SwimRun Georgia 2019 race report.
This race was a relatively late add.
Way Before
Trista and I had a plan to run the Uwharrie 20 mile mountain run in early February, as a really, really, really early training run for our Rockman 2020 pipe dream. Unfortunately during my Ironman Arizona training, while I was doing PT for my shoulder, I managed to tweak my left hamstring. I gutted out the last of my IMAZ training, and the race, and then hoped that some rest would cure my hamstring.
It wasn't to be. Each time I'd try running or swimming again, the hamstring would still hurt. Eventually I went to a doctor, was diagnosed with hamstring tendonitis, and actually started PT to fix the problem. Which left me in mid January, just starting to run 2 or 3 road miles again, and in no way prepared to run 20 trail miles in a few weeks. Could I have gone and faked it? Probably, and then been even worse off than I was before I started PT.
So I made the sad call to Trista and told her I was out of Uwharrie, and then sat at home that weekend and cheered her and Meredith on as they ran it, and suffered serious FOMO. It was the right decision, though.
Meanwhile I kept doing my PT, kept building back up my running and swimming, and was super excited when Trista suggested, as a consolation race, we sign up for SwimRun Georgia. I actually suspect she wasn't really serious, or at least didn't think I would agree, but it was 2 months away, the distances were doable, and I needed something to cheer me up. Plus I knew I'd feel a lot better about our Fall goal race, SwimRun NC, if I had another swimrun under my belt. So we signed up!
My shoulder was much better, though not back to "normal", and my hamstring was a work in progress, but I was able to slowly ramp my volume back up to 2 swims a week and 2-3 runs a week, all short. (Plus a lot of bike commuting/long rides on my touring bike, to prepare for our impending bike tour trip.) Then I slowly added distance to my swims and runs, but I topped out fairly low. I knew I could run 7 contiguous miles (the longest run leg of the race was 3 miles), and I knew I could swim 1200 contiguous yards with paddles (which was the distance of the longest swim leg). I figured adrenaline and partner encouragement would get me through the rest, when my training ran out. I actually felt pretty okay about my training the week before the race.
Then.. because of course there's a then, Matt got sick. We thought it was food poisoning, but it lasted 4 days, at which point he was mostly better, and then *I* got sick. It felt like food poisoning, and I had a fever and lived in the bathroom for 2 days. At that point, I could get some soup in, and it mostly stayed in. On Wednesday I went back to work, 6 pounds lighter, and trying desperately to rehydrate and get some calories back in. By Thursday, I was pretty sure I'd be okay to fly without any sort of bathroom disaster, and I was able to do a test swim, my first workout since Sunday. Friday morning, I did a 3 mile test run, and it felt like the hardest 3 miles ever, but I got through it. I declared myself fit to at least try to race.
The Day Before
Fortunately all this illness distracted me from the fact that the entire week leading up to the race, they were predicting that Sunday morning, race morning, would have severe thunderstorms. Even as the weather changed over the course of the week, there was always a really high chance (like.. 90%) of severe thunderstorms that stayed anchored to the very time the race would be held. Starting 9am, ending noon or thereabouts. If it would just shift either way, the race would be fine, but it wouldn't budge.
Flight delayed as they pulled everyone off the runway.
The same storm that threatened the race moved through Austin right as I was trying to flight out Saturday morning, delaying my flight. Good start. I flew into Atlanta as Trista drove to Atlanta from Charlotte, and she picked me up from the airport. We checked into our vrbo, then headed over to the race site for packet pickup/pre-race meeting.
Wearing our matchy matchy Trails and Tails shirts!
There was a giant streak of weather moving across the country, destined to head straight through our park, just when the race started. It was pretty non-negotiable at this point, given how soon the race was, and how unforgiving the radar was. But the race director was determined to have the race if it was even remotely possible, so we got the run-down on the course, we picked up our trucker hats (I hate trucker hats, Trista loves trucker hats, so this is a running joke), and we scoped out the trails and the water around the start/finish area.
To be fair, she DOES look adorable in them.
