“I like adventure, discovering new trails while mixing it with a sporting challenge where I push my limits, so the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) will be a great challenge,” assures Aurélien Sanchez. This 35-year-old from Toulouse, the only French winner of the Barkley in 2023, an ultra-trail in the United States considered the most difficult in the world, will leave at the beginning of June for a 4,200 km race between Mexico and Canada, across the American west.
A legendary race with varied landscapes combining the desert in California with the high mountains of Oregon and Washington. To ensure the logistics of this challenge, the trail runner will be followed by his partner and one of his cousins by car, who will ensure the transport of equipment, food and water supply.
He trains on the hillsides in Toulouse and in the Pyrenees
“Leaving the Mexican border, I will run at night to avoid the high temperatures of the desert and sleep during the day, this requires good logistics in order to be followed for sleeping in a tent,” explains Aurélien Sanchez, who already knows the United States having lived there for three years. Then, I will have high mountains up to 4,000 m altitude so I will have to carry more equipment because I will have less help. My goal is to beat Karel Sabbe’s record for 3 years, which is 46 days 12 hours and 50 minutes.
The Toulouse trail runner therefore plans to run 90 km per day to break the record. To achieve this, the athlete, who is looking for partners for his journey, prepares himself physically to further improve his basic resistance with training on the hills of Pech David in Toulouse and in the Pyrenees.
