WHO ARE WE ?

WHO WE ARE
SDPO is the story of Jean Claude Le Cornec, a marathon runner who, at the peak (and at the end) of his career, decided to share his own passion (as an organizer) with athletes from all over the world. But, disappointed by the purely sporting approach to his own career (running around the world, without discovering it), he decided to offer Runners and then Walkers a different way of expressing their talents, by combining Sport and Culture.

A forerunner in adventure running, Jean Claude’s first sporting adventure with SDPO came in August 1996 with the Foulées de la Soie (the first pedestrian raid organized in China along the Silk Road), followed by the Beijing and Shanghai Marathons. Then, over time, the enthusiasm and loyalty of successive participants have enabled us to share other destinations with their own history and particularities*: all this in unprecedented natural settings, since SDPO reconnoitres all its routes and structures them, taking care to avoid the usual itineraries as much as possible.

*In 2016, with the support of his friend Edouard Dana, a press executive, and his historic staff, he created the Ultra Trail d’Angkor, the first trail ever organized in the heart of the Angkor archaeological site.

Jean Claude was able to weave around him a structure made up of professionals and sports enthusiasts (doctors, physiotherapists, photographers, cameramen, journalists, IT specialists, etc.) from all walks of life. This structure becomes operational, to the delight of the participants, only at the time of the events.

The SDPO maxim: “IF RUNNING OR WALKING WERE OUR ONLY GOALS, WE WOULD MISS OUT ON UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS”.

This maxim has delighted thousands of participants since 1996…