It was SO beautiful, and we were pretty sad that we might not get to run through those big, beautiful trees. All we really wanted was to get a chance to START the race the next morning.
Part of the first run.
Then we headed out for a pre-race dinner. Well, a dinner, anyway. Even though the RD was so determined to have the race, given the radar, given the timing, given the risk of lightning to people swimming in a lake, I figured there was basically a 0% chance of us racing.
This is how much stuff someone flying in for a swimrun race needs (me, left), versus how much someone who drives in for a swimrun race needs (Trista, right).
Race Morning
The first thing I did when I woke up race morning was look at the radar. Which had a giant storm front bearing down on us, predicted to hit us around 9am. In other words.. no change.
We're over there near Atlanta, directly in the path of that.
But the RD said he would make the call race morning, at the race site, so we dutifully ate, got dressed, and drove to the park.
So terrible.
We arrived to find a parking lot full of other racers, half of whom were fully suited up in their wetsuits and shoes, the other half of whom were obviously less convinced we would race, and were standing around in normal clothes. Trista went half in, and put on the bottom of her wetsuit, and I did the same, despite it only being 7:45am, and BEST case scenario would be starting at 9am.
Our view for the whole morning.
Then we basically sat around for almost 3 hours in a parking lot. Which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds. We organized our stuff. We ate snacks. We chatted with other racers. We toured the inside of an amazing tricked out sprinter van. We hit the portapotty a few times. And we listened to all the rumors floating around about whether or not the race would be held.
Trucker hats are The Worst.
Because there was definitely weather. It mostly just sprinkled, but every once in a while it would start raining in earnest, and a few times it thundered or lightninged. We kept waiting for THE STORM to pass through, since they were hoping to start the race immediately after that, but.. it just really didn't.
Killing time, with Marcus photobomb.
Finally around 9:45, rumors started circulating that we were a go! The race would go on, both long course and short course! Maybe at 10:15! Or maybe 10:30! Hopefully 10:30, because as we were getting ready, we looked at our watches and it was 10:13, and we weren't anywhere near the start line!
This is Trista, shortly before the announcement that we were going to race, taking OFF her wetsuit (with help) after hours of wearing it, because .. I'm not sure. Because Trista.
Suddenly after a morning of hurry up and wait, we only had a few minutes to put on all our ridiculous swimrun gear, panic-eat a snack, and run over to the start line! I had been so completely convinced, even as we sat around in the parking lot, that this race wouldn't happen, so I was a little overwhelmed that suddenly we were going to race!
Mostly suited up, sort of ready to go!
Trista was SUPER excited to be heading to the start line! So much so that she was stomping in every mud puddle on our way, meaning by the time we GOT to the start line, we were both completely coated in mud. Might as well get as dirty as possible as quickly as possible, right? Plus puddle-stomping turns out to be a good workout. (I was out of breath from puddle stomping. That probably should have been an ominous sign.)
Readyish to go! Note I have the tether wrapped around my waist here, because I am in charge of the tether.
Those of us who were still around (some people didn't show up at all because of the weather, some people had travel plans or weekend plans that couldn't tolerate a 2 hour race start delay) gathered up at the start line, got a little refresher on weather contingencies and how it would be announced if the race ended up being called for weather, and then we were off!
The race!
We started about halfway back in the start pack, and we headed out for the first run, which was 0.7 miles and kinda dipped over onto a path by the lake, came back through the start area again, and then wound through some pretty trees over to the lake.
A lot of people immediately took off into the distance. Including Trista.
TRISTA IS SO EXCITED TO BE RACING, YOU GUYS.
We were roughly 45 seconds into the race, and I could NOT keep up. Trista was up ahead and I had to yell that she needed to slow down. I felt bad, because I didn't want to slow down our team, but if we separated too far, we could get disqualified. And.. I just couldn't keep up. At Lake James, our trail running paces were pretty equivalent, and neither of us really had to slow down for the other, but that wasn't happening here. It was a pretty terrible feeling. I wanted to blame it on being sick earlier in the week, but I also didn't want to be lame and come up with excuses. So I just pushed as hard as I could, moderately alarmed that I was having to push so hard not even half a mile into a multi-hour race, and tried to keep Trista's enthusiasm in check so she didn't leave me behind completely.
