About
Mérile Robert is a French IT engineer and ultrarunner from Hérault who has become one of the most quietly remarkable performers on the multi-stage ultra circuit over the past decade, combining an ordinary professional life with extraordinary desert racing. He came to running as a lifestyle choice — originally to lose weight — spent roughly fifteen years on roads and in city marathons, then completed his first Marathon des Sables in 2012. The Moroccan desert captured him immediately, and the results followed: top-fifteen finishes at MdS in 2012 and 2016, and then a breakout podium in 2018 when he ran to third overall across the 250-kilometre Saharan stage race, leading for stretches of the early stages. He repeated that podium in 2021, claiming third again, making him a two-time MdS podium finisher across seven total starts. In 2022 he won the Grand to Grand Ultra, a point-to-point self-supported multi-stage event from Utah to Arizona. With each MdS participation Robert raises funds for Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, an association that enables children from developing countries who suffer cardiac malformations to travel to France for surgery they cannot access at home — a cause that adds a dimension to his racing that extends well beyond personal achievement.
Notable Wins
- — Marathon des Sables 2018 3rd
- — Marathon des Sables 2021 3rd
- — Grand to Grand Ultra 2022
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