Stanislas Gruau took on the crazy challenge of connecting Lille to Nice, from EDHEC to EDHEC, using only his legs. He arrived last night, around 6 PM, in Nice, after 15 days of running and 1,150 kilometers. Awaiting a Paris-Athens endeavor soon.
It’s 6 o’clock, and the silhouette of Stanislas Gruau appears at the end of a red carpet in front of EDHEC in Nice. He is surrounded by other runners, friends, and students who completed this last stretch with him, from Cannes for the most courageous. Support he didn’t expect to be so strong and which surprised him: “I wouldn’t have believed it would bring so many people together. I knew what I was attempting was out of the ordinary – it amused my friends – but I received a lot of emails of encouragement.”
This project enticed him at a “a time when you have to dare, not be afraid.” Things that were taught to him at EDHEC, and so, when the planned Lisbon-Barcelona route couldn’t happen, he saw this route logically come to him “like a hyphen between the two campuses.” In France, it’s often easier “sometimes the route was modified the very morning.” Smiling, relaxed, fit but not emaciated, it’s hard to believe he crossed France in 15 days. “The best muscle is still the one between our two ears.” No feat is possible without an unbreakable mindset and “no record without madness.”
No, bankers don’t just chase money
A few years ago, Stanislas didn’t necessarily like running, at least not without a specific purpose or a ball to chase for adding fun. But he eventually got into it, and little by little, he realized his ability to recover quickly. This former EDHEC (School of Higher Commercial Studies) student from Lille ended up enjoying running. A banker in the Paris region, he would eventually run home from work from Saint Germain to the Etoile. 20km in 2 hours instead of one, it’s still an hour less in traffic jams.
“The first supporters on this project were friends. Family, of course, there’s some reluctance from them, besides, you don’t necessarily tell them everything, you protect them! (laughs).” Indeed, it’s not easy to announce that you’re going to run two marathons a day when doctors don’t recommend more than two a year. He too was protected by his staff. At some point, the body is so worn out that “it’s the mind that takes over.” “When thighs are tensed up, if there’s no solution to every problem that arises or a silver lining next to bad news, it becomes very hard.”
This journey allowed him to gain great confidence in himself and taught him a lot about himself. He doesn’t have lessons to give, but there are lessons to learn: in terms of humility, courage, and even patience. Some who accompanied him, notably beyond the 60th km when listening to stories from his travel companions became almost indispensable to overcoming the pain, were able to reap the same benefits. Not to mention the association L’enfant @ l’hôpital, which will receive a donation from the sponsor Cargill.
All roads lead to… Athens
“To have arrived is a pleasure, a relief.” During the journey, it was his positive mindset that allowed him to respond with smiles and friendly gestures to the few obscene gestures faced on the roadside and to remain calm in all situations. “You mustn’t let yourself be affected or disturbed.” Another secret is the segmentation of effort, taking 15 to 20-minute breaks every two hours, and setting specific, concrete goals: “this evening, the cozy bed, the soup” or during nightmare stages with freezing rain straight ahead in never-ending sessions, think of the quarter-hour respite in the warmth of a car rather than the arrival that will be after midnight.
Stanislas Gruau is very clear about his future ambitions: a Paris-Athens challenge. This Lille-Nice run allowed him to gain credibility with sponsors, whom he thanked warmly, as warmly as he greeted his loved ones and his staff “it’s a group success, nothing would have been possible alone.” The Paris to Athens connection on foot by Stanislas Gruau, initially planned for 2012, may not be before 2013, “the time to move on to other things (work from October) and for the desire to return on its own.” A year after a dive into the deep end with a Brest-Saint Malo, something tells us we’ll likely hear him say “it’s the first time I’ve hurt this much in my life” many more times.
