Swimrun Lake James 2021 race report.
(Administrative note: This is a co-written race report. Amy wrote the initial report, in black text, then Trista annotated it with her thoughts and experiences in blue text.)
It actually wasn't looking great for me to be able to race, because as the race approached, I still wasn't comfortable getting on a plane, and that's a really long solo drive for someone who doesn't love solo driving. I was about to give Trista the green light to find another partner for LJ when I remembered she made the long ass cross country solo roadtrip from PA to TX last year for Odyssey Swimrun Austin. No? That's not where this is going?? I hit upon the brilliant plan of turning what might otherwise be a surgical strike there-and-back race into a family vacation. I ran the idea by Matt, and it was decided that we would have a family roadtrip with the dogs out to North Carolina, and stay a day or two after! I LOVE family roadtrips with dogs, and we definitely needed a vacation, so this worked out SO well. Good thing, because I almost tried to convince Meredith that partnering with me in Amy's absence would be a good idea. Luckily, for everyone, Amy's ability to get to NC made for another great Adorkable race, but also ended in a new successful speed dating partnership for Meredith and her blind race date partner, Georgia.
The best roadtrip dogs ever.
On top of that, after months of uncertainty, Matt, Trista, and I were able to all get vaccinated before the race, which just made everything feel so much safer and less fraught. I went in to this race with SO much less anxiety than I went into Swimrun Austin.
With all of those decisions out of the way, we could focus on the TRULY important things like: What the heck were we gonna wear? She's gonna mention the socks and how I never let her pick them.
The last (first) time we did LJ, it was cold air temps and cold cold water temps, and we wore everything. Hmmmm....I was wrong. We're going to talk about gear first, ok! Wetsuit, sleeves, heatvest, neoprene gloves. Never took any of that off, never regretted any of it. This time the water temps LOOKED like they were going to be warmer, but it was hard to really know. A couple weeks before the race, the water measured 51 degrees in one spot, and the air temps leading up to the race ranged from freezing to the 40s. As race day approached, it looked like the water temps were trending toward upper 50s to around 60 degrees. Warmer than the last time, but not warm.
It also looked like nature chose race day to be the only day that would have Weather. Meredith and I discussed it. We agree it's Amy that brings the horrible weather.
Clearly race day was Saturday. And that 61 degrees was a lie.
Our drive from Austin to Bat Cave, NC went well, (hehe, I can't say Bat Cave without smirking) and I arrived feeling about as race ready as one feels after two full days sitting in a car and eating car food.
On Friday, Trista (who had also driven, but a much shorter distance) and I met up at the race site before packet pickup to do our pre-race shakeout workout(s). We had both a swim and a run on the schedule. Usually we do a half-ass run and skip the swim, but this time we really wanted to get in the water and see how cold it was, so we could finally decide what we were going to wear. (I mean, we didn't REALLY want to get in the water, but we knew we needed to.)
Marcus and Lee were doing their shake-out swim at the same time we were, so after some reunion hugs (thank you, vaccine), we headed down to the water. Lee is evidently NOT a lover of cold water, and he was very wound up about how cold it was going to be, which made ME all wound up about how cold it was going to be. I'm pretty sure Lee is wound up about most things, not just cold water. I was only wearing a bathing suit, my old wetsuit and sleeves, and a swimcap and goggles, so no socks/shoes, no gloves, no heatvest. I was prepared to freeze my ass off.
But.. I didn't. Much to Lee's dismay. Waded in and it didn't feel terrible. Not painful. We did a short little swim down the buoy line (OUTSIDE the buoy line, because we are rule followers and the swim area was closed), and I felt very comfortable. It was chilly, but to me it really wasn't Cold. Maybe it's just because I did several swims in the low to mid 50s over the winter? Granted, I was wearing EVERY piece of clothing in my wardrobe for those 50 degree swims..