Hooked a left into the trees, down toward the water. (Taken the day before, when there was sun.)
Meanwhile, not helping matters any was the fact that I had the tether rope wrapped around my waist, and couldn't seem to get my act together and figure out how to anchor it properly. I would hook it to my belt, and it would slither down nearly to my knees, almost tripping me. I had to hold it in my hand, but I kept trying over and over to find a way to affix it, and I just couldn't. So I just kept complaining about it. I was a real delight in this first run leg, and I imagine Trista was having some second thoughts about our partnership.
This was before Trista left me behind, but after I was obviously struggling with the tether, since I'm holding one end in my hand.
Eventually, after what felt MUCH longer than 0.7 miles to me, we made our way down to the water.
The first swim leg was 600 yards, and went back through the cove we'd run by earlier. As we approached the water, we could see that there was a little tiny island sticking out of the water, and it was very shallow out to that island, so most people were just wading out to the island and starting their swim from there. We followed suit, using the wading time to get situated, tethered up, goggles on, buoy in place, paddles on.
This is the day before, looking at the swim start over to the left beyond the kayak. You can almost sorta see the little island in the water.
As we waded back into the water to start swimming, we heard a rumble of thunder. And so, being a smart and incredibly safety-conscious individual, I yelled, "GO!" Trista obviously being the same, she dove in and started swimming. I mean.. we were gonna get SOME SWIMMING IN DURING THIS RACE, even if it killed us, which.. given what we just did, was I guess fairly likely?
And then swimming! And not killed by lightning! And.. things didn't get any better for me in this swim.
(Housekeeping note: the water temp was in the low 60s a week before the race. We stuck our hands in the water the day before, expecting it to be chilly, and it was NOT. It was about 68. For two people who like cold water swimming, this was right on the edge of too warm. But it made our decision about how much extra neoprene to wear very easy: None.)
Again, Lake James, even though Trista is a faster swimmer than me, I could keep close enough to stay in her draft, and while I had to make an effort, I could stay right on her feet. That was not the case here. I was having to push super hard, and I couldn't stay in her draft. Which means I had to work twice as hard to stay near her. I never had her pulling me by the rope, but it was a close thing at some points.
To make matters worse, I didn't get my belt situated properly, so it was off to my left side, and I kept ending up grabbing the rope with my paddle, which meant I had to reposition completely, which meant I fell behind a little bit more.
In an attempt to keep closer to Trista, I tried overkicking. Basically kicking even while using a pull buoy. Which is great in theory, and should have gotten me a little closer, but in reality it made my buoy drift out of place, and it basically ended up under one of my knees instead of between my thighs. I was honestly afraid it was going to go all the way down my leg and slip off my ankle.
This is most of the swim we did, panoramic-style.
Basically the entire 600 yards was me just trying to keep my shit together and stay near Trista, and it was a complete fiasco. The only bright side is that I DIDN'T fall apart completely, or fall behind completely.
I did find it completely hysterical, though, that things seemed to be going just fine for Trista, who presumably had no idea what sort of shitshow was going on just behind her. At least one of us was having a good race!
Eventually, after what seemed way longer than 600 yards, we made it to the exit flag in the cove.
We got our feet under us and started to transition back to run, pausing to smile for the camera as we did so. (Note: Trista took the tether at this point, not consulting me, because she was tired of listening to me whine about the tether.) Then back to the run! This leg was supposed to be our longest run leg, ~3 miles.
WE WERE SO HAPPY WE GOT TO SWIM!
As we settled back into running, I detailed for Trista all the ways my swim was terrible, and verified that hers was lovely and delightful.
