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The Steep Stuff Podcast
Remi Leroux - Pre 2025 World Trail Championship Interview
What happens when you throw away your carefully crafted race plan and follow your intuition instead? For elite mountain runner Remi Leroux, it meant transforming a 15-race schedule into nearly 25 events across two continents in a single summer.
Diving deep into his whirlwind season, Remi shares how his partnership with Brooks teammate Dan has pushed him toward spontaneity and risk-taking. Their contrasting personalities—Dan's high-energy spontaneity balanced against Remy's thoughtful approach—created the perfect dynamic for an unforgettable European racing campaign. From training camps in Les Houches to competing alongside the Brooks team at Golden Trail Series events and during UTMB week, Remy found himself surrounded by a professional team atmosphere that elevated his performance.
The conversation explores Remi's victory at Cirque Series Cannon Mountain despite racing with a significant foot injury, his surprising 5th place finish at the hyper-competitive ETC race, and his specific preparation for the upcoming World Mountain Running Championships in Spain. With remarkable self-awareness, Remy analyzes his strengths—particularly his ability to climb efficiently after descending—and how he's tailoring his training for the unique demands of championship mountain racing.
Perhaps most compelling is Remi's perspective on representing Team Canada on the world stage. Beyond personal achievement, he sees international performance as crucial for growing competitive mountain running in Canada, shifting perceptions from casual recreation to serious sport. His measured ambition—targeting a top-10 finish against running powerhouses like Kenya, Uganda, and Italy—reveals both humility and confidence.
Join us for this fascinating glimpse into elite mountain running through the eyes of an athlete who's learned that sometimes the best decisions come from following your gut rather than your spreadsheet. Whether you're chasing podiums or personal bests, Remy's journey offers valuable insights on balancing structure with spontaneity in pursuit of your running goals.
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Use code steepstuffpod for 25% off your cart at UltimateDirection.com!
It's time. Thank you, Ladies and gentlemen. We are live, Remy LaRue. Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going? My friend, I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 2:How about yourself?
Speaker 1:I'm doing well, man, I'm doing well. It's exciting to catch up with you. It's been a really busy summer for you, so I'm excited to just catch up and hear about what you've been up to. I mean, you've been at it for a bit this season, so I'm excited to chat worlds with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's been really big summer, wasn't it? I think I changed a lot of plans that I had initially for myself, I think when I started the year, I kind of had, like these, I'd say, maybe 10 or 15 races that I had planned out for the year, but just like I kind of got caught in things and kind of decided to just add on and add on. So, basically, I think at this point I'm going to be close to 20 to 25 races this year. So quite a lot, very busy, a lot of time spent in Europe. I'm still in Europe now, so I've basically spent from mid-July to now until mid-October going to be just training and racing here in Europe, and no, it's been, it's been great. Definitely not what I had planned, but I'm really really mid-July to now until mid-October are going to be just training and racing here in Europe, and no, it's been, it's been great. Definitely not what I had planned, but I'm really really grateful for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's amazing it's been. It's so much fun to follow along. Um, all right, let's get into it, because I have I've literally have so many things written down here ETC series and all um, you know a lot of the golden trail series, stuff, broken arrow, cirque series, cannon. Let me start off with Cirque series cannon, just because I was delighted to see you go and win that race. Super technical course the first year of it's running on a completely uh, so no one really knew what to expect from it. A rainy, disgusting kind of nasty day like typical Northeast, and then you go and get the dub.
Speaker 2:How was that race?
Speaker 1:Like what'd you think? I'm definitely going to do it next year, I mean the race itself is very cool, I mean.
Speaker 2:It's definitely. I mean I really like the up and down format. It's just like you basically full send the uphill and then you try to just hang on for your life on a downhill. And especially for a runner like myself who's much better at uphills and downhills, it's always like, even though I knew like I was in first place at the top and I had like a decent lead because I couldn't see anyone behind, like I knew dan was there.
Speaker 2:So it's like I know I still have to push all out for the whole climb and then just like hope that he doesn't catch me on the descent, um, but that that race was definitely a big surprise for me because the week before I had done centerpiece scramble and I really like injured my foot like pretty dramatically in that race, where, like honestly, the next day I thought like okay, for sure, like there's a fracture in here, like for sure my foot is broken, my whole season is ruined, but turned out it was only just like pretty severe tendonitis and um, yeah, it was definitely strange because I think it's it's definitely been an injury that I've kind of like had this whole summer.
