“Come on, have a minute of rest… Anyway, personally, I like to do push-ups at this time. Twice a week since last October, Yoann Stuck makes life difficult at a training group of a dozen runners whom he finds in the 5th arrondissement of Lyon and in Ecully (Rhône). “I try to motivate the Lyonnais to go outside, explains this elite trail runner. The city offers beautiful little paths and between the two hills, you can really have fun and find some elevation. “It is also the way for him to best prepare for a 2023 season which he has planned “in a rolling format”.
Because at just 40 years old, Yoann Stuck has set himself a new funny challenge: to participate for the first time in his life in the Paris Marathon. An astonishing bend of 42.195 km for an athlete accustomed to performance on trails combining steep gradients and often long distances. For the past year, the Lyonnais has climbed onto the podium of the Ecotrail de Paris (79 km and 1,450 m of D +), the Ardèche trail (57 km and 2,400 m of D +), and the ‘Ut4M (177 km and 13,000 m of D + in four stages). In December, he even won the Half Marathon des Sables in Peru, with 120 km (1,440 m of D +) covered in three stages and 10:30 in total. Before embarking on a similar eco-adventure in Turkey in May, he will therefore be in Paris on April 2.
“Light years away from the best marathon runners”
And this, with the only precedent on the queen distance of the road, a time of 2h33, synonymous with victory that day, during the first Marathon of Côte Chalonnaise wines in 2017. “There, I would like to complete this marathon in less of 2h30. I want to show that I can be versatile, and therefore perform well in the city”, sums up the sales consultant in the running store. Spode, located in the city center of Lyon. This specialist in 80-100 km in the mountains admits “not even knowing the best times of the Paris Marathon”. Before widening his eyes when told that the record, signed by Kenyan Elisha Rotich in 2021, is 2:04.
I’m used to running much longer distances and I’m light years ahead of the best marathoners, he says. I’ll be in my bubble and I’ll run for myself, at the pace needed to go under 2:30. This is the discipline where you need the most regularity and humility. I’m going to lower my head a bit at the start and let the Kenyans go ahead. Their aerial strides are beautiful to see, it has nothing to do with my big thighs! »
No preferential airlock in Paris
The most famous bearded man in the world of trail running is not lacking in humor or enthusiasm before tackling this challenge: “It gives me pleasure to discover the Paris marathon, which is historic, and which has the advantage of being scheduled at the start of the season. It therefore does not crash my preparation for the trail at all. “This one must on the other hand obviously change his training for a few weeks, by integrating “sessions on track”. But by the way, can an elite trail runner hope to perform very well in the medium term on the road? “Jim Walmsley still runs the semi in 1h02”, recalls Yoann Stuck, determined to show that the worlds of road running and trail running do not have to be compartmentalised.
“We notice that a lot of athletes go from road running to trail running, and I find it funny to break the codes by doing the opposite path”, smiles the Lyonnais. Nevertheless, the latter faces a major difficulty in view of April 2. “I will not be able to be in a preferential airlock (2h30) for an elite runner because in the eyes of the organization, I have no race to justify my presence there, he confides. For example, I won the Traversée des Dentelles de Montmirail (21 km) in 1h14, but this event cannot be taken into account for the Paris marathon. »
“I smoked 30 cigarettes a day”
Yoann Stuck is more than just one difficulty in his “atypical journey”. “In 2010, I weighed 95 kg, I had smoked 30 cigarettes a day for eleven years and I chained pints of whiskey and coke in the evening, says the guy, who then lived near Avignon. And since I worked in the evenings at a pizza maker, I turned at least one pizza a day…”
The change of course has therefore been total for the current top-level trail runner, who now weighs 70 kg. A year after his discovery of the Paris marathon, Yoann Stuck would like to tackle, for the first time in 2024, another legendary race, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), in its flagship format of 170 km (and 10,000 m of elevation gain). A big gap that fits the character perfectly.