Breca Buttermere Swimrun 2018
Team 132, Black Sands on Tour. Kiwi's at heart. Motto: "Will get them on the bike!"
Breca Buttermere 2018 914
https://instagram.com/p/BmZUlMQB91N
I was long overdue to try the new format of SwimRun events. As this is a 2-person team sport, finding a team mate with similar pace and abilities is crucial. I was lucky to be approached by a fellow kiwi-at-heart athlete leaving in Auckland, but originally a brit, - Ben Chidgey. He is holidaying in the U.K. and wanted to do a Breca event here after doing the Bay Of Islands earlier in the year... and absolutely loving it.
Buttermere seems like a more challenging course,
It features 6km of total swim, 38km of running including the queen stage of 14km of premium fell running with a nice looking elevation profile.
With 22 transition overall this seemed like a big day out. Luckily we had time to go for a one training session together and try out tethering together - this is really helpful. First of all, teammates should remain within 10 meters within each other. Secondly, it really helps with overall team performance. Ben is a bit faster swimmer so we has in the front and I was right behind him, there was just minor tension on the bungee rope between us. It takes a bit of getting used to...being the one in the back you need to have wide entry points not to get mixed up with the tow rope.
Equipment-wise we chose for paddles + pull buoys and the 8mm thick neoprene calf covers. As this is a lake swim - any extra buoyancy felt appropriate. Ben has a specific swimrun wetsuit with extra pockets and zip in the front (to ease the on/off process). I just shortened my old surf-wetsuit (40nzd from Warehouse!) - did the trick for my first race. It was relatively warm day (20 degrees) so we have agreed that we will unzip&take off the upper part of the wetsuits for any runs longer than 2-3km as you have a risk of overheating quite quickly. We also got the water flasks each to refill them at the aid stations (this is eco-friendly cup-free event!). Another useful tip - I right the route card information with kilometres on my paddle - this will help plan how long are the upcoming stages.
All pumped up!
Morning of the race day it is a bit windy and rainy but the spirits of the entire event community is high. It is a point to point course and we are getting dropped by a coach in the middle of nowhere (the bus driver got a bit lost - better be lost on the bus than on the course!). I really like the setting of start - nothing posh like Ironman style races: just a couple of flags and off you go. Much closer to the adventure racing community I would say. Wind and rain - still smiles on the faces:
Facebook post
We start relatively easy to get into the rhythm and then start passing teams, especially as nice forest trail gets a bit technical.
Breca Buttermere 2018 18
The first swim is an easy 500m and the only swim in Loweswater lake (we would be swimming in 4 lakes overall with water temperature varying from 16 to 17 degrees). The swim does feel refreshing and nice, good change from running where you work relatively hard. The second run is 5km mostly on roads and we get to the first aid station/check point. Quick flask refill and we are off passing some teams who were a bit mocking around. Next swim was the toughest and longest of the day - 1km in Crummock Water at the nothermost part with exposed south winds from the valley. I haven't swam in a such a chop back from the Wellington days. Ben was struggling a bit to get the bearing direction straight - it was tough with as the wind will push us out a little. This swim seemed a bit like eternity but the watch shows we've done it in 20 minutes which is pretty good time considering the gear and conditions. Short sharp run 2km along the rocky shoreline trail and back into water for another 400m swim back to the east side of Crummock lake for some hill running. This is where some climbing begins and we can see all the teams are in front of surging up the valley. We are roughly on 8th place overall. We reach the Rannerdale Knotts (just over 300m elevation) and the first clearing in the weather with the sun breaking in. Marvellous view of the Crummock lake and surrounding fells. Steep descent back to the lake (we take it easy on slippery rocks to get down in one piece) and off to another swim accross the same lake. This is where we see's Ben's whanau supporting us as we enter the water! This is the second longest swim of the day 800m but in the southern part of Crummock Water which is less exposed. This is when we realised that the teams in front of us are all better swimmers - one particular exited the water 40 seconds earlies whereas we started the stage together. This is where I thought of the motto for our team - I get that thoughts quite often when doing the swim stage in a triathlon : "will get them on the bike!".
puzzled
We were still in high spirits - we had 3 small swims and small runs inbetween them until the queen 14km climb-the-fell stage. The Buttermere lake was the most beautiful of all the swims we had, hence it proudly names the event overall! Whilst I enjoyed every part of it I was a bit puzzling that we were running around the lake and doing the snake game moves in order to maximize the amount of swims we can do.
If you look at this from pure point-point adventure racing kind of perspective looked a bit odd but did the job of getting us fatigued.