The GOOD news, for the rest of our race, and for our continued swimrun partnership, is that things got better for me at this point. I think part of it was that I finally warmed up a bit, and most of it was that Trista calmed down a bit. We settled into a sustainable pace. I have no idea if Trista was still holding back at this point to stay with me, but at least she was now staying at my side instead of me clinging to her heels.
And it was just lovely. The forest was green and full of really tall trees and bridges. There were puddles all over the trail, which we splashed through. There were hills, which we ran up if we could, and walked with purpose up if our calves threatened to cramp or our hamstrings threatened to grow very angry.
It started to rain intermittently, which we figured we wouldn't feel through the trees if it happened, but we did, and it was delightful. We did hear a few rumbles of thunder in the distance, but it seemed like the weather was clearing up.
We headed through one aid station, grabbing a cup of Tailwind, and then hit a second aid station somewhere in mile 2, where we noted we were about 50 minutes in, and should probably take a gel. We ate, drank some water, and then headed back out.
Right after the aid station, we crossed a road in the park, continuing down the trail on the other side of the road. We were a minute or so down that trail when we heard yelling behind us. We turned around and there were quite a few people back at that road split, all yelling at us. We couldn't really understand them, because we were so far away, but we figured we must have missed a turn. We guessed we were supposed to turn on that road instead of go down this trail. We headed back toward the yelling people.
And when we got there, we were informed that the race had been cancelled. The safety crew on the water had seen several lightning strikes, blew the airhorn twice, and the race was over.
We were SUPER bummed, but we were happy we'd gotten to do some of the race. All we'd wanted was to get to run through these woods, and we'd gotten our wish.
Meanwhile we were in the middle of the woods with no means of getting out. So since we had to get back SOMEhow, we (me and Trista and the 3 other teams who had met up at that road) decided to just turn around and run back to the way we'd come. Eventually we would get back to the race start if we ran the race in reverse!
Team Tortoise and the Manatee evidently had a cellphone in a bag in their wetsuit, so we got some "our race was cancelled and we're in the middle of the woods" selfies!
This was actually one of my favorite parts. We didn't really feel a lot of pressure from being in a race, but now any pressure we MIGHT have felt was completely gone, and we were just out for a fun run in the woods. Where maybe we'd get completely lost! At the very least, we could finally take off our swim caps and goggles and stash them in our wetsuits, knowing we didn't have another swim to prepare for.
About to go venture off into the woods!
So we just cruised back in, having to guess which way to go at a few forks, because the course wasn't really well marked for being run BACKward. But we eventually made it back to the start line!
We ran all the way to the "finish line" and people cheered for us and high fived us and it was sunny and lovely and a good day.
As we'd been running back, the sun had come out. And it was a beautiful day. No clouds, even. The storm cell had moved past.
Which was a bit of a bummer. If they could have paused the race for 10 minutes, we probably could have safely finished, but with people spread out all over the course and no effective way to really communicate, that just wasn't feasible. And we definitely don't blame the RD for his decision, as he had to listen to his safety crew, and they had to do what was safest for everyone involved.
But it DID mean that when we got back to the start line, we could safely strip off our numbers and jump back in the water for a fun little cooldown swim!
And the photographer was still around to get in some great jump photos of us!
This was extra fun, because it was the first time Trista and I actually got to do some swimrun swim training together! All our tethering and drafting had been in races, and we'd never really had a chance to just do some fun swims while tethered, or have me lead and Trista draft off me. We just swam back and forth in the cove several times, hanging out with a few other teams doing the same, and switching off leads. It was a beautiful day, and I didn't have to be at the airport until 6pm, so it was a great way to finish off a lovely, if short, race.
And ultimately it was a lovely race. It started off very rough for me, but I found a rhythm eventually, and I'm really glad that we got to do some swimrunning, even if it was much shorter than anticipated. It would have been nice to not have been sick the week of the race, since now I have no idea if my difficult start was due to that or not, but I guess we'll find out the next race we do! Hopefully we're still compatible as swimrun partners.
We did end the weekend still friends, and are still super excited about our big Fall swimrun race, SwimRun NC, so fingers crossed!