Speaker 2:Now it's finally resolved now, but especially at canon, like the day before, I wasn't sure I was going to race and especially on that type of terrain very technical. It was very, um, really wasn't sure how my foot was going to react to that, but I was just super thankful that everything worked out and, no, I'm just super happy that strict series is making their move to to Canon. I heard that um well today to the new England area and I heard that Killington is was also a super great race.
Speaker 1:So, no, I'm excited to come back next year for that I feel like Killington might be more your jam Cause it's like I think there's less uh. Like I think there's less uh it's I mean it really was, wasn't technical and then like maybe one small section, the rest of it.
Speaker 2:What was Dan's plate on that downhill? Was it like a 13? Yeah, he ran a 14. Yeah, yeah, it was 15. Maybe it was insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was bananas, like what he ran. I mean it was basically just a service road, um, and there was some technical sections of that road, like for him to be running, uh, like sub five minute pace on a nice chunk of that.
Speaker 1:I was thoroughly impressed, like it was. It was amazing. Um, and the up downs, like it was typical ski road, uh, you know, like ski hill ascents and stuff like that. It was fun. It was, uh, I cramped up like crazy dude, like I had, like for the first first time in a race I had gotten leg cramps. I was like what is this? Just because humidity and just all these new factors, which is we don't really get in the Mountain West, which is kind of crazy, super cool. I'm glad you did that and I'm glad you won that race because it was sweet. The reason I was going towards that was because it built and continued on this beautiful dynamic of you and Dan throughout, you know, throughout Europe and stuff like that. I feel like this was the bromance the the trail world needed. Um, you guys traveled a lot together and had a lot of fun, like what, what was, what was that like? And getting to share that, like some of these moments with your teammate, um, over the winter or, sorry, over the summer.
Speaker 2:It's been great. I. I think I know dan way too much right now. We spend way too much time together, honestly. But no, honestly, dan is great. I think we, I think we're a pretty fun duo and I think we complement each other pretty well because I think dan is someone who's very um how can I say? He's very spontaneous and he's very high energy, whereas I feel like I'm someone who's more, um, calm, reserved and more like I don't know thoughtful sometimes, like in my choices and stuff like that. But I think we complement each other pretty well because I think I've kind of learned to lean more into, into being more like, uh, leaning into my intuition and stuff like that. Spending time with him and I feel like that's kind of part of why this summer I've made just so many like intuitive decisions that maybe in the past I would have thought more about it and I would have been more, I guess, reasonable in a way. But the fact that, yeah, I mean just Dan has like convinced me to to make these moves and yeah, no, I think it's great. I think it's great I.
Speaker 2:I think it was super cool just hanging out with down, but also with a lot of like the brooks team in europe, especially like getting like.
Speaker 2:I had already met most of like the us runners on the team but not much of the europeans and it's it's got. It's kind of crazy only see how just everyone is so freaking nice like on the team, like there's not a single person that it's like, oh, like that person I don't like, you don't fit well with um. So yeah, it's been a super great team dynamic and we had a couple weeks in les ush, right next to chamonix, for like a little training camp there and then we raced a ton this summer in austria for a golden trail race, for sierra zanal, for etc. The week of utmb. So really had the week of UTMB, so really had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with the Brooks team there and yeah, it's been, it's been awesome Like the runners and also just like getting to meet like the managers and physios on the team. It's it's been really great and it really feels like it's a professional team, which I really appreciate so cool.
Speaker 1:I couldn't imagine. It's probably just like I don't know so much fun, especially on the European side, just because it's very different than um I just it's just different than North America. Like the way everyone goes about the sport is a little bit different. It's just a like a different game. I got to ask you about ETC. Uh, you had a top five finish at that race. I did not realize how competitive that race was going to be and it literally everybody showed up for that. Um, talk about how do you even get into that race one and two. Uh, talk about like just the course, the competition, kind of how that unfolded.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I think everyone before and after the race. We're kind of talking about it like them. It's really a shame that there's not more coverage about this race and like that's not considered like a utmb final, like occcccc and utmb, because honestly, like the level of competition, like you said, was extremely high.
Speaker 2:I'm convinced, if you compare like the utmb indexes or the itra scores of, like the top runners, I think it must be pretty similar to all the other distances and even like from a coverage standpoint, like you see, the amazing coverage that they do for all the other races, I'm like if you could have done that for ETC, I feel like it would have been so freaking cool. Like, if I think about just like my race in particular, like I went from 25th to 4th to 10th to 5th, like in this whole race, you see so many changes during the race and I feel like it would have been so exciting and you know, like the top 10, I think we were within like two minutes for a one hour and 25, one hour, 25 minute race. So, yeah, no, I think it would have been. It's kind of a shame that it's not more like shown in media and stuff like that. But at the same time it is cool to have the opportunity to race like an actual sub ultra race the week of utmd. Um how to get in?
