← All eventsGrand Raid Réunion (Diagonale des Fous)
The Madmen's Diagonal — a ~165km / ~10,000m D+ crossing of Réunion Island's volcanic mountains through tropical heat, humidity, and the cirques. Next-date approximate (late October).
Around 165km straight across Réunion, with roughly 10,000m of climbing and the same again in descent. A diagonal crossing of a volcanic island, from the south coast to the stadium finish in Saint-Denis.
There is almost no flat. Steep volcanic singletrack, rock and root staircases, and the deep cirques of Cilaos, Mafate and Salazie, run through one or two full nights in tropical heat and humidity.
The clock is generous, up to about 66 hours. But that is the point: most of the field is out there for 40 to 60, and the cirques are where the race is lost.
Is Grand Raid Réunion (Diagonale des Fous) for you?
- Runners with shorter mountain-ultra finishes already behind them. Entry runs on qualification points and a lottery, so you arrive with a résumé, not as a first ultra.
- Durable descenders. Around 10,000m of steep, technical downhill wrecks quads, so it rewards runners who train the descents, not just the climbs.
- Athletes who cope in heat and humidity. The tropical coast and cirques cook the unacclimatised, and heat tolerance decides more here than at any alpine ultra.
- Patient, methodical types who can manage a low. Sleep deprivation and the cirque lows pass if you keep eating, drinking and moving.
Training plan for Grand Raid Réunion (Diagonale des Fous)
A training plan for Grand Raid Réunion (Diagonale des Fous) isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Roughly 10,000m of climbing and 10,000m of descent over about 165km, with almost no flat to recover on.
- Tropical heat and humidity on the coast and in the cirques, swinging to cold, wind and near-freezing ridges overnight.
- One or two full nights on your feet, averaging only 3 to 5 km/h across the whole crossing.
- Long, quad-shredding technical descents into the cirques, where most of the field loses its legs.
- Long mountain runs building from 3h toward a single 7 to 10 hour day, plus back-to-back weekends (Saturday 7h, Sunday 5h) on tired legs.
- Dedicated descent work: downhill repeats and long descent runs to condition quads for 10,000m of downhill.
- Heat and humidity acclimatisation in the final 6 to 10 weeks, layered onto easy runs, plus a post-run sauna protocol.
- Night runs with your headtorch and power-hike pole repeats on steep ground, with full kit and fuelling rehearsed.
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
