Alone with the world around them: tales of solitude among Chartreuse Terminorum runners

The rise of social media has enabled many trail runners to showcase their solitude—even as trail running becomes an increasingly popular, mass-participation sport. To run the Chartreuse Terminorum, a solo race spanning 300km with 25,000 m of elevation gain, forty runners are selected each year. This article explores how these runners envision, train for, and experience their adventure, alone, in the middle of a forest that has come to symbolize isolation. Drawing on four years of immersion within the race pack, this article puts forward the notion of microsolitude and illustrates the paradoxes observed in the face of these voluntary withdrawals.