By Julia Gualtieri
Published on
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A 250 km marathon in the Sahara desert in food self-sufficiency under extreme temperatures and sometimes, between two sandstorms. This is what the Marathon des Sables is, an endurance event created in 1986. Nothing that scares Geoffrey Plisson, 35, construction company manager and resident of Villeneuve-le-Comte (Seine-et- Marl). On the contrary !
8th out of 1200
This is the 3rd time he has taken part. And this 37th edition, which took place from April 21 to May 1, will have allowed him to do his best score individually, arriving 8th out of 1200. Better, with the “Team France” in which he participated with other regulars of the event, they are arrived first.
Usually, it is exclusively Moroccan teams that win, it has been 28 years since a French team came first!
This athlete, still determined, wants to thank Merile Rober (3rd in 2021), on the initiative of creating the team but who could not participate due to a heart problem.
With his teammates Mathieu Blanchard, Erik Clavery and Pierre Meslet, their goal was clearly toseek performance : “We knew each other and we had already done the MDS several times, we had experience”, analyzes Geoffrey Plisson. He learned a lot from each participation:
In an endurance event, there is not only performance, there is also a notion of management, in recovery, in nutrition, in sleep…
A physical and mental challenge
The most that probably helped him this year? The presence of his wife. “It was great. We were able to experience camp life together every night. Otherwise, you are cut off from your family. A family that he tries to preserve daily training essential to his preparation: “I find time very early in the morning or late in the evening to keep moments together”.
At the beginning of May, he therefore returned fulfilled :
The individual classification is great, but the collective victory is really better, there is this emulsion that makes us better individually.
This lover of trails and foot races who prepares theUTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) for this summer, is already planning to play the MDS again: “It’s always exhilarating, extremely powerful. I am always surprised at the mental capacities of human beings. We go through all the states, we have to manage to leave every day. This year, there was 30% dropout. And at the same time, there are these incredible landscapes that remind us how small we are in the face of nature. Honestly, I recommend it to everyone. Without doing it in competition mode, it is accessible to all”.
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