France’s Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret is the 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon women’s champion. In this interview, she talks about her hopes going into the race, the wild conditions that she faced on the route, the atmosphere and feeling at the finish line, and her plans for the rest of the season.
Be sure to read our 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon results article for the full race story.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret, 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Anne-Lise Rousset Seguret. It’s the day after the 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. You’re the women’s champion. Congratulations, Anne-Lise.
Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret: Thank you. Thank you so much.
iRunFar: You’ve come to this race many times now. You’ve been second several times. Now you’re the winner. Are you satisfied?
Rousset Séguret: Yes. Yes, of course, because I think it will be my last Transvulcania because I will stop after this year.
iRunFar: Okay.
Rousset Séguret: So I’m very, very happy and very proud.
iRunFar: You must be very proud, and you should be. It has been a project for you to come to this race, to get better, to improve, and then finally to win. Has it felt like a long-term project for you?
Rousset Séguret: No. I want to do the best in this Transvulcania, but there are lots of people. They are Ruth Croft, it will be Blandine [L’Hirondel], Ekaterina [Mityaeva], Martina [Valmassoi]. So lots of people on the start line. So I want to do my best, but win, it was perfect. But I don’t hope that at the start of the line, I want to finish the better I can.
iRunFar: Right. Ultimately, because you can’t control other women’s races, you just have to focus on your own, having your own best race, right?
Rousset Séguret: Yes. Yeah, because, well, it’s not an ultra trail, but there is a long distance. You don’t have to fall because it’s very dangerous rock. And the weather, and of course the weather. So lots of things that it’s not finished, the trail is the goal first, that’s one.
iRunFar: Yeah. To actually just finish.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah.
iRunFar: Let’s talk for a moment about the weather. You’ve been at Transvulcania many times. You’ve seen hot, you’ve seen previously stormy, but yesterday I think maybe was the worst weather in Transvulcania’s 15-year history. What was it like for you?
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. I come to Transvulcania for the hot weather, for the sun, for …
iRunFar: Beach vacation.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. Really. And I like this. I like running in hot condition. And when we saw the provision on the phone the day before the race, what can we say? We hope that snow, it’ll be better. But yes, it was very, very hard. I didn’t suppose this time with this weather here, La Palma, that was the game.
iRunFar: So I think it was wind, it was rain, it was cold. Did you see freezing rain or hail?
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. Yeah. I can’t take my tools at all. It was very difficult. And yeah, I don’t have gloves. I don’t have a buff, I just have jacket. But everything was in the rain, so yes, it was very, very difficult.
iRunFar: And you said off camera before the interview that you thought the conditions were so bad maybe they’d stop the race, but the race never got stopped.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. So honestly, I think they will stop the race at El Pilar because going to the top of the volcano in this condition, I think it was crazy. But well, we go. It was much harder.
iRunFar: Harder. Yeah, okay.
Rousset Séguret: Harder. So I think, yeah, it was better. But I know that when I will go to the Roque de Los Muchachos the weather will be the same as before El Pilar. So I hope the downhill, so yeah, and to have warm condition in Tazacorte. But just in Tazacorte.
iRunFar: Just the very end of the race was the only warm place this year. You had a moment of your beach vacation.
Rousset Séguret: Yea. Just, yeah, 50 minutes, 40 minutes.
iRunFar: So to talk a bit about the women’s competition, for maybe the first 30k, you were running roughly in second behind Ruth Croft by a couple of minutes, and then maybe, was it around El Reventón that you took over the lead?
Rousset Séguret: Yeah.
iRunFar: Okay.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah, between El Pilar and El Reventón.
iRunFar: In the runnable section, and you like runnable, so.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. I did a half marathon in March, so I said I did it, not for nothing. Now I’ll run.
iRunFar: Now you’ll use your running training for this part. So you passed Ruth there, and then I think the rest of the race you were just on your own in the front with no contact from other women.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah, but I didn’t know. Honestly, I think Ruth was just behind me.
iRunFar: The whole time, you think she’s just there?
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. Yeah, I think until the Tazacorte, well, until the last kilometer, because I saw the motorbike going back to …
iRunFar: So you thought somebody was close?
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. Yeah, I was sure Ruth was just behind me. But no.
iRunFar: So yeah, that was my next question, is if you had any information of where the women were? You did not.
Rousset Séguret: No, I don’t. But I don’t want to have this information when I ran.
iRunFar: Okay.
Rousset Séguret: But, well, I think Ruth was just behind me.
iRunFar: What was it like? The final couple kilometers is a road run into Los Llanos and the finish line. They do a really nice job with the finish line. It’s beautiful. There’s energy. There’s confetti. What was it like to finally do that run into town and to cross the finish line, as the winner after so many years of being here?
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. When you finish second, it’s the same, but when you finish in the first place, it’s crazy. People are so crazy with this race. So yeah, it’s lots of emotion when you arrive.
iRunFar: And now you’re a celebrity on La Palma.
Rousset Séguret: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
iRunFar: My last question for you, your plans for this year, your next trail race?
Rousset Séguret: My next trail race, I will do the French Championship.
iRunFar: Okay.
Rousset Séguret: So I’ll be there, where I will try to do my best. And if all the planets are in the right line, maybe I will finish by the World Championship.
iRunFar: Your aim will be to qualify for the Team France for the Trail World Championships.
Rousset Séguret: I will try, because I think it’s my husband will be very, very proud.
iRunFar: Oh. I love that. I love that.
Rousset Séguret: Isn’t it true?
iRunFar: Congratulations to you on your win of Transvulcania. It’s great that you can put this project to bed.
Rousset Séguret: Thank you. Thank you so much.
