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"It's my little pride": despite the cancellation, he runs two Paris marathons in the week

2021-04-11T05:25:32.916Z


More than 56,500 runners are registered to participate in the connected Paris marathon. Objective: run 42.195 km between April 5 and 11. S


He set his watch on Monday morning at 6 a.m.

The curfew and government measures prohibited her from leaving early.

3h20 later, Sébastien Soupe completed his Paris marathon connected around his home.

56,500 runners have registered on the “Strava” platform to participate in the connected Paris marathon.

In a world without Covid-19, France's biggest popular race should have taken place on April 11.

Obviously impossible to let go of thousands of runners clustered on top of each other in times of pandemic in the streets of the capital.

So to maintain the link, ASO (Amaury Sport Organization) is organizing the connected marathon with one goal: to cover 42.195 km when you want and at your own pace with only one imperative: to complete the distance between April 5 and 11.

Sébastien Soupe is the first of all to have managed the distance.

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“It was my goal starting so early,” says the 45-year-old marathoner.

I got up at 5 o'clock and at 6 o'clock sharp when the outing was authorized again, I went.

I ran quietly, without hurting myself or drawing on my strength to finish in 3:20.

But when I arrived, looking on the app, I saw that a runner had started his at midnight sharp but he did it on a treadmill in his living room, I don't know if that matters.

I am also ahead of riders from Taiwan who ran before us with the jet lag.

I still think that I am the first French to have run the connected marathon outdoors while respecting the rules.

It's my little pride of the week… ”

Sébastien Soupe, author of two marathons during the week.

DR / Jean-Denis Izou DR / Jean-Denis Izou

It doesn't matter if it doesn't.

Because Sébastien Soupe risks being the first and the only one of this imposing virtual peloton to achieve another performance: to swallow a second marathon in the week.

Even if on the “Strava” app for the April 8 challenge, some crazy people already had 267 km on the clock in 4 days!

Sébastien Soupe had scheduled his second marathon this Thursday and why that day?

“I ran my very first marathon in Paris in 2001. I was 25,” he says.

It turns out that it was April 8, which is also my son's birthday.

So, to commemorate this double event, I told myself that I was going to do a marathon again on April 8.

Its important to me.

"

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To succeed, Sébastien Soupe did not start at the top of the Champs-Elysées as in 2001. He did not arrive on Avenue Foch either as the Paris marathon usually does.

He ran stupidly around his neighborhood.

“I did a loop,” he says.

I went back to my house where I had left bottles to hydrate me.

On the

real

marathon, there are refreshment points every 5 km and you must not miss them if you are looking for a stopwatch.

On my own, I managed without charging myself either.

"

" I need it.

I am addicted "

And here is 84.390 km on the program in two times 3h20.

Normalcy for the 40-year-old who runs a good hundred kilometers a week.

“When we run, we sometimes say that there are those who have managed to finish a marathon and the others,” notes Sébastien Soupe.

Me, I have the pride - and it concerns only me because I do not sing it under the roofs - to tell myself that I am a marathoner.

I ran twenty-five in all.

I have done the ones in Lyon, Annecy several times and since 2001, I have done the Paris marathon five times.

Once I said to myself:

Never again!

I arrived in tears after having taken the famous

30 km

wall

for once in the face.

The "never again" did not last very long: since 2012, Sébastien Soupe has run an average of two "official" marathons per year.

“I have a record at 2h50 and I would like to lower it a bit further.

If you finish a marathon in 2h48 ′, that means that you are running at an average of 15 km / h.

This is my next challenge but I have to hurry because the age is advancing.

"

Victim of a serious motorcycle accident in 2003, Sébastien Soupe put the marathon on hold for a few months in his life.

but he quickly returned to it: “I dabbled in a lot of sports: basketball, football… But it's in running that I feel the best.

This feeling of freedom is priceless.

Like many nowadays, I am teleworking and I need this possibility at lunchtime to go for an hour for an hour to get some fresh air, to change without owing anything to anyone.

You can decide to go for a run for just 5 minutes before doing it just by leaving your house.

There is nothing to reserve.

It's the only sport that allows it and I need it.

I am addicted.

"

Sébastien Soupe has not yet registered for the “real” Paris marathon which should take place, if all goes well, on October 17th.

It will be decided at the last moment.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2021-04-11

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