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First Start Line of the Trans Aq’ : Le Pin Sec, 4th June 2007
Thank you for my La Trans Aq’ experience last week. It was my first event of this kind. I found it very difficult, but an enjoyable experience. I can only imagine how much work you do to prepare the event, and I am privilieged to take part in stages that you have imagined 25 years previous. Your hard work and attention to detail was evident throughout the whole event.
Special thanks to all of your admin staff. Your caterers were fantastic, such high quality food, please pass on my compliments. Also a special mention to your doctors and nurses and all the people who helped me out in the medical tent after the night stage, when I ran a little too hard and was a little ill. They all asked how I was for the rest of the event, which was very nice of them. I still enjoyed the night stage anyway, and will always remember the ascent of the Dune du Plya.
I don’t think I appreciated how much sand there would be on the stages ! I surely underestimated the difficulty involved. To have faced La Trans Aq’ and been sucessful, has given me more confidence to face my future challenges.
I hope the 2008 event fills to capacity of 220, and you get more international entries. I have posted up my racing blog online, and I will give the La Trans Aq’ excellent reviews everywhere I can.
Thank you for the experience. I am a ’leek’ no longer !
Regards
Richard Weremiuk (Number 107)
What a fantastic event and a shared experience that we will remember for the rest of our lives. It feels like we were on a different planet for a week, surrounded by beautiful, warm and friendly people, like a family, all with the same ideas and goals. It was great to be with people who understand what we do (unlike colleagues at work, who I’m sure don’t believe us !).
The whole event seems like a dream now and it was hard to get back into ’normal’ life on our return. It was surreal from the beginning - when we arrived to a wonderful lunch with wine, like we were meeting long lost relatives - to the gala evening in the sports hall, complete with brass band, thunder and lightening. Awesome !!
The trails were wonderfully varied and intricate and very beautiful - and a lot hillier and sandier than we were expecting. Thank you so much for all your hard work in finding them and obtaining permission for us to run on them. I am proud to say that we kept to your route exactly, just as you had designed it. The excellent waymarking meant that we could run separately - Vaughan is a faster runner than me, but is navigationally-challenged ! So, for the first 3 days I ran alone and I loved it. No pressure and plenty of mint sweets to keep me going ! We ran together during the night section, because I did not want to run alone then. The Dune du Pyla was magnificent and we were lucky enough to reach it just as the sun disappeared over the horizon - an amazing sight.
As it became apparent that I was up for second place in the women’s race, Vaughan altruistically stayed with me during the last 2 days, so that he could encourage me. I was definitely grateful for this on the last day, when I really struggled along the beach at the end - it was interminable !
The bivouac sites were also remote, beautiful and peaceful. Thank you for finding and arranging them for us to enjoy. The camaraderie is one of the special aspects of these events and we really enjoyed the small number of participants. Your volunteers, catering staff and everyone involved couldn’t have looked after us better. They were all concerned for our well-being and it was great getting to know them.
There are so many things that we need to thank you for - it is impossible to list them all. Suffice it to say that we thank you wholeheartedly for everything that you do to enable us to enjoy your region of France in the best way possible. We can see why you love it !
We are looking forward to returning next year to meet you again and to sample more beautiful pine forest trails and bivouacs and, of course, the Medoc wine !!
Anne and Vaughan Wade (66 & 67)
This 2007 Trans Aq’ was just pure happiness.
It brought together all the right ingredients to make it a success.
Beauty, kindness, purity, simplicity, authenticity.
A big thank you goes to both Gérard and Caroline who have such luck to be surrounded by an exceptional team of helpers.
And a special mention, for a couple, as delicious as the different dishes that they concocted for us.
Patrick Grandin (a happy competitor – Bib N° 28)
First of all THANKS and again THANKS for these 6 days of “Passion”…
The “Passion” is the “Suffering” and suffering there was for you too.
I hope that you now have time to recover.
I managed to cross the finish line and that was my goal. What a joy to now have this star after a year of waiting.
With all my friendship.