Ugh. Trucker hats.
Way Before
Trista and I had a plan to run the Uwharrie 20 mile mountain run in early February, as a really, really, really early training run for our Rockman 2020 pipe dream. Unfortunately during my Ironman Arizona training, while I was doing PT for my shoulder, I managed to tweak my left hamstring. I gutted out the last of my IMAZ training, and the race, and then hoped that some rest would cure my hamstring.
It wasn't to be. Each time I'd try running or swimming again, the hamstring would still hurt. Eventually I went to a doctor, was diagnosed with hamstring tendonitis, and actually started PT to fix the problem. Which left me in mid January, just starting to run 2 or 3 road miles again, and in no way prepared to run 20 trail miles in a few weeks. Could I have gone and faked it? Probably, and then been even worse off than I was before I started PT.
So I made the sad call to Trista and told her I was out of Uwharrie, and then sat at home that weekend and cheered her and Meredith on as they ran it, and suffered serious FOMO. It was the right decision, though.
Meanwhile I kept doing my PT, kept building back up my running and swimming, and was super excited when Trista suggested, as a consolation race, we sign up for SwimRun Georgia. I actually suspect she wasn't really serious, or at least didn't think I would agree, but it was 2 months away, the distances were doable, and I needed something to cheer me up. Plus I knew I'd feel a lot better about our Fall goal race, SwimRun NC, if I had another swimrun under my belt. So we signed up!
My shoulder was much better, though not back to "normal", and my hamstring was a work in progress, but I was able to slowly ramp my volume back up to 2 swims a week and 2-3 runs a week, all short. (Plus a lot of bike commuting/long rides on my touring bike, to prepare for our impending bike tour trip.) Then I slowly added distance to my swims and runs, but I topped out fairly low. I knew I could run 7 contiguous miles (the longest run leg of the race was 3 miles), and I knew I could swim 1200 contiguous yards with paddles (which was the distance of the longest swim leg). I figured adrenaline and partner encouragement would get me through the rest, when my training ran out. I actually felt pretty okay about my training the week before the race.
Then.. because of course there's a then, Matt got sick. We thought it was food poisoning, but it lasted 4 days, at which point he was mostly better, and then *I* got sick. It felt like food poisoning, and I had a fever and lived in the bathroom for 2 days. At that point, I could get some soup in, and it mostly stayed in. On Wednesday I went back to work, 6 pounds lighter, and trying desperately to rehydrate and get some calories back in. By Thursday, I was pretty sure I'd be okay to fly without any sort of bathroom disaster, and I was able to do a test swim, my first workout since Sunday. Friday morning, I did a 3 mile test run, and it felt like the hardest 3 miles ever, but I got through it. I declared myself fit to at least try to race.
The Day Before
Fortunately all this illness distracted me from the fact that the entire week leading up to the race, they were predicting that Sunday morning, race morning, would have severe thunderstorms. Even as the weather changed over the course of the week, there was always a really high chance (like.. 90%) of severe thunderstorms that stayed anchored to the very time the race would be held. Starting 9am, ending noon or thereabouts. If it would just shift either way, the race would be fine, but it wouldn't budge.
Flight delayed as they pulled everyone off the runway.
The same storm that threatened the race moved through Austin right as I was trying to flight out Saturday morning, delaying my flight. Good start. I flew into Atlanta as Trista drove to Atlanta from Charlotte, and she picked me up from the airport. We checked into our vrbo, then headed over to the race site for packet pickup/pre-race meeting.
Wearing our matchy matchy Trails and Tails shirts!
There was a giant streak of weather moving across the country, destined to head straight through our park, just when the race started. It was pretty non-negotiable at this point, given how soon the race was, and how unforgiving the radar was. But the race director was determined to have the race if it was even remotely possible, so we got the run-down on the course, we picked up our trucker hats (I hate trucker hats, Trista loves trucker hats, so this is a running joke), and we scoped out the trails and the water around the start/finish area.
To be fair, she DOES look adorable in them.