Speaker 2:honestly, I'm not sure I'll answer that question um initially I kind of like whoa yeah, I mean, I'm really lucky that I'm with brooks and I think it's really through them that I was able to get in, because initially I had asked to ben, like the european manager of brooks a couple weeks before, to get into ETCN. He had told me that no, it wasn't possible. But the week of ETC he kind of sent me a message. I was back in Quebec and he was like, hey, like you're still in Europe because you can come race ETC. And I was like, well, I'm not in Europe, but let me check if I can like change my flight, cause I was supposed to come here in September for world champs. Um, so basically I just decided I had done this other race, vermont overland on a Saturday, and then an hour after that race I went to Boston to fly to Geneva to then race ETC three days after, on Tuesday. And yeah, everything worked out.
Speaker 2:Um, but how to enter? Yeah, I think it's was a bit difficult for me. I think I don't think you need necessarily like a certain amount of stones or anything like that. I think pretty much anyone could enter, but for me it was just a particular situation because I was like very last minute and I only got in like the week of um, but, yeah, definitely a great race that I really recommend it's it's a lot of vert, like it's really steep, like people think like, oh, it's only 15 kilometers, like nine miles. It's going to be pretty short and it's going to be pretty easy, but not at all. It's 1200 meters of climbing and I don't know feet that much, I don't know how to do that conversion, but it's quite a lot. It's uh, yeah, uh, yeah. It's an actual mountain race, which I really liked. There was no flat during the whole race. So, yeah, really really cool race to do.
Speaker 1:Amazing Dude. I mean it just shows me one thing like you are don't get me wrong Like you're extremely talented at some of the longer stuff as well, but you are one of the best mountain classic athletes on the planet right now. It's kind of crazy. Like you really like nail the the mountain classic race. Like it's fun to follow.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because, like, put me on the technical downhill and I'm going to be absolutely destroyed, like the golden trail race in Austria. Like I think the top 10 women ran that downhill faster than I did. Like, like I'm really not good on technical downhill, but if you give me a downhill that's kind of runnable and that's yeah, like good, like fast, then I think I can be pretty good on it. And I think one of my abilities that I think I'm good at is climbing after descending.
Speaker 2:And like ETC, that was like the perfect example of that because basically the course was one big climb, one big descent, and then at the end of the descent you had like two minor climbs that lasted maybe like three to five minutes for like each climb, but at the end of the descent basically I had gone from fourth to like 10th or fourth to ninth, but then because of those two last climb, I was able to like get back into fifth position. So, um, I think that's definitely something that's gonna I'm gonna try to take advantage of in a couple, actually next week, for world championships, for the up down race, because it's basically up down, up down. So I'm really actually did a training this morning that was like very specific to like destroying the quads on the downhill and then going straight into an uphill after. So yeah, I think that's a very like specific ability to have, but that's very important for, like classic uptown races.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's get into that then. So you're going to be racing the vertical and you're going to be racing the mountain classic, or uptown, what are you more? I think it's spaced out in a nice way, because it's the first day is obviously the, the the vertical. The last day is going to be, um, the mountain classic. Are you more excited for one versus the other? Cause you're such a good climber too.
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I mean, honestly, like any other year I would have said, oh for sure the vertical Um. But yeah, I feel like when I look back at like these last like two years, I feel like I've actually performed more well on the up and down formats for some reason. So I'm kind of like really looking forward equally to both. I think I'm definitely going to approach each of those races kind of differently.
Speaker 2:I think for the vertical, I definitely want to do my own race and really like pace myself according, like just like kind of time trial it, because I know like in vertical races like people start way too fast and people blow up so much. So I think it's better to like do my own effort. But for the up down, I definitely want to like risk it and kind of like put myself in a position where, okay, can be like near the top 10 or something like that um. But yeah, I mean, in terms of what I'm looking for the most, I think both courses honestly look pretty good for me. So I have no sandbag in terms of like technicality or stuff like that um, and you know, I've been training in europe like this whole summer, so really like that type of terrain I think is I'm really used to it by now, um, but yeah, really, both races, I think will be very exciting, and also for the rest of Team Canada, I'm really excited for that.
