Stuck in the mud and buffeted by the wind, Sonia, Carole, and Alexia emerge from the fog, exhausted, after climbing Mount Pelée in Martinique in this race reserved for women. A powerful symbol for these three friends, one of whom is awaiting a kidney transplant and is battling breast cancer.
The highest point on the Caribbean island, the 1,395m high volcano is also the setting for the Raid des Alizés, this four-day women's adventure race that took place last week, where 159 women hike, paddle, and swim in teams of three. But they also cry, laugh, and shiver in intense and rare moments.
“I never imagined in August, after my second operation, that I would be here today. Honestly. I pushed all the oncologists to be ready to leave!” says Sonia Latapie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in June while preparing for this sporting challenge to raise awareness about the kidney failure she suffers from.
Because since the age of three and a half, this 48-year-old air traffic controller has been living with an atrophied kidney. "From hospital to hospital and from treatment to treatment," as she recounts, she hopes for a transplant, which is still pending due to her cancer.
“All of this is just too much. But I managed to get here. And all these stories of women during the Raid des Alizés, it nourishes me, it makes me feel good,” emphasizes Sonia Latapie, who came from the Hautes-Pyrénées for her third participation with her friend of 15 years, Carole Loussalez, and Alexia Elineau, whom she met during a previous edition of the race in 2021.
Together, they looked out for each other as they raced down winding roads on their mountain bikes, covered the 20 km on Mount Pelée in more than 6 hours 30 minutes, cut through the waters aboard their red and gold kayak and ran nearly 5 km in the rainforest, in water up to their knees.
They also endured incessant rain during the day which turned into a torrent at night, flooding their bivouac tent.
Between the green of the rich flora of the island of flowers and the blue of the sea, they have traced their furrow, in search of meaning.
– “Meaning of life” –
"This is a raid that is really about symbolism, we come for questions of meaning in life. It's about finding the best in ourselves, it's also a revealer of what you are as a human being," emphasizes Alexia Elineau, 45, a financial investment advisor, "deeply touched" to help Sonia Latapie succeed in this challenge.
And to better support her, the woman from Landes wanted to understand what it meant to have a kidney that doesn't function properly. "Every time I do sports, it's like it's the first time," Sonia Latapie replied.
Carole Loussalez, the only brunette in the group, is guided by the adage: "Alone we go faster, but together we go much further."
A financial advisor in her fifties, she shared Sonia's doubts when the cancer was detected. But she never stopped supporting her friend and continued to train alongside her.
And even though she cursed and swore loudly during the ascent of Mount Pelée, sometimes yelling: "When will this end?!", Carole Loussalez experienced "something crazy" alongside 52 other trios.
The adventure ended with tears in her eyes. Pain etched on her flushed face, Sonia Latapie leaned on her bent knees, breathed a sigh of relief, and then smiled.
With mud almost caked onto their legs, the three women, gathered under the name "The QUEENS of Hearts", celebrated their last crossing of the line to the sound of the song they had chosen to represent them: "Now we are free", from the film Gladiator.
"That's it! We did it!" they exclaimed, before enjoying a few days of relaxation. Then it will be back to France and Sonia Latapie will resume her immunotherapy.
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