It was SO beautiful, and we were pretty sad that we might not get to run through those big, beautiful trees. All we really wanted was to get a chance to START the race the next morning.
Part of the first run.
Then we headed out for a pre-race dinner. Well, a dinner, anyway. Even though the RD was so determined to have the race, given the radar, given the timing, given the risk of lightning to people swimming in a lake, I figured there was basically a 0% chance of us racing.
This is how much stuff someone flying in for a swimrun race needs (me, left), versus how much someone who drives in for a swimrun race needs (Trista, right).
Race Morning
The first thing I did when I woke up race morning was look at the radar. Which had a giant storm front bearing down on us, predicted to hit us around 9am. In other words.. no change.
We're over there near Atlanta, directly in the path of that.
But the RD said he would make the call race morning, at the race site, so we dutifully ate, got dressed, and drove to the park.
So terrible.
We arrived to find a parking lot full of other racers, half of whom were fully suited up in their wetsuits and shoes, the other half of whom were obviously less convinced we would race, and were standing around in normal clothes. Trista went half in, and put on the bottom of her wetsuit, and I did the same, despite it only being 7:45am, and BEST case scenario would be starting at 9am.
Our view for the whole morning.
Then we basically sat around for almost 3 hours in a parking lot. Which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds. We organized our stuff. We ate snacks. We chatted with other racers. We toured the inside of an amazing tricked out sprinter van. We hit the portapotty a few times. And we listened to all the rumors floating around about whether or not the race would be held.
Trucker hats are The Worst.
Because there was definitely weather. It mostly just sprinkled, but every once in a while it would start raining in earnest, and a few times it thundered or lightninged. We kept waiting for THE STORM to pass through, since they were hoping to start the race immediately after that, but.. it just really didn't.
Killing time, with Marcus photobomb.
Finally around 9:45, rumors started circulating that we were a go! The race would go on, both long course and short course! Maybe at 10:15! Or maybe 10:30! Hopefully 10:30, because as we were getting ready, we looked at our watches and it was 10:13, and we weren't anywhere near the start line!
This is Trista, shortly before the announcement that we were going to race, taking OFF her wetsuit (with help) after hours of wearing it, because .. I'm not sure. Because Trista.
Suddenly after a morning of hurry up and wait, we only had a few minutes to put on all our ridiculous swimrun gear, panic-eat a snack, and run over to the start line! I had been so completely convinced, even as we sat around in the parking lot, that this race wouldn't happen, so I was a little overwhelmed that suddenly we were going to race!
Mostly suited up, sort of ready to go!
Trista was SUPER excited to be heading to the start line! So much so that she was stomping in every mud puddle on our way, meaning by the time we GOT to the start line, we were both completely coated in mud. Might as well get as dirty as possible as quickly as possible, right? Plus puddle-stomping turns out to be a good workout. (I was out of breath from puddle stomping. That probably should have been an ominous sign.)
Readyish to go! Note I have the tether wrapped around my waist here, because I am in charge of the tether.
Those of us who were still around (some people didn't show up at all because of the weather, some people had travel plans or weekend plans that couldn't tolerate a 2 hour race start delay) gathered up at the start line, got a little refresher on weather contingencies and how it would be announced if the race ended up being called for weather, and then we were off!
The race!
We started about halfway back in the start pack, and we headed out for the first run, which was 0.7 miles and kinda dipped over onto a path by the lake, came back through the start area again, and then wound through some pretty trees over to the lake.
A lot of people immediately took off into the distance. Including Trista.
TRISTA IS SO EXCITED TO BE RACING, YOU GUYS.
We were roughly 45 seconds into the race, and I could NOT keep up. Trista was up ahead and I had to yell that she needed to slow down. I felt bad, because I didn't want to slow down our team, but if we separated too far, we could get disqualified. And.. I just couldn't keep up. At Lake James, our trail running paces were pretty equivalent, and neither of us really had to slow down for the other, but that wasn't happening here. It was a pretty terrible feeling. I wanted to blame it on being sick earlier in the week, but I also didn't want to be lame and come up with excuses. So I just pushed as hard as I could, moderately alarmed that I was having to push so hard not even half a mile into a multi-hour race, and tried to keep Trista's enthusiasm in check so she didn't leave me behind completely.