The Climb
We fill in flasks at the checkpoint before the long climb, grab a potato and a gel. Then we start going up. And up and up. It gets pretty steep so even my GPS watch auto stops thinking I'm standing still. Last time I had to crawl that steep was in adventure races somewhere in China! This is where the lack of hill training (miss you Wellington!) gets into place. Ben was keeping up but it was the first time for him doing this kind of effort. We are getting passed by some teams who are obviously much better prepared for this stuff. Once we crawl in to first 700m top (near Robinson?) there is a small descent only then to get another climb up to 750m at Dale Head. We manage to run in between but then switch to "fast walk it" © "Hunt for the wilder people". Then technical descent 300m where we seem to be taking quite easy considering the fatigue and the risk of falling down (technical descending is not our teams' strength anyways! - "will get them on the bike!", remember!?). We are overtaken by a ladiesteam who and flying down - always makes me feel that the light girls are much more better suited for fell running! We stop now and then for breather and Ben comments - that we are good matching team mates as we seem to fatigue at the same time :)
We run out of the 0.5l water flasks quite quickly on the first uphills and before we hit the last climb of the day we tried some water from the streams - seems ok for now. The last part of the climb I begin to struggle and take the coffeine gel. Ben tows me to the top before the effect kicks in. Finally we hit the 650m top of High Spy overlooking the Derwent lake - our final swims location and finish line in a far-far distance but in sight!
The Fall
The trail got finally wide and ok for running. Still a lot of sharp rocks and tricky sections but I got distracted somehow while carried away chatting to Ben…boom…next time I know I'm half down bend my left shoulder not feeling quite right (because it is left!) and Ben advises me I've got a cut just below my right knee (wonder why the 8mm neoprene covers didn't quite protect me from this one!?). I try to sit but don't get much movement with my shoulder - we got some teams stopping asking if we are alright. We ask them to pass the message down that team 132 is having an injury. Ben uses the remains of the stream water to clean the cut.
Ben's is off to the hikers in the distance to get the first aid kit. Whilst he is away I do some gentle rotations with my left arm down and it seemed to pop back in. That was a relief -hadn't done any dislocation since the surgery on the rotator cuf back in 2014, just very unlucky landing on my arm this time.
Ben is back and I pass him on the good news although he is convern of my cut. He does a good job putting the bandage on and give me 2 paracetamol tablets. He keeps me entertained and in good spirits quopting the famous anecdote taking a pin on your ride so you can fake a puncture when you are really tired.
We were still in the "dead" zone as Ben would say we need to get 4 km downhill to get any civilization and possible medical help if we need to. We cover the bandage with neoprene ankle covers, I try to walk , jog and eventually careful running seems quite ok. I don't feel any leg pain at this stage, probably it's the mixture of adrenaline/caffeine and paracetamol kicking it. Actually after this unexpected 30min rest I was feeling the best in the race. Ben was still converend this might be the shock effect ! Conscious though of the looking at the trail and not tipping over once again. We even pass one of the mixed teams who were going downhill to inform the aid station that we had an injury :)
The Come Back
We agree that will decide at the last aid station if we should continue or pull out. We still had a fair bit of swimming (almost 2km) and a bit of running left but it was all easy compared to what we've been through. I'm inspected by the medical stuff , get my drainage replaced and get advised of the risk of the infection if I carry on (the risk was there in the beginning from the rocks which did the cut in the first place!). I felt good and we agreed to carry on a bit more carefully with the motto: "Finishing is winning!". Ben was very supportive, especially on the last swims where he to tow me a bit more as I was saving my left arm not extending it to the full extent. Luckily this wasn't a Bay of Island swim where if you had a bit of blood you were pulled out of the race because of the shark risk. It was very nice to hit the first swim leg in Derwent after 2 and half hours of suffering on the fells! All volunteers where very supportive ,especially the have been passed the message about us being the injured team. There were extra support kayaks/boats on the Derwent lake as it has some live tourist boat traffic.
I enjoyed the quick island hopping experience. Getting closer to Keswick it was getting more crowded, more support and familiar places as we spent some family time on Saturday.
The last swim was a bit spoiled by shallow/muddy grounds but last 500m uphill finish sprint was one to remember. Lovely seeing all the support and family at the finish line!
Finishing is winning!
Facebook post
Had quick talk with Ben (the race director), great to see these awesome event pop up both in the UK and NZ, I can feel the connection. Also reminded him that Russians never give up so quiting was not an option for us!
First things first!
It's a shame I had to rush through it to get to minor injury unit in Keswick as there were concerns over proper cleaning the wound and potential stitches. I still enjoyed quickly the post-race BBQ treats at the medical tent
Could have been in top10 if it wasn't for the injury.
Aftermath in Minor Injury Unit
Luckily there was no queue in A&E - I was quickly assessed by a French nurse/doctor who is also an ultra runner and collecting points for UTMB :) that was my opening line "I'm doing TDS in 18 days - how I can heal the quickest?". There was no way putting stitches as there some many cuts together so he just put special plasters to keep it together and enforced a 10 day rest for the leg. Just need to observe the signs of infection. I was quite lucky and should now focus on my recovery.
Lucky, no stitches applied!
I do feel quite sore the next day considering the 1750m of elevation for runinng almost a marathon, swimming, tumbling over - feels like I've been in a fight or so.
IMG-1575
Thanks the great Breca team (including the marshals, volunteers and the medical staff) for holding such an event; my team mate Ben for being such an awesome and supportive bloke, all fellow swimrunners and my dear Chip for the support!
NB. One piece of advice for this particular race is to practice steep technical uphill and downhill "running". As for the overall swim-run training I though that taking the wetsuit on&off, putting hand-paddles, cap, googles on the go is a good thing to improve!
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