• Every other Thursday, in its "Off the field" section, 20 Minutes explores new spaces for the expression of sport, unexpected, unusual, clever or booming.
  • This week, we are dedicated to the athlete Guillaume Ruel, capable of great performances on the marathon format, but especially in the 100 km on the road, where he holds the record of France (in 2h19).
  • At 25 years old, the Caen native will now try to set the world record in the discipline, on May 21 in Tokyo.

Dear parents who love our "Off field" section, do not hesitate to let your children go on an adventure. Ultra-cross-country skier Guillaume Ruel, the youngest France champion of the 100 km, remembers in any case that at 10 years old, he left the family home in Coutances (Manche) to run an improbable 10 km loop alone. "My parents hadn't even scolded me," he smiles. They were even super happy that I achieved this little feat. »

Fifteen years later, here he is about to fly to Tokyo, where he will try to achieve the 21 km road world record on May 100. It must be said that the father, Stéphane Ruel, became double European team champion of 24-hour running races in 2016 and 2018, with a personal best of 263.540 km covered on this extreme format.

The long distances were therefore not likely to frighten Guillaume (25), delighted to accompany his father on events as far as Romania and Northern Ireland, sometimes even taking care of his supplies. "We can say that I have been immersed in it since childhood, slips the Norman, licensed athletics at the age of 10. Teens generally prefer team sports or explosive athletic disciplines such as sprinting and hurdles. My profile quickly detonated in this because I have always participated in the youth categories in the longest distances that the regulations allowed, with 3,000 m then 10 km and half marathon. Similarly, the marathon made me dream very early. »

"A pressure relief valve" during studies

A teenager "a little hyperactive and very introverted", Guillaume Ruel finds himself in the middle distance group of the Coutances club at only 13 years old. Before discovering the marathon for good at the age of 19 in Albi, he also distinguished himself by becoming in 2015 junior skyrunning world champion, on the 42 km and vertical kilometer formats. Insisting on staying in Normandy and concentrating his training on the road, he took a step forward during his six years of pharmacy studies in Caen. "Running then took on an extra dimension for me," he says. I was training two to three times a day, so the results were quickly felt. I used my passion as a pressure relief valve to clear my head and then be able to work again. »

Champion of France under 23 on semi (in 1h05) and marathon (in 2h25) in 2017, he is retained by the French Athletics Federation for internships in Portugal and Kenya with the France A marathon team. And this at 17 years old. Operated on a bone growth in the heel in 2019, forced to stop all competition then due to Covid-19, then victim of asthma attacks and allergies pushing him to abandon several races, Guillaume Ruel goes through a long period of doubt, when he tested himself for the first time over 100 km, during the 2021 France championship in Amiens.

"It decompartmentalizes distances"

An incredible challenge, on a 50 km round trip along the Somme, for a young athlete who has never run more than a marathon. "I hadn't even done any specific training for 100 km but I was tempted," smiles Guillaume Ruel. In my mind, I was starting to win. If I couldn't, I decided to stop running because I was tired of not having the result of my investment. This October 16, 2021, it is the revelation on very long distance. He flew on the bases of the France record for 70 kilometers, before struggling to complete the last quarter of the race. He still won in 6h42 (15 km/h average), which allowed him to become the youngest France champion in the discipline, at 23 years old.

"It seemed quite easy in terms of pace, it was like a fast jogging," summarizes the interested party, qualified at the same time for the world championship of the distance, in August 2022 in Berlin. His first masterstroke over 100 km caught the eye of Salomon, who last year made Guillaume Ruel his only French pro athlete in running (excluding trail) with marathon runner Anaïs Quemener. "It's a rather confidential discipline and usually reserved for experienced athletes," says Alexandre Huno, marketing manager at Salomon. To see him land there at 23 like a UFO, it says a lot about his potential. And like Jim Walmsley in trail running, he decompartmentalizes distances. »

"I could see myself working in a pharmacy"

Because before facing endless repetitions of 7.5 km loops in Germany, Guillaume Ruel "pulverizes" in 2022 all his times on marathon and 50 km formats, with the European record of the distance (2h47) in support, which shows all his versatility. "Less than two years earlier, my life was defined: I saw myself working in a pharmacy and running the marathon around 2:20 without optimizing my full potential," summarizes the one who graduated in pharmacy on July 1, 2022. Since then, he has been replacing two days a month in a pharmacy near Caen so as "not to lose his hand". The rest of his time is obviously spent running.

In Berlin, the youngest of the event led the race alone for 85 km, on the basis of the world record, before cracking and finishing fifth. He set the record of France in 6:19, 23 minutes less than on his first 100 km. "The idea of being able to beat the world record [6:09] has since matured in my head," says the Norman. He will be very well surrounded, on May 21 in Tokyo, alongside three formidable Japanese, namely the reigning world champion, the vice-world champion, and the current world record holder. To prepare for this event, Guillaume Ruel completes a long cycle of preparation with weeks of nearly 250 km of running (in 13 training sessions), with also between 6 and 8 hours of weekly stationary cycling, plus muscle building.



"Until the 60th km, it's like a ride"

With as a small sequence of nice preparation for example the marathon of Nantes (6th in 2h23) on April 23rd and the 50 km around Bologna (2nd in 2h52 in Italy), only two days later. "It's very exciting to think that we are facing a time that has only been run once by a human being," he slips before wanting to dethrone the 2:09 of Nao Kazami on his land. Guillaume Ruel is aware that the prospect of such a world record on the road does not excite the crowds. What drives him to give everything on this format?

It's quite ungrateful, it remains in a certain anonymity. We race on asphalt, there is not the dimension of beautiful landscapes and that's all for the performance, the time, the place. It's a very different philosophy from trail running, UTMB. The 100 km road is really a fight against oneself. Up to the 60th km, it's easy, like a walk in which you have to pass the time. But as the race progresses, we put ourselves in a little danger. We find ourselves in a "bread cellar". It is in this zone of discomfort that I experience pleasure, pushing my limits and suffering, without being maso. You learn about yourself during these two hours of effort to push your limits. »

To the point of happening throughout his career major athletics championships, in which the 100 km and even the 50 km are not invited? "To choose, I would rather participate in the Olympics in marathon than become world record holder in the 100 km, says Guillaume Ruel. But on the other hand, European runners are in the anonymity of performance on the marathon, far from African runners. Over 100 km, I can play the leading roles. Author of a personal best of 2h15 on the Seville Marathon in February, Guillaume Ruel is currently part of the French Top 10 over 42 km. But he has no illusions about his chances of getting one of the three French tickets to participate in the Paris Olympics. "The time required is 2:08, 2:09 and it's impossible for me to get such a time by December," says the one who turns more to the 2028 or 2032 Olympics. Until then, our pharmacist runner would even have time to play "UFOs" in another discipline.

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