Sabrina Stanley | Surviving a Tough First Half to Win at Grand Raid

No American has even stood on the podium at Grand Raid Reunion Island (and Diagonale des Fous.) The notoriously difficult hundred miler in the India Ocean has seen greats like Andrea Huser, Nathalie Mauclair, Nuria Picas, Kilian Jornet, and Francois d’Haene work for wins, but Americans have had a tough time performing well. Sabrina Stanley, Crew Chief Daf, and Sabrina Stanley. Pic by Avery Collins. Then there’s Sabrina Stanley. When we had her on the show last year she talked about not being happy with second place…she wanted the win every single time. In a recent interview with Chase Parnell, she spoke about her plans for Grand Raid: “I didn’t travel (literally) half way around the world to finish in any other place but first. An American has never won this race. I plan on being the first.” And a quick glance at Sabrina’s last year of racing gives her some credence, right? She’s the current Hardrock Champion (her win in 2018 still stands since there was no race in 2019), she won HURT in January, Cruel Jewel in May, and a handful of other races…all wins except for one. In this interview, we hear about how she chose this race, what her training looked like leading up to it, and how she overcame an insanely tough first half (stage diving?!? vomiting? stranded crew? Sh*tty pants?!? lost gear!) to fight hard for the win. This is a story of training and preparation, but more importantly patience. Sabrina Stanley Episode Notes Here’s our first interview with Sabrina. She mentioned Lee Conner as an inspiration for some of her training. Here’s that interview. Here’s my version of HOKA recovery sandals. Follow Sabrina on Instagram here. Intro music: David Rosales.Outro music: AJ LeGrand. Photo used with permission from Oliver Pesaresi.