“This is where I buy my bread each morning,” is a line that captivated me in this lighthearted film portrait of trail running phenom Rémi Bonnet, released back in 2017, in the early stages of his career.
This throwback Salomon TV episode goes on to show Rémi making his own espresso, going on leisurely walks around his idyllic Swiss village, and even dabbling in some afternoon fishing. It almost feels as if they are trying to convince us that Rémi is like a real person, or something.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
If you are not familiar with Rémi Bonnet, he burst onto the scene by winning the 2015 Skyrunner World Series in the vertical kilometer discipline at 20 years old, and since then has won the 2022 Golden Trail World Series, and broke the seemingly impossible course record on the Pikes Peak Ascent in 2023.
But what does a day in the life of Rémi Bonnet, an absolute top-elite athlete, look like? We are shown the type of dedicated training it takes for someone like Rémi to be utterly comfortable running and scrambling in jagged Alpine terrain, but even the narrators aren’t buying it when Rémi tries to convince us that he is “not really a runner.”
So often though we try to “put someone in a box,” in a half-hearted attempt to try to understand them as a person, and it is refreshing that the wholeness of Rémi is portrayed in this video as a “mountain lover,” and so much more. Rémi does not fit in the “Running Only Box,” but he is just like the rest of us, with diverse interests like fishing, metalworking, cooking, skiing, cycling, hiking, playing a bit of soccer, er, football, and sometimes he even rests!
Rémi does not fit in the “Running Only Box.” Photo: Salomon TV
Maybe most importantly, the narrator felt obliged to share with us that Rémi also likes to eat, which brings me back to my captivation with the idea of buying fresh-baked bread each morning — and perhaps more importantly — eating so much of that bread each day that you need to go and purchase another loaf the next morning, and the next morning, and so on. Could this be the key to Rémi’s success?! There is only one way to find out.
Also, let’s take a moment to celebrate what had to be the golden age of trail-running filmmaking by the teams behind Salomon TV — in this case, production company Wandering Fever. It was an era where storytelling and action shots worked together to create clever films like this one. Can we bring this era back?
In the meantime, we hope this throwback brings a little holiday cheer to even the most serious trail runner.
Call for Comments
Have you tried eating a loaf of fresh bread every morning, like Rémi? If so, did it make you faster?
“Rémi is a cool guy.” Photo: Salomon TV
