The Trail Run, by Martin Gaffuri

Dear Reader,

Here are few lines about myself, just to give you an idea of who is behind those posts.

I am French, born in 1985, and obviously passionate about running.

It all started with athletics when I was 9, I wanted to do pole vault. Well by the time I got the chance to try it I realized that I had better skills in endurance running than pole vault – considering my shape I could have only been the pole…

Got into competition and with years of training and support from friends and family, I went 4 times at the France Championship of Cross Country from 2000 to 2004.
But when I got my A level and went to ESSCA - a graduate business school in Angers, away from my team mates and coach I decided to focus on other activities. I simply kept running as a way to wash my mind off school and stay fit.

Now you must doubt about my passion for running when I give up with it so easily but at that time I didn’t realize myself how important running was for me… but it didn’t take long.

I managed to get an internship in product marketing at for one year on the footwear trail running range, especially on the development of the Wings and its S-Lab version. What an awesome experience I had working in Annecy with these passionate people. Not only have I shared with them priceless work knowledge in product development and communication but they also introduced me to Trail Running and Adventure Racing…

My first trail running race was La course des Templiers that I did together with my boss. The fact that I actually won in my category while my goal was to simply finish the race definitely got me started and that was it. This victory gave me the motivation to keep going and train specifically for Trail Running. I did many other races that season until the biggest one: the GORE TEX TransRockies Run , in 2007.



This is basically how I got into Trail Running, starting my quest for the steepest ways up and down to get the most fun out of it. From that time, Martin GAFFURI has been turned into The Goat by my running friends and colleagues from adidas .




That should give you a bit of information about me for now, and if you want to know more, I’ll be happy to chat with you.

Here are few more links with interviews or documents I published about trail running:
Interview at GORE TEX TransRockies Run 2007
Interview at GORE TEX TransRockies Run 2008

Article TransRockies Run 2008 - Esprit trail
Article TransRockies Run 2008 - Jogging International


Enjoy the reading and Jog on !
The Goat