Do you know the ingredients of a Saturday night fever ideal for Julie Roux, trail runner and young mother of two boys aged 1 and 6? It is obviously an 82 km race starting this Saturday at 11:30 p.m. from Saint-Etienne, with headlamp, muddy/slippery trails and invigorating temperatures guaranteed. This 70th edition of the legendary SaintéLyon (2,273 m of positive altitude difference) is in fact everything that the Grenoble resident dreams of, victorious in 2023 from her first participation (in 6h39), to conclude her intense trail-running season.
“A year ago, just after her success in Lyon in the early morning, she drank a coffee before heading off to catch her train to return to her family life on Sunday,” smiles Xavier Font, manager of Team Salomon. For her, this night run is even very practical for optimizing her organization. » Because where a delicate night of our offspring tends to transform our week at work into a hassle, Julie Roux (30 years old) finds her balance by combining family life, dense professional activity as a microelectronics engineer, and results of very high level in trail running.
“Be careful about the balance between the three poles”
So what is the secret of our “Wonder Woman” from Laval-en-Belledonne (Isère)? “I try to organize my week as best as possible, I manage with my holidays like everyone else,” she says simply. I mostly train around midday, and sometimes early in the morning. And if I now work at 80%, this time is dedicated to the children on Wednesdays, it does not allow me to train more. »
“Julie has this ability to mobilize herself in a hyper-specific manner both in her family management, in her responsible work and in her sporting practice,” observes Xavier Font. But you have to be careful about the balance between the three poles because there aren’t many 30-year-old athletes with two children and such trail running performances. »
If not none, in a sport where Emelie Forsberg (37 years old), the partner of Kilian Jornet, had been a pioneer by becoming a mother in March 2019. Five months after giving birth, the Swede had to resolve to abandonment at the 76th kilometer of the CCC (100 km) in Chamonix. After the birth of her second boy Anselme, in June 2023, Julie Roux decided to return to competition even more quickly.
From the French kayak polo team to the trail running team
Third in September 2023 in Serre-Ponçon (30 km) in 3h06, she does not hesitate to register for the prestigious Grand Trail des Templiers (80 km and 3,530 m of elevation gain from Millau). “I felt in good shape so I said to myself that maybe it was doable, but I no longer had any competitive benchmarks at all,” she confides. Results: the biggest victory of his career in 7h58, only three and a half months after having his baby, then the SaintéLyon won straight away (five months after Anselme’s birth).
A phenomenal double, like her true arrival in the world of elite trail running in 2019. Because before successfully hurtling down mountain trails, Julie Roux was above all a member of the French team… of kayak polo between 2010 and 2018, mainly when she resided in the Montpellier region. There are a priori few connections between this little-known sport, a sort of water polo aboard a kayak with a goal located high up, and trail running. “I have always loved running, starting with endurance races in college,” she still announces. Living in Grenoble and having a child, it made sense to stop kayak polo and get into trail running. »
Julie Roux revealed herself in April 2019 during the 42 km Trail de la Drôme, with a 5th place synonymous with qualification for the world championships. And this only six months after… the birth of her first child Nino.
“We just had to break mental barriers”
“I suspected it was possible to perform after pregnancy. We just had to break mental barriers, and it happened. Then, I didn’t have an incredible race during the 2019 Worlds in Portugal (14th) but it allowed me to join the French team and really get into a performance approach. »
“She kind of arrived out of nowhere,” summarizes Xavier Font, while Salomon signed her for his Team in 2021, after a truncated 2020 season due to Covid-19. The high-flying performances keep coming for Julie Roux this year, from a 2nd place in the Mont-Blanc Marathon (90 km) to the Wildstrubel (72 km)-Ultra Pirineu (100 km) double coronation in the last two months. All this while relying on average on weekly training volumes of just 10 to 12 hours.
“It’s mentally difficult to only do trail running”
“It’s a source of pride because I realize that many trail runners identify the routes, that they take the time to do them beforehand and that they have more hours of training than me,” notes the person concerned. » If rare athletes live 100% from trail running, Julie Roux appreciates her triple life like this.
« For some athletes, it’s mentally difficult to only do trail running. I don’t really know if I would like this life. When you are less fit, morale is more impacted. It requires organization but it also takes pressure off me. If I have a bad race on Saturday, too bad, it won’t change anything about what I do on Monday morning. It has its disadvantages and its advantages, provided you don’t work 50 hours a week anyway. In any case, it makes me feel good to go to work and see people who don’t give a damn about trail running. »
This detachment is undoubtedly a strength for Julie Roux, as is sharing her life with Edouard Laudier, a national level trail runner. Like the UTMB World Series, which presented a new policy last year to affirm their “deep desire to support future mothers and their partners”, the trail is moving on the issue of support for pregnancies.
The UTMB is not (yet) what he wants
“It’s certain that mentalities are changing,” appreciates Julie Roux. Afterwards, we still have to get it into many people’s minds that pregnancy is not an illness, that we can continue to do lots of things, and that we are not going to be out for fifteen years. During my pregnancies, I couldn’t go out on the trails without getting noticed…”
Our file on the trail
Is the path clear towards ultra-trail and a first participation in the UTMB (171 km)? “It’s true that I’m getting longer little by little but at the moment, I don’t yet feel ready to do such a long race. » On the other hand, she imagines herself on the CCC (100 km) in Chamonix in August 2025. But before that, there will be “a long break… with lots of skiing during the winter”. With Julie Roux, rest always remains relative, as you will have understood.