Speaker 2:I think in the past years we've definitely had like some strong teams in the past years, but I feel like this year it's like one of the first times where like okay, like people, really like really people had to show up at, like, the canadian championships if they wanted to make the team and people really had to like dedicate themselves to be part of the world team and I think, across all distances, men and women. I think it's going to be very exciting to see and yeah, it's always. I mean, it's going to be my third time being at a world championships and I think it's it's just such a special event and I'm really looking forward to it what does it mean to you to represent team canada, represent your country, especially at a giant stage like this?
Speaker 1:I mean, this is in our short careers, you know. I mean, you're younger than me, so you'll probably you might be around by the time if we ever get this to be an olympic sport right, like most athletes will in this day and age probably won't see it. It's probably going to be the next generation, so this will be as close as it comes to to being able to represent your country, um, at the highest stage that there is in the sport. What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's, it's awesome. I mean you're definitely racing more than just for yourself, which is really great in this sport, which often feels like very selfish, like I definitely asked myself this question quite a lot, like why the heck am I running Like I'm I'm doing no good in this world. I'm not advancing society in any way, but not saying that being at worlds necessarily advances society, but you definitely have the feeling that it's you're not, you're not doing it just for yourself. Um, you're doing it, uh, you know, for your team and just to represent your country well, like on an international level. And I also think that you know if we want mountain or trail running to advance in canada.
Speaker 2:I think our performances at worlds play a big role in this, so that's definitely also a big motivator for for for myself individually, but also like as a team. I really want us to do well to grow the sport even more. I feel like in Canada we're definitely in a place where it's kind of growing, but, uh, sometimes it feels like more from like I'd want it to grow a bit more, especially like the competitive aspect of it. I think it's not. I mean, I know the us has similar problems, but like it's not recognized so much. Like as this, like competitive sport as well, I feel um. So I definitely think that that's also a big motivator to like perform well, to represent our country well in that regards.
Speaker 1:I like that. I mean, you got to think about it too, man. I mean, as as you become who you are in the sport, you know, obviously you're competing at the highest level yourself. Athletes like Jasmine Louther, um, alex Ricard, like it's, it's kind of on your guys' shoulders in a lot of ways to show your, your fellow countrymen, like this is, this is a serious sport and this needs to be taken, you know, seriously.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, totally, I think, um, yeah, people, I think, in road and track still have this mindset that we're just walking into woods and drinking beer and eating Snickers and stuff like that. But I mean, it's still a part of the, it's still a part of it. But, um, yeah, I mean we, I mean we train seriously. You know, we do workouts two, three times a week. Uh, we are very dedicated in our training and, yeah, I think it, yeah, I think, uh, it's definitely changing. Like I feel like there's definitely a lot more track and road runners that are kind of like getting interested in it, but there's definitely a long way to go, for sure.
Speaker 1:Amazing, amazing. All right, so you've been playing around on the course a bunch. It's two loops, or I guess you in theory, two loops ish. What is your take on the course so far? I mean, I I've been told by folks running the short trail and I've been told by folks running the long trail and I've been told by folks running the long trail it's extremely technical. Would you say the same thing for the mountain classic course?
Speaker 2:I mean, I haven't run exactly on the courses yet I haven't been in Canfrank, but I've seen a ton of videos of it because the Spanish national championships this year of mountain running, their vertical and their up-down were exactly on the same courses as world champs. So there's a ton of like media on youtube about it. But from what I can tell, it's like very, very different than the trail distances because, yes, like the trail distances it's like it's pretty much almost sky running, you could say like it's very, very steep, it's very technical and those are races that are going to take a long time, but it seems like the mountain races it's the total opposite. So, very not technical, I think it's going to be very fast. So that's why I said I think it's going to be great courses for me and even like the vertical isn't that steep, like it's a bit less than four miles for a VK you know a lot of VKs like are two miles, yeah. So yeah, it's definitely going to be runnable for almost the entirety of it and the up-down is even less steep. So I think it's going to be very fast and that's kind of like my idea of starting pretty fast during the race, because I feel like you can Like the climb is probably going to take I don't know 20 minutes, something like that maximum.
Speaker 2:Like I feel like even if you go super hard for 20 minutes, you'll have time to sort of recover aerobically on the descent before heading on to that second climb. So I think it's worth going like pretty hard on that first climb and just like see what happens after. Um, but yeah, definitely different, because the trail races seem, I mean freaking. The short trail, I think, is going to be won in like six hours or something like that. Like if I, if I have to like estimate and that's like, that's like a long race, six hours, uh, and that's that's would be like maybe for the winners, maybe five or six hours, something like that. Um, and like the long trail, that's like freaking, that's like an actual like long ultra.
