Seeking South follows trail runner Keisuke Minami as he attempts to complete a 914km route through the Pyrenees in only nine days. The route is the Grand Randonnée 10 (GR10), a journey which usually takes two months.
We meet Minami as he arrives in southern France, shopping for food and laying out his supplies. He also consults with Cyril Fondeville, organizer of the La TransPyrenea race, an annual GR10 event. Fondeville lays out the route, explaining GR10’s unique structure. It not only runs along the spine of the Pyrenees, but takes a detour down to each village along the way, adding substantial elevation.
Minami shares that this will be his first FKT (Fastest Known Time) attempt on any route. “He’s crazy,” Fondeville says. “But I like it.”
The GR10 route. Photo: Screenshot
Wind, rain, and little sleep
Minami sets out on a clear day, and as he speeds past meandering local hikers, we’re introduced to Ichiro Hashizume. A longtime French resident, Hashizume will provide support for Minami on his attempt.
Day two dawns with wind, rain, and Minami admitting he’s already tired. He soon gets lost and accidentally takes a long route. Constant rain and a slippery trail followed him all the way to the end of the day in Lescun, France. The benefit of the built-in detours is that Minami can rest in hotels instead of a tent, but he only sleeps a few hours every night.
Minami struggles against the wind only to realize he’s made a wrong turn. Photo: Screenshot
Midway through day three, the wind and rain become a blizzard. It’s almost midnight by the time Minami meets up with Hashizume in the next town. After less than four hours of sleep, Minami doesn’t feel motivated at all.
Minami is honest about his emotional state as he continues his attempt. Unable to appreciate the natural beauty he’s running through, he admits he can only dwell on his own exhaustion. It’s only his determination to keep the promise he made to himself, Minami says, which kept him from quitting.
We return to Japan, where interviews with Minami and his mother Mutsuko reveal the tense family life and difficult youth that may have led him to see out such a punishing challenge.
Mutsuko Minami discusses her son. Photo: Screenshot
Highs and lows
His mood has improved somewhat on day five, but his distance is down: only 76km. The next two days go alright. Minami is still exhausted, but he’s making the distances he needs and avoiding complete despair. He finishes day seven with 264km left and only 58 hours to cover it.
As Minami snatches a few hours of sleep, we return to his and his mother’s confessionals. They share more details of Minami’s past, and how he found himself in jail following an attempt to bring drugs into Japan. There, his beloved aunt Mami, struggling with her own terminal cancer, accused him of wasting his life.
This moment, we realize, was the turning point that led him to where he is now: setting out into the misty morning of day eight. Freezing rain lashes Minami, who pauses to warm up in the car when he feels himself approaching hypothermia. Day eight ends at 3:11 am on day nine.
Hashizume waits for Minami at a checkpoint. Photo: Screenshot
The weather has improved, but Minami’s perception of time remains warped. He describes every moment as a sort of strange, torturous eternity. That night, he’s unable to sleep due to the pain in his legs. So instead, he gets up. He has five hours to reach the finish line, and an impossible distance between them. He’s failed to make the FKT. He goes anyway.
Visibly struggling to walk, Minami forces himself to jog towards the Mediterranean, where the route ends. The sun rises and sets on him before he finally stumbles through a seaside town, glowing with friendly orange lights. He’s finished the GR10 in nine days, 21 hours, and 13 minutes.
