A 30-year-old native of Lyon, now living in Paris, Lionel Jagorel, better known in the industry under the alias of Lionel Fracture, launched the Jolie Foulée site in 2013, which is a play-on-words on running. Passing through his hometown for the Nuits Sonores Music Festival, he took the opportunity to participate in the weekly Distance run.
How did you start middle distance running?
Lionel Fracture: I have always loved running, but I really started at 18. I quit college after two weeks, I was young, and I didn’t feel it was for me! To keep fit, I started going to training sessions at the Bron athletic club - ASUL, which has since joined the Entente Sud Lyonnais. I made great friends there, with whom I would have never hooked up otherwise... Then I attended classes at the technological college IUT, in Lyon. I often skipped end-of-the afternoon classes so I wouldn’t miss any training session. What I enjoyed during that time was how hard we trained, where there was a kind of healthy competition between us. We were in a record-achieving mode. That year, I made my best time for 10 km: 34:37, which enabled me to qualify for the French Espoir Championships at Port Leucate. After that, I went to England for a year, where I trained on my own. I re-enrolled at SATUC in Toulouse while I was in business school. Djilali Bedrani was there with whom I shared a few training sessions because we had the same coach, he was younger and already stronger than me, no wonder he became the world military champion in crosscountry running. I quickly returned to my record level and my coach thought I could aim for 1:55 in the 800m. Except that after crosscountry running, I started to have a sore shin. I was disgusted because I had to stop my season what I prefer: track. It took several months to find the cause of the pain: osteoid osteoma.
Part of my shin had become soft. I had a transplant and stayed in bed for a month and a half with a boot. When the doctor and the physiotherapist had given the green light, during a gentle recovery jogging session, I twisted my ankle slightly and the shin broke just above the graft. It snapped like never before! Result: a new operation, with a plate and 17 screws, and a year-long shutdown. After this break, which earned me my nickname, I never returned to the club. I knew the workout routines, so I chose to train on my own, mostly with friends to keep me focused. However, I always kept in touch with my first coach, Jean-Claude Courtois, aka Gros Minet, who had a very good approach when I started. With him, training was serious but without pressure. When I prepare for a race, I ask him for a training plan, as was the case for my first Amsterdam marathon in 2015.
Was it after your break that the Jolie Foulée adventure started?
After my injury, I went to Paris for my final IUT internship at Nike. I then worked for Bleu de Paname, before switching to a press relations agency. I deal mainly with outdoor sports brands like Patagonia. In fact, besides that, we launched Jolie Foulée in the summer of 2013. It was the time when competitive running was gaining momentum. You could see that there was a lot happening on Internet, and that we could come into contact with brands and that they supported certain initiatives. With Idris, we decided: "Go ahead, let's talk about what we like, we'll see if it catches on! I ran a lot, Idris ran a little, and we were both fans of sneakers, so we decided to mix the two. For the editorial line, being a big fan of So Foot, I was inspired by their approach and it worked rather well. Right after our launch, there was the 10 km Paris Center. Nike donated ten bibs to give as prizes. We then organized a contest which attracted a lot of followers Shortly after, Adidas created the Boost Battle Run (the forerunner of Adidas Runners Paris) and they immediately contacted us. When they sent us the first Adios Boost, which was crazy, we were like kids! Jérémie and Benjamin quickly joined the adventure. Then, over the years, races and games, the team has grown. Today, we number 13. We are constantly chatting on Facebook. The guys suggest topics, I reread their first drafts, sometimes I modify them a little. Some have free rein now, I trust them completely. We all have our full-time jobs, so it's sometimes complicated to manage the flow of publications. But there is no pressure: everyone writes when they want to.
What are your next projects at Jolie Foulée?
As far as competition is concerned, we are gearing up for the Amsterdam Marathon, which takes place in October. A month before, we plan to go to Auray-Vannes, a semi where you win a small Breton bowl. There is a "homecoming" aspect that I really like in these small races, and which is a change from big events like the Paris marathon or the 10 km L’Équipe. In addition, we promised the Bretons we would shoot the first video of "I’ll run in your region" and then return to see them. For this project, we left for a weekend last November with my friend Ben, in a van provided, equipped and decorated with our colors by Nike, for what to me is a real running race, different from the image conveyed , far from the image conveyed by brand publicity. Because the runners are not necessarily stylish people sweating in the latest fashion products in the streets of Paris. They are also young kids who hurt themselves in training, very different people who excel in a good atmosphere. When we arrived in Auray with our van, the kids were starstruck. They felt like Nike had recognized them. We got an incredible welcome. I really like the honest personality of people in the country which is why we are thinking about going back on the road to do a second part of "I’ll run in your region".
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