Co-creating the Odyssée 100K: A Community Charts the Course

When we started working on this projet over a year ago, we already knew that the only way for the project to take off was to get the community involved. The Ultra-Trail Harricana du Canada was built on the contribution of so many people over the years, and that's what gave it its soul. If we wanted to create a truly great event, we knew it had to be a team effort. On August 9, 2025, the whole team came together for a test run of the first-draft 80 km distance which would eventually become the Odyssée 100K course. This was a chance to get everyone together in one place, at one time, to co-create the event together.

Trust the Process

The first step in designing the course required a lot of field work by the core team. This is where Alexandre Provost, our chief course designer comes in. Along with Sébastien Côté, Karine Corbeil and Frédéric Ménard, they tested different trails, tried to find connections and did some bushwhacking to get a first draft of the course down on paper.

Next came the position of the aid stations. Using the UTMB course design guidelines, our team identified the most accessible locations along the course to position the aid stations.

Once the first draft of the course and the aid station positions was done, we got to work planning the test run for the 9th of August. Frédéric Ménard and Marilyne Tremblay planned out every little detail of the test run, just like it was the real event! Together with myself and Alex Koch (legal) and Stéphane Corbeil (international event organisation expertise), Alex P., Sébastien, Karine, Frédéric and Marilyne formed the core project team.

The Test Run

The main objectives of the test run were to:

• Get different runners' perspective on the course to improve and modify it where necessary.
• Test operational aspects of the course like aid station set-ups, medical emergency access, etc.

Runners and volunteers hailing from all over Quebec were invited to participate. Some of them were long-time Événement Harricana volunteers and runners and other new friends and collaborators. Whether they were runners or volunteers working in operational positions, everyone had a report to fill out at the end of the day. We wanted to collect as much data as possible!

The day was a big success, both because we achieved our objectives and because we just had a great time. It was a really long day (starting at 4:00 am and finishing around 11:00 pm) and a really hot day (temperatures exceeded 30 °C), but the energy was undeniable... like we all knew we were part of something big!!!

Invaluable Feedback

In the end, the feedback we received from both the runners and volunteers really helped improve the course and the runner experience. An overriding theme in the feedback was that the course was just TOO technical... it made running any parts of it very difficult. There was also feedback concerning the distance between certain aid stations which, in the heat, made carrying enough water difficult. This particular section of the initial course also presented operational challenges in terms of access and could complicate any emergency intervention which could be required. On the volunteer side, the position of the Nansen aid station was deemed difficult to manage due to the space available and its location at the nexus of 3 heavily used hiking trails. A more suitable location for the aid station, about 1 km away, was identified by the team.

The initial design team took all the feedback received from the runners and the volunteers and conferred with their colleagues on the Tremblant team. The resulting adjustments resolved a lot of the issues outlined and thus, the Odyssée 100K was born. So when you come to run one of the Boréalys Mont-Tremblant by UTMB races, you can thank the collective effort of a whole community coming together to improve your running experience!!!

I'd like to thank our partners; Näak, Domaine Saint-Bernard and Tremblant, for supporting us on this critical day.

I'd also like to thank everyone that was there that day. You all made Boréalys Mont-Tremblant by UTMB a reality.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR CO-CREATING BORÉALYS MONT-TREMBLANT BY UTMB WITH US!!!

Sincerely,

Samuel Matte-Thibault
General Manager
Événements Harricana