So I'm SO glad we did that swim. Marcus measured the water temp at 61 degrees there, which was probably going to be the warmest it would be, but even a little bit colder didn't feel like I needed a heatvest or gloves. I committed at that moment to just wearing wetsuit and sleeves, no extra neoprene/warmth. (That's an easy commitment to make, by the way, when it's a beautiful fully sunny day in the 60s or 70s.) I had decided not to decide until race morning. Procrastination is my happy place.
Oh! Another important reason for not skipping this pre-race swim: We finally shortened our tether. This was our 9th swimrun race together, (are you sure it's 9 this time? Should we argue about it here?) and we've done each one with the same tether, which we've never modified. And evidently it's long. I mean, we don't know any better! Tether's a tether, right? Not right. Our tether was so long it got caught on stuff, and didn't in any way keep me on Trista's feet when I was drafting off of her. I really didn't know if shortening it would make a difference, but People Who Know Things told us that it should be shorter, so shorter we made it! (Thank you, Herbert!) x2, Herbert!
Look how high that buoy lifts your feet, Amy! We weren't really sure HOW short, and we were doing this the day before the race, in a parking lot, so there was a LOT of rigorous science involved. By which I mean we lay on our stomachs in a parking lot pretending to swim, then tied a LOT of terrible knots and loops in the tether, along with a velcro strap, which kept sticking to my sock during the race. Super annoying. We should probably actually clean that up for the next race. But...team Shitshow
Very professional-looking.
With socializing and dithering and being generally unfocused, all of that had taken a long time, and we'd run out of time to do our run before we had to be at packet pickup for Trista to host her WILD Swimrun happy hour! Which had a great turnout, and she was able to make a lot of great new contacts and friends, and help people with their swimrun questions and problems! Pretty excited to help bring more women and younger girls into this sport we love! Yeah, it was pretty awesome and I was super happy that so many came by to either ask questions, or just say hi. Thankful to have Amy and Meredith there to support and assist because I had more questions than I could handle alone, and we were so happy to spend our afternoon chatting it up with everyone who came by. Sorry for anyone who was there for my terrible dad jokes towards the end (no I'm knot).
Then packet pickup, pre-race mandatory athlete meeting, drive back to our cabin, pizza for dinner, bag packing, and bed. And handstands.
Race morning dawned dark, cold. and dry. It was still supposed to rain, but not until later in the day, which is fine with me. I love racing in the rain, but I HATE laying in bed on race morning listening to the rain, knowing that I'm going to have to get ready in the rain and then stand around the start line in the rain. Rain that starts after the race starts is perfect!
As a bonus, Trista gets car sick if she's not driving, so I didn't even have to pretend to offer to drive us to the race, which was an hour away on a billion tiny curvy switchback mountain roads. In the dark.
Once at the race site (Fonta Flora Brewery, an adorable place and a new start/finish line, which we'll bemoan later), we hit the portapotties a few times, (a few times??) then finally suited up. Commitment time.
First race as Ark ambassadors! Easy choice, since we already own and love everything Ark sells!
I ultimately went with tri shorts, sports bra, Ark Kangaroo top, compression socks (new, because we get new matching socks for every race, because that's just who we are), Hoka SpeedGoats, Ark Korp wetsuit and the detachable sleeves that go with it, and then goggles and swimcap. No heatvest, no gloves, no extra warmth. It was in the 40s at this point, so I would have liked some extra warmth while standing around, but I felt good about my decisions. I ultimately went with everything-new-on-race-day athletic briefs, and the Ark Ornö (for it's slightly higher thermal component) and its sleeves. Everything else was the same as Amy's kit except I chose to add neoprene gloves because my hands tend to become non-functional in the cold. So I wanted to prevent/prolong that.
