Yoann's story is atypical, and we'll let him tell it to you in his own words:
"In 2010, I had terrible stamina but in the elbow-lifting. I smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day. I went out every night. I managed to exceed 90 kilos for just over 1 meter 80. I lined up more meters of shooters than kilometers on the trails. On one occasion, I couldn't remember where I'd parked my car. Food wasn't important to me, I preferred pizzas and carbo pasta.
At the time, running was totally unknown to me. I didn't even know the distance of a marathon. I've had an atypical career in sport, especially in the world of endurance. I started my first Footings in August 2010, when I was in Avignon. The first one really lasted 25 minutes and I was completely dry. The first thing I did afterwards was to open a beer as a reward. Something I still do today after my races. My diet was also catastrophic. I had 2 jobs: one during the day and the other in the evening. It was hard to exercise and, above all, to eat properly. What's more, my second evening job was as a pizza maker.
Once I'd moved to Lyon and gradually got to grips with my Footings, I really took a liking to the sport, but I immediately wanted to continue in a more natural world and get off the road. Lyon's surroundings make this possible: Monts d'Or, Monts du Lyonnais, Beaujolais, even the Alps.
Even if I don't have the soul of a mountaineer, the Trail is a sport that I find out of the ordinary, where you exchange and live unforgettable moments. I still want to be a fairly regular runner. I change the playing fields like the track, the road or the paths.
Long distances in the middle of nature, where you feel very small in the face of the reality of your existence, make me appreciate these moments even more. I enter into a meditative phenomenon and it helps me to find myself again." Proof that hard work and perseverance pay off, Yohan is racking up results: Winner of the La Plagne 6000D Kilomètre Vertical in 2019, 3rd in the Mont-Blanc 10Km, Top 10 in the SaintéLyon, and many more...
