An electronics engineer from Toulouse has just placed France in the history of the Barkley. This mythical ultra-trail event of 200 km and 20,000 m of elevation gain, in Frozen Head Park (Tennessee), had so far only had 15 finishers in 36 years of existence. At 32, Aurelien Sanchez was able to manage the famous 60-hour time barrier specific to this race of five 40 km loops where only map and compass are allowed, joining the yellow barrier on Friday after 58:23 of an incredible adventure.
This amateur athlete, who had already broken the John Muir Trail record without assistance in 2018 in California (359 kilometers, 14,000 m of D + in 3 days, 3 hours and 55 minutes) but also covered the entire GR10 in the Pyrenees in 2020 (930 km and 55,000 m of elevation gain in 12 days, 5 hours and 22 minutes), spoke at length to 20 minutes after his first successful attempt on the Barkley, considered the toughest race in the world.
How do you feel, less than two days after completing the race of a lifetime in more than 58 hours of effort?
As I managed my race well, in the end I didn’t have that much aches. I was in the shape of my life, with very few doubts. I never had a big moment of pain, it was incredible.
Since when have you had this crazy challenge on the Barkley in mind, which had not seen a single finisher since 2017?
The project started for me shortly before, when I started living in Phoenix (Arizona, from 2016 to 2019). I took a liking to longer and longer hikes, up to 100 km a day in the Grand Canyon. On the spot, people told me once that I was oblivious to embark on such a long day hike, that I was going straight into the wall. That day, I had a click and I wanted to discover my limits by giving myself goals, and starting to train during the week. Since the 2017 edition, marked by the drama of Gary Robbins, which had finished six seconds after the time barrier, I did everything every year to try to be selected. This event with a lot of elevation, at the limit of the possible, spoke to me immediately.
How did you experience these rejections of your application in the five previous editions of the event?
It was very frustrating but it was a good lesson in modesty. The atypical race director Lazarus Lake has his criteria for retaining only 40 runners each year, in order to preserve the Frozen Head park. He wants it to remain authentic and to avoid paths being created. Being held up was out of my control so I deviated from this race a bit, to focus for example on the Chartreuse Terminorum in 2022, which is very similar to the Barkley in France, and without a single finisher in six years of existence. But when I got picked up for the Barkley at the end of 2022, it was a dream come true.
To what extent did you then accelerate all your preparation?
I got used to orientation, day and night, as well as adequate physical and mental preparation. I haven’t neglected anything. The idea is to expect the worst, both in bad weather and suffering on the climbs, to be in the best possible conditions. I analyzed the challenge under all variables. So when I got lost several times on the course when it came to finding the books, in which we had to tear out the page proving our passage at each lap, I didn’t panic, I didn’t start running in all the sense.
Is it this navigation problem that makes the Barkley the toughest race in the world?
Yes, that plus the elevation. Every navigation error costs time and energy. Especially since the alternations of direction on the towers completely change the situation in order to be able to find the books. We really lose our bearings. In January, I happily took to the compass in the Pyrenees every weekend, with off-trail loops, including at night.
How do you best prepare for the efforts on the Barkley course when this park is closed to access throughout the rest of the year?
Since it was my first participation, I really had to learn the course by heart and gain autonomy. So this map of the park, I know it long, wide and across. My darling couldn’t believe it but I spent hours and hours on it at home to be aware of the slightest rock that could help me find my bearings on D-Day.
The whole story around this race, inspired by the flight into the woods of Martin Luther King’s assassin in 1977, isn’t it intimidating for a first participation?
The media have an important role in the perception we have of the park. We all get chills when we get here. But with all the race reports I read, I had no anxiety about the challenge, not even for the two nights out. I knew what I was getting into and I knew there was going to be a lot more pleasure than pain for me. OK, it’s been a long time but I saw it as a game. The park is beautiful and the trail is super cool. In the end, we are there to find books and help each other.
Is there really mutual aid on such an ultra-trail?
Yes, it happened to me several times to show runners at night where the book they were aiming for was. We are fighting against the race itself, not against the runners. We know very well that it had never been finished for six years. It’s a bit of a give and take, if we help a runner find a book, it will necessarily be a good support when we have moments of doubt, or need help navigating another section. There is a real team spirit. Besides, the ideal scenario for me would have been to end up with Guillaume Calmette [victime de douleurs au tendon d’Achille dans sa troisième boucle]with whom I trained hard for two months, and who was a huge support for me.
How do you manage the problem of sleep when you set off for nearly 60 hours on such a grueling race?
Everyone has a different strategy on this. Some sleep on the course, others at camp. I hadn’t planned anything, I adapted to my needs on D-Day. I especially wanted to sleep at night. Well, in this case, I slept only fifteen minutes between loops 3 and 4, and that’s it. This siesta had an effect reset on me, in order to be more lucid during the second night of racing. It’s not like a whole night, but when I got up I almost felt like I was starting a new race, it was amazing. It’s really effective, these micro-naps (smile).
Did it protect you from fairly classic hallucinations for such an ultra?
Not completely, because with fatigue, the unconscious transforms things a bit. In the woods, the second night, noises in my head turned into inaudible voices, as if hikers were talking not far from me. I had the impression that Guillaume [Calmette] spoke next to me when he had given up, it was disturbing. And then I saw hikers all over the place, when it was just rocks and trees. As we staggered a bit in loop 4 with Karel Sabbe [coureur belge finisher lui aussi vendredi], we started shouting in the woods to reboost ourselves. On the Barkley, we are in our bubble, in our world, in another dimension, it’s really exceptional.
Just like becoming the first French finisher, after 37 years of Barkley…
I still have a little trouble making it. It’s weird to think that you’re the first Frenchman, but it’s mostly a combination of circumstances. In any case, I always believed in this challenge which I did not find impossible. I’ve been working for this for six years and it’s an incredible consecration.
Especially since you remain an amateur athlete, who had to invest a lot of money for these two weeks in the United States, with no prize money or even medal on the Barkley…
I’m not a professional athlete and I don’t want to be. It’s my passion and success on the Barkley goes beyond the logistical and material resources that we can have. You have to be convinced of the challenge. Me, I’ve had it in my blood for six years. We often wonder when François D’Haene and Kilian Jornet will come to explode everything here. The question is whether they are ready to lean into this challenge to the point of knowing the park by heart and reading the race reports. It’s an atypical passion, I fell into the pot like Obélix. It’s not a question of being professional or not, but of being driven by the challenge.
How do you explain this success at Frozen Head, six months after your 450th place on the Diagonale des Fous (165 km and 10,210 m of elevation gain in 42h41 in Reunion)?
I wanted to finish the Diagonale in 30 hours but I hadn’t given myself the means of preparation to do so and I completely exploded halfway through. I remain proud to have finished this ultra but it is sure that I have less affinity with these race formats like the Diag’ or the UTMB. This is not where I feast and where I perform. I lack speed, and what I like is the very steep, very slow and technical off-trail. I walk fast on the grounds of the Barkley, where I also walked and not ran 80% of the time. From the efforts of 48 hours in self-sufficiency, with a big drop and the most variables to manage between sleep, food and navigation, it’s more for me.
After reaching the Grail of Barkley, do you really imagine coming back to Tennessee one day?
Some runners have such a need to complete the Barkley that it’s almost torture until they finish it. And once they get there, it’s kind of like a deliverance and they move on. Me, I had a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the whole race and I know that I will come back to the event. Even if the media talk about a sadistic race, I don’t come out traumatized at all.