Maxime of Astous | From hospital bed to ultramarathons

On December 20, 2017, around noon, Maxime d’Astous struck a snow snow snow on the highway 40. Swerved. Black hole. Artificial coma. Diagnosis: two vertebrae of the fractured neck and head trauma. The probabilities he could one day walk again were tiny. And yet. This Saturday morning, he will be on the starting line of Quebec Méga Trail 80 km, in Charlevoix.

When he got out of a coma, a few days after his accident, Maxime d’Astous had been operated on. A delicate operation from which he could have emerged quadriplegic, he told us on the phone his vertebrae of the neck and head had been “merged”, welded. “I’m just lucky to move right now. »»

When he wakes up, Maxime had been attached to prevent him from falling. He did not know who he was and recognized neither his parents nor his girlfriend of the time. The right side of his body was paralyzed. He was doing strabismus, which prevented him from seeing clear. “I thought I was in the 1980s and I was not even born in the 1980s! He says.

It was only several days later that things started to clarify. When the doctors removed his laryngeal mask for him, Maxime looked at his father. “My dream is to walk again,” he said. This father, who had just learned that the probabilities of seeing his son walk, or even standing with a walker or with a cane, were “tiny” …

But Maxime comes from a “hyper positive” family. He believed in it, and his father too. “When it happens to you an ordeal in life, believing it is already a good step,” recalls the native of Sayecubon, in the Matapédia.

“One evening, four people from the support staff raised me so that I try to stand up. I was soft as a rag. I did not even walked, they are the ones who supported me. Except that my brain recorded that I was able to advance a little. »»

In the following weeks, Maxime lived like a cat: he was sleeping more than 20 hours a day and woke up only to eat mash.

Then he started to progress.

First there was the “walking walk”. Then the “marching walk”, followed by the “a little more correct” walk. “Whenever I got into a doctors’ office, I saw their face. […] I saw that they were really amazed to see me arriving while walking. »»

Some six months after his accident, he took part in a 1 km race in Rimouski. “It was so hard, just training for 1 km!” he recalls. I can’t believe I succeeded. »»

Marathoner all his life

Concretely, Maxime d’Astous spent two or three years in “intensive rehabilitation”. “It took time before I accept that I had the tuning neck, that my right side was lower. It is still so to date. »»

In 2020, three years after his accident, the man now 34 years old bought a van, which allowed him to start traveling. And two years later, in 2022, he sold his house to live there full time. “The van just gave me a greater happiness. I open the door and discover a new landscape every morning. »»

Maxime started running more seriously a year and a half ago in 2023. He returned from a two -month trip to Europe. “I was not in good shape, not healthy, and I said to myself: that’s enough. I had a first chance, I don’t want to make my life shop either. »»

He ran 10 kilometers, then 11, then 15. In April 2024, he made his first half-marathon. In September 2024, his first marathon, in Rimouski.

“It is the most beautiful accomplishment of my life. Without a doubt. […] The marathon, for me, was an insurmountable wall. »»

“I am aware that I can die tomorrow, that welds in my neck can let go. I am aware every day. I have pain and I have a follow -up every year to see if there is nothing detached. I tell myself that this marathon, it doesn’t matter what happens to me afterwards, you can never take it off. I’m going to be a marathonian all my life. »»

His story does not stop there.

Barely a few weeks ago, Maxime participated in the Ultra Trail Gaspesia 55. An experience he loved. This Saturday, it will be Quebec Méga Trail. It will run 80 km in the trails of Charlevoix. For months, he has been preparing while traveling from 100 to 150 km per week.

“I still feel stressed, but feverish at the same time. […] I go to a universe that I don’t know, but that fills me. Running in mud, avoiding obstacles at each step is mindfulness, but at a higher level. Odors, wind … all this is condensed in trail race. »»

“Who was, Maxime d’Astous?” »»

Today, Maxime d’Astous perceives his accident both like the worst and the best thing that could happen to him. The worst, because he lives with many limitations – memory holes, organizational difficulties, inability to move his head from left to right. The best, because it allowed him to see life differently.

He remembers, in the weeks that followed on December 20, 2017, having long sought who he was. He who had been a career singer – he made 200 shows per year across Quebec -, and who suddenly found himself nailed to a hospital bed.

“If I was no longer a songwriter who was drinking, who went around Quebec, who was I?” Without music, who was it, Maxime d’Astous? »»

He bought plants, traveled the thrift stores, looking for a passion. “I said to myself: no, that’s not what makes me happy. I dug deeper. I would not say that I am a master of happiness; I learn about me every day. But yes, I have easy happiness. »»

Maxime has an “urgency to live”. He gives conferences. He will soon publish a new song. He takes advantage of the present moment like never before. It stops to pick flowers and collect bird feathers, to record sounds in nature. “Living, it is everywhere now. »»

Music has long been a reason to live for him. Today, it is the race that makes it “the happiest in the world”, even if it perceives it especially as “a bridge for what will come later”.

“I really feel like I am able to do great things. I am not saying that I am a separate being, zero, but I think that if, yesterday, I was unable to walk and that today, I run marathons and ultramarathons, sky is the limit. There is nothing impossible. »»