Hooked a left into the trees, down toward the water. (Taken the day before, when there was sun.)
Meanwhile, not helping matters any was the fact that I had the tether rope wrapped around my waist, and couldn't seem to get my act together and figure out how to anchor it properly. I would hook it to my belt, and it would slither down nearly to my knees, almost tripping me. I had to hold it in my hand, but I kept trying over and over to find a way to affix it, and I just couldn't. So I just kept complaining about it. I was a real delight in this first run leg, and I imagine Trista was having some second thoughts about our partnership.
This was before Trista left me behind, but after I was obviously struggling with the tether, since I'm holding one end in my hand.
Eventually, after what felt MUCH longer than 0.7 miles to me, we made our way down to the water.
The first swim leg was 600 yards, and went back through the cove we'd run by earlier. As we approached the water, we could see that there was a little tiny island sticking out of the water, and it was very shallow out to that island, so most people were just wading out to the island and starting their swim from there. We followed suit, using the wading time to get situated, tethered up, goggles on, buoy in place, paddles on.
This is the day before, looking at the swim start over to the left beyond the kayak. You can almost sorta see the little island in the water.
As we waded back into the water to start swimming, we heard a rumble of thunder. And so, being a smart and incredibly safety-conscious individual, I yelled, "GO!" Trista obviously being the same, she dove in and started swimming. I mean.. we were gonna get SOME SWIMMING IN DURING THIS RACE, even if it killed us, which.. given what we just did, was I guess fairly likely?
And then swimming! And not killed by lightning! And.. things didn't get any better for me in this swim.
(Housekeeping note: the water temp was in the low 60s a week before the race. We stuck our hands in the water the day before, expecting it to be chilly, and it was NOT. It was about 68. For two people who like cold water swimming, this was right on the edge of too warm. But it made our decision about how much extra neoprene to wear very easy: None.)
Again, Lake James, even though Trista is a faster swimmer than me, I could keep close enough to stay in her draft, and while I had to make an effort, I could stay right on her feet. That was not the case here. I was having to push super hard, and I couldn't stay in her draft. Which means I had to work twice as hard to stay near her. I never had her pulling me by the rope, but it was a close thing at some points.
To make matters worse, I didn't get my belt situated properly, so it was off to my left side, and I kept ending up grabbing the rope with my paddle, which meant I had to reposition completely, which meant I fell behind a little bit more.
In an attempt to keep closer to Trista, I tried overkicking. Basically kicking even while using a pull buoy. Which is great in theory, and should have gotten me a little closer, but in reality it made my buoy drift out of place, and it basically ended up under one of my knees instead of between my thighs. I was honestly afraid it was going to go all the way down my leg and slip off my ankle.
This is most of the swim we did, panoramic-style.
Basically the entire 600 yards was me just trying to keep my shit together and stay near Trista, and it was a complete fiasco. The only bright side is that I DIDN'T fall apart completely, or fall behind completely.
I did find it completely hysterical, though, that things seemed to be going just fine for Trista, who presumably had no idea what sort of shitshow was going on just behind her. At least one of us was having a good race!
Eventually, after what seemed way longer than 600 yards, we made it to the exit flag in the cove.
We got our feet under us and started to transition back to run, pausing to smile for the camera as we did so. (Note: Trista took the tether at this point, not consulting me, because she was tired of listening to me whine about the tether.) Then back to the run! This leg was supposed to be our longest run leg, ~3 miles.
WE WERE SO HAPPY WE GOT TO SWIM!
As we settled back into running, I detailed for Trista all the ways my swim was terrible, and verified that hers was lovely and delightful.