Sylvie MICHON (Bib N° 65)
PS - My problem since this morning is : am I going to sign up for the Cannonball ???
First of all, a thousand bravos and a thousand thanks that I would like you to share with the all of your great team of helpers without forgetting Laurence and Benoît, official suppliers of culinary delights for our morale and physical comfort.
You have offered us some really great moments of pleasure, meetings, and friendliness is some magnificent scenery. We’ve all felt the love and passion that you have for this event and superb region.
What a beautiful, but difficult Trans Aq’. I lived through some really pure moments of happiness, but I also endured pain and suffering that comes when crossing that magical finish line, an exceptional dimension.
The Trans Aq’ must live, it must give still more to those who are in search of the truth, the authentic, the difficulty of sport but also the solidarity and the friendliness that we should find in all extreme racing.
It is us, the runners, who should be the ambassadors for this unique race.
Once again thank you. And I hope to see you again very soon.
The tenant of TRELLA PUPA, sitting sadly in front of his resin pot full of sand !
Eric Bouisset (Bib N° 31)
This morning I went back to work, my head still in the stars of the night run, the stage that I preferred, despite the ribbon problems ; it’s difficult this change of atmosphere ! And how do I explain to my colleagues, when I cross them in the corridor, what the Trans Aq’ environment is all about ??
And now I’ve decided to empty my pack, too tired to do it yesterday after travelling back home. And there, my emotions go haywire, all that sand… I didn’t think that it could hit me so emotionally ! And there I see the climb of the Dune du Pyla (that resembles strangely the climb of the volcanos in the Auvergne this winter, in the soft powdery snow).
So, there, it’s over, I have to land, it’s just as difficult this year as it was last year to turn this page. Looking forward to seeing the photos, mine and yours !
Thanks to both of you, mission accomplished. Well done !
Valérie Levai (Bib N° 64)
PS – please transmit to Jérôme my thanks and admiration : without his physical and mental help, I wouldn’t have been at the start line of the last stage ; he got me back on my feet, in all meanings of the word !!
Back in my region of Champagne, I would once again like to thank you all for this 3rd edition. Very good organisation, there is really nothing else left to say !!! The next one will be even better !! And you can count on me to spread the word…
Sportingly
Pascal Ferrebeuf (Bib N° 93)
I think, that like all of the runners of this edition, I’m finding it a little hard to come down to earth. After my first wipe out in the first edition, I couldn’t link Trans Aq’ to failure, this race is much too good for that.
Now it’s nothing but happiness ; images and strong moments lived within the Trans Aq’ family.
Simply an enormous thank you and well done for everything you’ve done ; you and your helpers.
So now that I’ve had my revenge, what if we did it again ? J
Hoping to be able to share many, many kilometres with you, regards
Gregoire Trunet (Bib N° 33)
In three words : it was GREAT !
Even better than last year (bivouacs more isolated, the gala evening…).
The Trans Aq’, many think it’s 230Km of beach, monotonous like the MDS, flat… When really it’s 100% TRAIL.
The false image comes also from the magazine articles that prefer to show pretty sea-side pictures.
See you soon and once again well done.
Benoît Laval (Bib N° 130)
A big hello to both of you from a Parisien who’s fallen in love with something crazy, difficult, beautiful and magic…
A thousand thank you’s for bringing me out of my silliness, me a Parisien who had never run a trail or slept under canvas ! Just adventure, landscapes, passions, meetings ! My bivouac buddies, Matthieu, Christian (the guy from Marseille !), Laurent, Marc, Thierry and Eric…
I imagine that everything has already been said about the Trans Aq’, so…
Eric Dodin (bib N° 111)
The pressure has only died down today, I feel that there is a great emptiness around me. Where are all my kind organisers, always attentive, with a word for everyone ; where are my helpers, so devoted, smiling ; where is the start line, my bottle of water, my physio, my road book and my plasters ??? Where are my friends from La Gracieuse, brothers and sisters in laughs and tears, Bertrand, René, Dominique, Susan…
The event that you’ve brought to life is an extraordinary adventure : it puts the physic to work but it’s the mental and morale that drives. And everything is done so that everything works like clockwork. That’s why I want to thank you for making moments like this possible. And if you ask yourselves so often why you do all of this : fighting all year round to get the authorisations, going out on reconnaissance, getting official support, finding sponsors, etc… Just know that it really is all worth it for us the runners (…walkers…), for the happiness that the Trans Aq’ generates, this lethargic state, the impression of living a dream, like being in a bubble for a week… So that explains today’s “blues” because I’m no longer at your side…
Amaury Delerue (Bib N° 99)
Together
Even if we’re different
And know how to travel across time
Live the same emotions
Have a heart that trembles
Simply together
And the dreams, all those dreams that we no longer make
And the dreams, all those dreams we thought were lost
It just takes a spark, and all at once
They come back greater, in the soul of us…
Thanks to you.
