" I will discover the country. We will cross many places, deep America ", Impatient André Belibi Eloumou.
To pay tribute to his father, left Cameroon to France in 1971 " with the means of the edge And to the migrants from all over the world, the young runner made the bet a little crazy to run the equivalent of 137 marathons (5794 km) during this race named "André Run USA". He will leave the Brooklyn Bridge Friday, Nov. 1 at 9am to reach Santa Monica California. The official start of the race will be preceded by a meeting with the sportsman, a snack and a speech from 7am at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1.
The young 33-year-old sports coach is on the move. After spending his childhood in Cherbourg and two years in Cameroon from the age of 13 to 15, he settled in Canada for about ten years before moving to London, Manchester, and Kuwait.
Every morning, except Sunday, he will leave at 8:30 am to travel about 55 kilometers on American roads for more than five months. And this, whatever the weather conditions. " It will be very cold, it can go down to -20 ° C and -30 ° C in some states ".
The young Frenchman is not at his first attempt. In 2017, he organizes La Migrante, a 3,000 km race linking Cherbourg, his hometown, to Rabat, Morocco. The creation of this performance of 3 months and 13 days, has a political origin. André Belibi Eloumou is an athlete, but he runs to pay tribute to immigrants and refugees from around the world.
" Initially, I'm not a marathon runner at all, I'm a sprinter. I started in 2017 to prepare for Cherbourg-Rabat. When I finished the La Migrante race, I knew something was going to happen, but I did not tell anyone. I knew it was not going to stop there."
His American race has a special meaning. " In America, there have been many migratory flows. It is a country built on immigration. I run to challenge, to increase tolerance between the different communities that built the United States. "
He did not draw the course of his race at random: " Brooklyn is a big immigration port ". The key steps will be " cities and states marked by immigration "" Pittsburg, Columbus, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, St. Louis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Arizona and Los Angeles. He plans to make an 80-kilometer detour to California to run along the US-Mexico border, where the famous President Donald Trump's wall is to be built.
If the runner has already found support in several states, such as in Lake City, a small town in Pennsylvania where a family has promised to host him, he hopes to find " many supporters on the road "And that the race" will grow Especially to help him withstand the freezing temperatures. " We are starting to make ourselves known, but this is only the beginning, we have to get there ". In 108 stages, the young Frenchman has already found support in 21 of them.
Its objective: to collect donations to enable the schooling of refugee children. He will use the platform he created in partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. " Education raises. Everything starts from there. It's too important "Says the runner.
The race is also participative. André Belibi Eloumou invites the greatest number to join him, even on a small portion, at any moment of the race. " We could all run together on the Brooklyn Bridge, that would be a nice message.While waiting for the departure, he takes advantage of these few days at New York to relax. " It's been ten days since I stopped training. The body will be traumatized, it will be intense. "
