Maude Mathys spent her adolescence tied to the athletics tracks, looking through the windows at the enormous Swiss mountains without knowing that one day she would conquer them by running. “I saw it as something wonderful while I was always locked in the same place. When I started running, I felt free because I could finally go where I wanted,” she admits. And she didn’t stop traveling. She says it almost two decades later, at 37 years old, while she drains the bowl of corn milk, her weakness on her Chinese journey through Sichuan, where she runs the second big test of the year. Because that caged spirit that sought happiness in each discipline of athletics continues to add stamps to the passport. And her winning against twenty-year-olds, like she did in Kobe (Japan), the first round of the Golden Trail, which she won a few weeks ago. A triumphant return after a year sidelined by an Achilles tendon injury. Like she did after her two pregnancies. Because Maude always comes back.
Mathys’ new life began with a half-hour flat jog with her husband on an empty stomach. “It was easier for him than for me. I remember that moment, with beautiful light, everyone sleeping. Just the two of us, running and talking.” She continued in popular races, but it didn’t take long for her to discover trail running and mountain skiing. “Discover new places, feel free. I like endurance sports, I feel alive when I run, the beating of my heart, the sweat… In 2017 she left the boards and did not stop winning with the shoes, a record that includes monuments such as Pikes Peak, Marathon du Mont Blanc or Sierre Zinal, the cathedral, the jewel in the crown for any Swiss.
Over the years he still does not have a clear answer to the role of suffering in his equation. “I think I like to suffer. Not every day, but it’s a way to feel alive. Not too hard, just a little,” she smiles. And she sums up the feeling of a good workout: “It was hard, but the work is done.” However, there are races in which that controlled dose turns into an overdose. And the years are a collection of them. “I have learned that no race is over before the finish line. I remember days when I suffered a lot and wanted to give up, the demons asked me to. And she said to myself, ‘Okay, this is a bad time, but maybe it will get better.’ “I ended up happy.” And she lists podiums.
Everyone has their formula to stay in the race. “I think about all the training I have done, about my family waiting for me at the finish line. And when everyone is suffering, you are not alone.” She took off the pressure of athletics, she regained her enthusiasm and surprised herself: “I ran to feel good, I never thought she would be a winner.” But the day of the first victory came and she said to herself: “You have found your way.”
An addiction to victory began that did not prevent her motherhood. “The first time was a surprise and I didn’t have the level I have now. So I can say that my international career started after giving birth.” She talks about a simple decision that paved the way for the second child. “I simply took it as a break to recover my body and my head. I was sure he would come back. And I did even better.” A reality for which she seeks an answer. “A period like this is very good physically and mentally. During pregnancy I did a lot of volume at low intensity cycling, hiking or skiing with increasing weight. The muscle grows and when you don’t have that weight, you are stronger,” she reasons.
Mathys has turned necessity into a virtue. He trains less because his schedule asks him to. “It’s a matter of organization.” Bicycle indoorand run when the children are at school. And because he doesn’t believe in long sessions: he never runs for more than three hours. “The key is to train less, but with quality.” Its longevity is complemented by variety; Half of her sessions are cycling, a relief for her knees and head. That’s why her ambition doesn’t expire even in two weeks away from her family in Asia. “I miss my children, but it’s my job. When I have a bad time, I tell myself: ‘Take it as a vacation.’ I take care of myself and I don’t have to cook or clean,” she smiles.
His formula for success is a mix of ego and generosity: “I do it for myself, to show myself that I can do it. That I’m not training every day for nothing. But also for them because I cannot allow their sacrifice to be in vain.” His victory in Kobe, the first round of the Golden Trail Series – he won the overall circuit in 2021 and 2022 – left a message: “I’m back. Even though I am older, I am here.” And he makes the gesture of a balloon that is deflating to explain how the pressure, the doubts of the previous months, disappeared in one fell swoop. Although he clarifies that he is still 80% of the best version of himself—the pain is still there—he dominates the new generation of twenty-something girls. How is it possible? “The experience. They are long races, many things can happen. Maybe mental strength. And the body does not forget all that training for so many years.” She assumes that the best version of her is behind her, but that memory gives her battery for a while. “I will continue until my body accepts it. Mentally, maybe three or five years. The best of me has already passed, but I can still be close to my best level, do my job. And even win.”
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