Speaker 2:Now, which is very interesting because in the past it's been more conservative, like the distances.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, super cool, super cool. What is your? I mean, you kind of alluded at your expectation for the mountain classic. Is your expectation for race day? Obviously, to compete the best way you can, but would it be in the top 10? Would you? Is that where you would love to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's always difficult to like put a number on it, Cause, really, the only thing you can do is give all that you have and you don't want to like put a number on it and then, during the race, like not be close to that number and be like, oh well, fuck it, like I give up.
Speaker 2:I don't try as much as I can Like, even if I'm 35th, like I still want to run my best the entire time. But yeah, I mean, I got, I think, my best world champs position was 14th in 2022 in Thailand for the vertical race. So I think that top 10, if I have like a perfect race, I think is possible. It's always tough because I mean there's like four Canyons, there's four Ugandans, there's four Italians, four Americans. Like you know, it's such a stacked field, but it's like if the stars align perfectly. I have to I mean, you have to believe it that it's possible, or else, if you don't believe it, it will never happen for sure. But yeah, I think top 10 would be a great result for me, and if we're able to get like a top five team finish as well, I think that would also be uh, amazing yeah I mean you've raced a lot of these guys too.
Speaker 1:I mean, like you've seen the american team in action like pretty, for the most part at sunup, and then across other races, like and across golden trail. I'm sure there's a ton of crossover with a lot of those athletes anyway. So I'm sure it's like uh, there's not, not like there's very few people who probably haven't seen, um, I would guess, as far as like on the star list. I just got the star list. I haven't gone through it in its entirety yet, but yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting and you know people are better at different courses than others. So some runners on certain courses I'm like there's no freaking way I'm going to do well against this guy. But on other courses I'm very confident in my abilities. So even though, like a lot of runners have beat me in these past few years, it's like if the course is advantages for me, like I have to have confidence that I can do pretty well still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing. When are you? Um, what is it like for you guys? Do you have like media things you got to do next week? I know there's, like I know they do like a whole, uh like walkthrough where everybody is in their kind of in their kits or something like that. Um, I'm doing a bad job at explaining this, but, um, like, what do they have as far as obligations go? That was the question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be honest, I haven't really looked at it that much yet. I'm kind of going day by day. I feel like this whole trip in Europe has been like every week I'm not sure where I'm going to be the next week. So I'm kind of like starting to like look at where exactly, like what exactly will happen next week. I wasn't even sure what dates the races were before, like yesterday, um. So yeah, I'm not sure exactly. Usually there's like this uh, how do you say that?
Speaker 2:oh, the flag ceremony, where, like every team like yeah, every team like, follows each other with like a flag and the whole team is there. I've heard rumors that maybe this year they there won't be, that or like that.
Speaker 2:There would only be like five people per team or I'm not sure exactly, but usually there's that.
Speaker 2:And apart from that, honestly not much from the media standpoint.
Speaker 2:Um, I guess canada we're maybe not like at that level of media yet, um, but yeah, apart from that, not much, to be honest it's.
Speaker 2:It's pretty well set up when we're just we're really well set up to just like focus on our races and we have like some meetings with the team before the race, like the day before the race, just to like talk about like technical stuff and where we have to be if there's any like required gear or something like that. But no, most of the week is just going to be about like hanging out with the canadian team and, when I'm not racing, cheering on the other distances and no, it's honestly just a great, a great time. I wish I wish I'd be done sooner, but since I'm doing that up down, like I'm doing also the last race, so I'll always have that behind my mind. But last time in Austria I only did the vertical on the first day. So that was really cool because I could just like not care about my own training and just like really hang out and just like be on the courses to cheer all the other races.
Speaker 1:So so cool, so cool. All right, remy, I do have to drop off for a time constraint. I want to say thank you so much for coming on, man, I really appreciate it. We got to do after, after you finished the golden trail final. Let's do another recap episode, cause I do want to get into like I don't want to over gloss over the Iger, broken arrow and a lot of the races that you did this year. So I do want to do another episode. We can kind of get into some of that stuff and chat about it and maybe do something with you and Dan as well, cause that would be that would be fun for sure that would be great.
Speaker 2:I would love that.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much, man All right, thanks to you. Thank you.