Thank you.
2 extracts from songs by Pierre Rapsat (Belgium) all in the Trans Aq’ spirit.
Jean-Pierre Bodson (Bib N° 129)
(Unauthorised translation by Sue – Sorry I couldn’t find anything on the Net to help me)
As a runner, I really appreciated the itineraries that you cooked up for us (especially the Dune du Pyla) and the kindess and warmth of the helpers encountered along the whole length of the circuit. As an organiser (because I also, organise Trail races in my neck of the woods, although less important) I was very attentive to all that happened backstage Well done for your reactivity and availability. I was also able to appreciate the extent of the organisation.
This great adventure finished with an also great evening (lively right from the start) where the “Banda” really shook us up…
Thanks once again for everything and perhaps I’ll see you soon…
Marc Membrado (Bib N° 59)
Thank you to everyone for this dream week.
Thank you Gérard and Caroline ; thank you to all the helpers on this Trans Aq’, for your encouragements, your good humour, and your knowledge.
Thanks go to Laurie and Benoît for their very good meals. It was great.
Just great and good memories !
Marie Sergé (Bib N° 26)
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for everything, it was royal and it’s a luxury these days to be able to live such a week with such authentic personalities.
Clara Baechler (Bib N° 21)
What can I say… a week of being down in the dumps, to ask myself everyday why is it over !
It’s really a “must” to be able to participate in this type of event in France.
Perfect organisation ; a family-style welcome and extraordinary human relationships.
On the technical side, those who love Trail running and food management were well served !
And to top it all, even fanatics of orienteering found the shoes to fit or a compass to guide !
Thank you, Gérard, Caroline and the whole team.
Only good things to say but with the exception of one NEGATIVE POINT :
The impossibility to be able to register for the 2008 edition !!!
Be in touch again soon
Fabrice NGUYEN-TRONG (Bib N°131 Team - Lous CUTIOTS)
TRANShumance in Aquitaine
Today, with a head full of memories, nostalgia, happiness still, and a longing to start it all again, to be with you. I don’t want to lose the images I have, I need to keep it with me in the back of my head.
To leave again for this transhumance through the Landaise and Girondine forests, where hostile tides as well as a few mosquitoes and flat flies (not all of them though !!!???) hunt us down, to leave space for the pines and a few “cutiots”. For a week, you were our kind and endearing shepards and shepardesses. Thanks to you the Trans Aq’ really does have a soul, your really are great people, change nothing. I always had the impression that you were running with us. A sincere thank you to all the other participants for the time spent together, pleasures shared in harmony. I think that I can say on behalf of the 8 cutiots of Cap de l’Homy that week 23 of the year 2007 will be a long lasting memory in their minds. I embrace both of you.
Nathalie (Bib N° 40)
Hi ! How are you ?
After the race,I had trip in Paris,so I came back to Japan yesterday.
Thank you very much for your helping and kindness.
I was worried about I could not make myself understood to another people, but you helped translate everything in English for me and it was very kind of you.
I was very happy and enjoyed this race.
I’m very glad to have met you all
I am writing an article about Trans-Aq for a japanese magazine, so I will ask you some questions soon.
Mie Minezawa - Japan ( Bib N° 114)
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