Her tears rising, her little signature jump when crossing the finish line, two signs expressing the relief of Blandine L’hirondel at the moment of winning for the 2024 French Trail Long Championships. A 58 km race in the Drôme where, kilometer after kilometer, fatigue joined the satisfaction of a new level, after the doubts experienced in recent months. A good start to a season of renewal for the French trail runner whose autumn and winter were hardly encouraging

A few weeks after her admirable third place at the UTMB in August 2023, the 33-year-old trail runner noticed a stress fracture in her calcaneus. An injury far from trivial, “I didn’t give my body enough time to recover.” A weakened bone which “took a toll on him physically, but also mentally. There is nothing more valuable than health, and I realized that high-level sport had put my health on hold,” continues the obstetric gynecologist now based in Mendes. The conclusion of a year in which the athlete will have had “highs and lows, this year 2023 has been rather mixed.”

After months of uncertainty, Blandine L’hirondel finally resumed training in mid-January: “I wanted to take the time to heal this fracture and my general condition.” She started running for five minutes, then an hour at the end of January. A late recovery leaving little time to prepare for the French Championships scheduled for early April. A period during which she had “a lot of doubt” and had “a hard time judging myself against the fitness level of others”, especially with the increase in the general level of trail running on a national and international scale.

Elected athlete of the year by the French Athletics Federation in 2022, Blandine L’hirondel also knew the importance of these national championships which conditioned her participation in the next European Championships in Annecy, from May 31 to June 2. Hence her great pride and joy during her victory in the Drôme, where she won with 6 minutes ahead of Julie Roux and 14 over Adeline Martin.

Before these winter doubts, the world champion had already expressed a need for something new, symbolized by her change of coach. After years of collaboration with Philippe Propage with whom she “always gets along very well, he is a very good trainer”, she wanted “a new approach to training, more scientific”, by choosing ‍Lilian Gugliero as coach.

She, who two years previously declared that she was not an enduring profile, has also acclimatized well to long distances. While she had never completed a race over 100 kilometers, she brilliantly obtained 3rd place in the UTMB 2023. “I liked the distance and the discipline,” she says. This performance led to a new reflection regarding his ambitions.

Looking back, nothing predestined the trail runner to this extraordinary sporting destiny. Having trained in dance and gymnastics, Blandine L’hirondel has never been in an environment exposed to sport. On the contrary, she first follows time-consuming medical studies. After completing her first six years in Caen, she chose to carry out her specialization in Reunion. “When I chose Reunion, I didn’t even know that there were small mountains around, what I was looking at were the pool parties, the small rums and the evenings between interns”.

As the bivouacs progress, “loaded like mules with rum and alcohol”, the Norman discovers her good physical capacities when the ground rises, “each time I waited for the others while I was there more loaded”. During these outings, she regularly meets runners and joins a group before taking her first bib. The results follow, notoriety begins to rise.

Having passed through Bordeaux, Bayonne, without forgetting Spain and Mayotte, Blandine the swallow moved around a lot during her medical studies. It was finally to Mendes that she put her things down. A real favorite: “I really got hooked (with Lozère), I am someone who really likes to be in peace and quiet in nature.”

The double world champion has “always done things to excess”. His schedule retains the mark of this temperament. “I have two passions, obstetrics-gynecology and trail running.” In 2022, she chooses to work part-time in order to allow optimal practice of trail running at a high level. Since 2023, she has even launched into the media with participation in the podcast La bande à D, with personalities that “I admire a lot in trail running (…). It’s not a constraint at all, we’re having fun.”

Despite this strong activity, the Mendoise has decided to restrict itself in this year 2024. “I made some mistakes last year, I got into a spiral where we start to underperform a little because we are tired so we want to reassure ourselves with competitions but as we are underperforming, we want to hang on to a race behind when we just need to stop and rest.”

For this, she decided to concentrate on 3 races for this light season. In addition to the French Championships, the 33-year-old has two goals, the European Championships and the UTMB where she wants to improve her 2023 time (editor’s note: 24h22m50s). “What’s important is that I perform well. The level becomes so high that we have to be 100%.” Although her future is uncertain, Blandine L’hirondel remains attracted to one race in particular, the Grand Raid de la Réunion. The legendary race on the island where she started trail running 8 years ago. Why not “in a year,” where it all began?

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