Katie Schide & Germain Grangier:
“UTMB is the race for survivors…”

He has already claimed victories such as the 6000D and Maxi-Race, while the American trail runner won the 90 km at the Mont Blanc Marathon this year. Between two travels, we took the time to discover this atypical couple.

THE BEGINNINGS

Germain: “I was born in Grenoble but grew up in the resort of Les Deux Alpes. I practiced alpine skiing for a long time. Then I moved to the Alpes-Maritimes and started cross-country mountain biking before switching to road cycling. I rode in the amateur first division with the Aix club. An endofibrosis forced me to stop, and I continued my studies in geology to earn my engineering degree. That was when I started running. After one hour, I was dead! I had cycling endurance, but my body wasn’t adapted to running! I finished my studies, increased my outings and the results came. I met the Camus family (Julbo athletes) and it took off.”

Katie: “When I was young, I played every sport offered at school, mainly field hockey. It’s far from trail running but taught me coordination. I later played at a high level in 2008, during my first year at university. I stayed in university for 4 years and began hiking, working a lot on technique. Running was really hard at first, but then you start to go faster and faster. I came to running later, but I was initially more of a hiker. I moved to Switzerland, met Germain and really took a leap forward in my training.”

A TYPICAL DAY IN YOUR LIFE

Germain: “During the season, we rarely stay in the same place for ten or fifteen days. We live in the Mercantour at the foot of the Col de la Bonnette. Not many people live in this valley; it's our decompress zone. We train one to two times a day together. Our life is organized around running. But we also do mountain biking, road cycling, and winter ski touring. When we are home, we have everything we need at our fingertips.”

KATIE, IS IT DIFFICULT FOR AN AMERICAN TO ADJUST TO FRENCH LIFE?

Katie: "The French way of life is not difficult. I really love the Mercantour. I still have to stay a bit in Switzerland to finish my PhD (thesis on earthquakes and landslides in Nepal), but I spend a lot of time here, and it’s really pretty and peaceful. The place is truly beautiful.

The best trails in the Mercantour? It’s really hard to choose. I haven’t even had the chance to test them all.”

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA…

Germain: “I’m aware that social media is an important means of communication, and it can quickly go wrong if you address serious issues. It's not the right place for that. Like in everyday life, I try to keep it light in managing my social media. Social networks are entertainment and a good way to share what we do daily with a light tone.”

Katie: “I think it’s cool because I have lots of friends in the USA that I don’t see very often, and when I post stuff, they can see it. When I come back home, they’re like, ‘Oh, I have a question about this,’ and I think they're happy to see what I’m up to. Here in Europe, I think people follow me because they like to follow my training, see photos of landscapes I post, it inspires them to find new places. It’s nice that I can share my adventures with people who don’t know that much but also places where I love to run.”

YOUR ROLE AS RACE ORGANIZER

Germain: “The race is called ‘One and One,’ it’s an event run in pairs! We participated in the Transrockies in Colorado. You run for a week and camp in the evening. We thought it didn’t exist in Europe. We wanted to create that kind of event with a technical side since we like it when it’s rough! At each stage there is a Via Ferrata section. We didn’t want to add just another race in the calendar; we wanted to innovate. Today, we’re not just event consumers; we are more supportive of organizers. The week after the race, I didn’t train a single day. I only slept, it was harder than running an Ultra!”

THE GOAL FOR UTMB

Germain: “It will be our longest race. I want to finish to have a foundation I can build on in the years to come. It's still a race, so the competitive mindset will take over. It’s complicated to set a goal for something you’ve never done before. I’ve never run more than 120 kilometers in a race. UTMB is kind of the race for survivors. You have to accept it mentally, accept sometimes being very slow but keep moving forward.”

Katie: “I really don’t know, but it’s going to be more interesting than doing another race of the same distance. The competition is really cool, but it’s more of a challenge for me—to see what I can do. When you do a longer race, the sense of accomplishment is much greater at the end, it’s not just about competition. Seeing how you handle unexpected things, seeing what you’re capable of—that’s the point. I think my goal is to try to finish the race and try to stay aware of what’s happening during the race, so in the future I can learn from this experience and improve. But also to take something positive away from such an adventure.”