As mentioned in last week’s blog, my wife and I participated in the ÖtillÖ SwimRun Austin event in Pace Bend Park last weekend. We had a really good weekend and I was once again, reminded why I love this unique sport so much.
We flew down to Austin a little early, so that we could meet up with some friends who we haven’t seen in quite some time. We spent all Friday afternoon with them and I haven’t laughed that much in ages. It was a great way to start the weekend.
Saturday was packet pick-up day for the race and Team Envol had also arranged a pre-race clinic designed to help people prepare for the race. Sarah and I decided we would participate in the clinic; we thought it would be a good way to re-familiarise ourself with the details of SwimRun and would also calm any pre-race nerves. The clinic was really good. We practiced technical running skills and transitioning from run to swim and swim to run.
The course at Pace Bend Park is quite rocky in some places, particularly near the points where you enter the lake for swimming. The technical running practice was therefore very useful. Transition practice was even more valuable, and it also gave us a chance to do a brief swim in the lake. The water temperature was perfect for open water swimming and we had a good swim.
At the clinic, and at packet pick-up afterwards, we ran into some athletes who we had met a year ago at Swim Run NC. Even though we had met these people only once before, and it it had been more than a year since we had last seen them, we were greeted like old friends. The SwimRun community is so welcoming like that.
After picking up our race bibs, swim caps etc., it was time to head back to our hotel to dry our gear ahead of race day on Sunday. We had a nice pasta dinner and went to bed early, anticipating the next day.
Getting ready to start the second swim of the race
The alarm clock sounded very early on Sunday morning. Our hotel was a thirty minute drive from the race venue and we didn’t want to be rushing to get ready to race. After a quick breakfast in our room, we gathered our gear and headed off to Pace Bend Park. It was still very dark as we pulled into the parking lot, but the place was alive with athletes getting ready. We got dressed into our wetsuits and assembled all the various gear we would need for the race. Before long, daylight appeared and it was almost time to race.
The race began with a 1.65 mile run. Several teams, the ones who were truly racing, set off at a really fast pace. Sarah and I were there to have fun and complete the race, so we headed out at the back of the pack with others sharing the same goal. The first swim, which was about 800 yards long, was uneventful until we tried to get out of the water. The exit was super muddy and very slick; I ended up pulling Sarah out of the water using our tether. The whole scene was hilarious.
The second run was about a mile and half long and ended at a very rocky swim entry. It was here that the organizers of the race, gave participants an opportunity to do a cliff jump into the water. I chose to do the jump; Sarah did not. The jump wasn’t that high, only about 8 feet high, but it was still a good adrenaline rush. After hitting the water, I swam over to Sarah so we could get hooked up to do swim number two.
The SwimRun Austin race included a cliff jump into the lake
We had a couple of issues on the second swim. I lost the pull buoy from between my legs a couple of times because I had our tether tangled up with it. Sarah also got swum over by a fellow athlete, which also caused her to lose her pull buoy too. We made it to the end of the swim in good time however, and set off on run three.
Run three is where the long course athletes split off from those of us doing the short course. As we ran to swim three, we once again started to bump into other teams going at about the same pace of us. This would happen for the rest of the race and it was always good to have a laugh with these fellow racers.
As we entered swim number three, the shortest of the day, we started to get overtaken by the fastest of the long course participants. This was swim number five for them, as the two courses re-joined at this point. With faster swimmers to follow behind, this swim went by very quickly and we were soon on the next run, the longest of our day.
The almost three mile long run traversed the park towards our final swim. We knew that we would have to cross a road near the end of this run leg and we kept seeing one through the trees. This gave us false hope because it turned out it was not the road we were due to cross. Instead, the trail we were on, wound it’s way through lots of trees away from that road. By now, we had both lost all sense of direction.
Sarah showing off her “flesh wound”
Eventually, we popped out onto the road we expected to see, and ran along it back into the camp area where the race was based. We had just one more long swim and a short run to do before the finish line. The swim turned out to be the toughest of the day. It was not much longer than others we had done, but we were swimming into a stiff breeze. This not only produced a slight current against us, but also made the water quite choppy. On this swim, as on the others we had done, we found that we were quicker than some other teams. This was encouraging, as we battled towards the last flag signaling the swim out point, a flag that seemed to take forever to appear. Eventually we saw it, and pushed hard to the finish.
It was now a case of getting out of the water, making a climb up over some big rocks and completing a short run to the finish line. We crossed the finish line to the applause of earlier finishers, turned to each other and hugged. We had finished another SwimRun race, we had smiled and laughed the whole time and to cap it all off, were not last over the finish line. What a great day !!
“Still Married”… LOL
Read this yesterday and have read it again to Charles this am. Two questions
1. How long was the complete course.?
2. How many run miles how many swim?
Very impressive, the both of you..xxxxx
Thanks !!!
The total distance for our course was just over 10 miles, consisting of about 8 miles running and 2 miles swimming.