The GOOD news, for the rest of our race, and for our continued swimrun partnership, is that things got better for me at this point. I think part of it was that I finally warmed up a bit, and most of it was that Trista calmed down a bit. We settled into a sustainable pace. I have no idea if Trista was still holding back at this point to stay with me, but at least she was now staying at my side instead of me clinging to her heels.
And it was just lovely. The forest was green and full of really tall trees and bridges. There were puddles all over the trail, which we splashed through. There were hills, which we ran up if we could, and walked with purpose up if our calves threatened to cramp or our hamstrings threatened to grow very angry.
It started to rain intermittently, which we figured we wouldn't feel through the trees if it happened, but we did, and it was delightful. We did hear a few rumbles of thunder in the distance, but it seemed like the weather was clearing up.
We headed through one aid station, grabbing a cup of Tailwind, and then hit a second aid station somewhere in mile 2, where we noted we were about 50 minutes in, and should probably take a gel. We ate, drank some water, and then headed back out.
Right after the aid station, we crossed a road in the park, continuing down the trail on the other side of the road. We were a minute or so down that trail when we heard yelling behind us. We turned around and there were quite a few people back at that road split, all yelling at us. We couldn't really understand them, because we were so far away, but we figured we must have missed a turn. We guessed we were supposed to turn on that road instead of go down this trail. We headed back toward the yelling people.
And when we got there, we were informed that the race had been cancelled. The safety crew on the water had seen several lightning strikes, blew the airhorn twice, and the race was over.
We were SUPER bummed, but we were happy we'd gotten to do some of the race. All we'd wanted was to get to run through these woods, and we'd gotten our wish.
Meanwhile we were in the middle of the woods with no means of getting out. So since we had to get back SOMEhow, we (me and Trista and the 3 other teams who had met up at that road) decided to just turn around and run back to the way we'd come. Eventually we would get back to the race start if we ran the race in reverse!
Team Tortoise and the Manatee evidently had a cellphone in a bag in their wetsuit, so we got some "our race was cancelled and we're in the middle of the woods" selfies!
This was actually one of my favorite parts. We didn't really feel a lot of pressure from being in a race, but now any pressure we MIGHT have felt was completely gone, and we were just out for a fun run in the woods. Where maybe we'd get completely lost! At the very least, we could finally take off our swim caps and goggles and stash them in our wetsuits, knowing we didn't have another swim to prepare for.
About to go venture off into the woods!
So we just cruised back in, having to guess which way to go at a few forks, because the course wasn't really well marked for being run BACKward. But we eventually made it back to the start line!
We ran all the way to the "finish line" and people cheered for us and high fived us and it was sunny and lovely and a good day.
As we'd been running back, the sun had come out. And it was a beautiful day. No clouds, even. The storm cell had moved past.
Which was a bit of a bummer. If they could have paused the race for 10 minutes, we probably could have safely finished, but with people spread out all over the course and no effective way to really communicate, that just wasn't feasible. And we definitely don't blame the RD for his decision, as he had to listen to his safety crew, and they had to do what was safest for everyone involved.
But it DID mean that when we got back to the start line, we could safely strip off our numbers and jump back in the water for a fun little cooldown swim!
And the photographer was still around to get in some great jump photos of us!
This was extra fun, because it was the first time Trista and I actually got to do some swimrun swim training together! All our tethering and drafting had been in races, and we'd never really had a chance to just do some fun swims while tethered, or have me lead and Trista draft off me. We just swam back and forth in the cove several times, hanging out with a few other teams doing the same, and switching off leads. It was a beautiful day, and I didn't have to be at the airport until 6pm, so it was a great way to finish off a lovely, if short, race.
And ultimately it was a lovely race. It started off very rough for me, but I found a rhythm eventually, and I'm really glad that we got to do some swimrunning, even if it was much shorter than anticipated. It would have been nice to not have been sick the week of the race, since now I have no idea if my difficult start was due to that or not, but I guess we'll find out the next race we do! Hopefully we're still compatible as swimrun partners.
We did end the weekend still friends, and are still super excited about our big Fall swimrun race, SwimRun NC, so fingers crossed!
Ugh. Trucker hats.