal quest and alternating moments of acceleration and deceleration. Extremely-trail working is a part of an extended time period that favors moments of deceleration that prefer “getting into resonance.” This manner is advocated by way of the sociologist Romain Rochedi who analyzes the ultra-trail “as a space of deceleration”.
In line with my analysis, a brand new angle against others could also be manifested. If the ultra-trailer continuously locks himself in his bubble to depart as speedy as conceivable or just transfer ahead, he’s additionally increasingly more thinking about sharing moments of team spirit, emotion and collective togetherness. Taking part in an ultra-trail lets in us to create social bonds that prefer the erasure of the person in prefer of frame language and a collective revel in that transcends variations.
After all, a brand new courting with nature seems. Of their apply, ultra-trailers exchange between domesticating the character noticed as an adversary and immersing themselves within the surrounding nature offered as a spouse. The apply of ultra-trail working may also be understood as an immersion into the depths of “one’s” and “one’s” nature because it gives everybody the chance to construct an intimate courting between “working with” and “being with” nature.
Eric, 48 years outdated, from Toulouse and a physiotherapist states:
“Every ultra-trail I participate in I see as introspection. I listen to my body. I take the time to taste it in search of certain emotions. I build special relationships with other runners and nature. All these events promote individual trajectories that ultimately form a collective whole. It is a moment of social cohesion that is not common.”
Social laboratory
Extremely-trail displays the paradoxes of our generation torn between two paradigms: hypermodern acceleration and transmodern deceleration. Taking part in this sort of tournament reinforces other folks’s sense of identification looking for extra constant benchmarks, as though exploring one’s bodily limitations will have to change the limits of which means that the social order not supplies. Then it is about regaining regulate over your future, weaving the thread that connects your true self to a conceivable admirable self.
The ultra-trail thus turns into a metaphor of our time, as it symbolizes the ambivalence of the mobilized reference fashions. This custom lets in each and every candidate to step out of doors of themselves by way of going past their standard benchmarks and returning to be extra resilient within the face of existence’s demanding situations. It then rhymes with the type of rebirth. This is the reason the pursuit of extremely is so sturdy lately.
Olivier Bassey is the writer of Operating With out Limits. The Extremely-Path Revolution (1990-2025) (Out of doors Publications, 2025).