And then it was Race Time! Except, you skipped right over the WAP dance party in the parking lot. We wandered over to the start line, which was at the treeline at the edge of the Fonta Flora lawn. It looked like there were a fair number of people starting with us at 7:30 (which was just long course), and we sorta wandered into the middle of everyone. It was a time trial start, and suddenly people were starting! I'd barely had time to dwell on how I hoped that I still liked the sport of swimrun, and how I hoped that Trista wasn't 2x faster than me now and would have to slow down to accommodate me the whole race. (I always have these fears before a swimrun race, just because of the partner aspect and potential for letting someone down, but I EXTRA had it this time, because Swimrun Austin was such a tough race for me where I really did slow Trista down; still had some PTSD from that one.) There is always a bit of this for me too, going into a race. Even when you KNOW your partner cares more about the experience and having fun than the pace you are prepared to hold, the pressure to NOT SUCK still exists.
As teams started scooching forward toward the start line, we realized we were REALLY close to Caleb's team and the Boston WetSox, both of whom are significantly faster than we are, so we quickly fled back further in the field, ending up pretty much at the back of the pack. Perfect! No pressure.
Did we mention we were assigned bib 1? We thought they were kidding at first.
When it was our turn, we sauntered up to the timing mat and I hit start on my watch and started running. And then looked back and saw Trista crouched down pretending to do a track sprint start. So I stopped my watch and walked back toward her, rolling my eyes. My partner, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not sure WHY I stopped my watch, since I was wearing the timing chip for our team, which means our time was ticking down while Trista was hamming it up. HOW ARE WE GOING TO WIN LIKE THIS, TRISTA?! Your partner is terrible.
Okay, so NOW we were off, and I started my watch again, and we were swimrunning! Which.. I think every swimrun we've done has started with the run, so mostly we runswim, I guess. This will change in August when we jump from the ferry into the fjord!!!!!!
We had decided not to do a warmup run, so running felt pretty terrible at first. Especially since I was trying to navigate this trail behind Trista while also getting my buoy back in place on my back, since it had chosen mile 0.01 to come loose from its mooring and flop around. Right as we went past a photographer. Typical. I bet you still managed a jazz hands, tho didn't you?
But even feeling terrible, we had huge smiles on our faces! We were running through the woods looking like idiots in wetsuits and swimcaps, which is definitely our happy place! And I'd forgotten just how pretty the trees and trails are in Lake James State Park. It was going to be a good day. (This is not ironic foreshadowing, I promise. Spoiler: It was a good day! Truly a great day!)
Having started at the very back, we eventually made our way to a pack of folks in front of us. The timing worked out perfectly, because passing a group on a single track trail can be challenging, but right as we caught up, we got to the bridge and ramp down to the first swim!
The first swim of a swimrun, especially when you haven't done one for a while, can be a bit of a shitshow. Especially for us, Team Shitshow. But I think we did a really good job on this first one! No starting to swim and realizing our buoy was still on our back, or our goggles were still up on our foreheads. No surgical mask dangling from one ear. I did have some trouble clipping the tether into my belt, but that was one of our Everything New on Race Day items. I'd verified that I could clip the tether to the belt the day before, but that was in calm circumstances while standing still. Here we were trying to do a billion things all at once, and trying not to trip over other people or get in their way, and it took me a few tries to connect the carabiner to the loop. But we got there, and were off for our first swim!
This was the cold swim. The water is flowing in from a river into the lake right here, and so it is river-cold, which was allegedly in the upper 50s, but honestly I have no idea. It was definitely the coldest water we encountered all day, but it still wasn't terrible for me. It was cold on my face, but not painful. I don't remember the water being cold initially, but I do remember the grossly warm pockets of water we swam through during that first swim. Thermocline...is that what it's called? It felt really exaggerated.
First swim view, taken on a much sunnier day than race day.
Plus I had no time to dwell on that, because I had to stay on Trista's feet! The shorter tether means more diligence to make sure I stay right with her. No room for falling back or slacking off. But for all my fears of immediately being dragged in the first swim, it went fine. I was able to stick on the soles of her feet, and we had a really solid first swim, passing several other teams because Trista's a swimming badass. I noticed an immediate difference from our usual swim. I think some of it is attributed to the new tether length, it makes things feel more effortless for me as the lead swimmer, and I could hardly feel Amy behind me at all. In fact, I turned around to ensure she was back there. But in addition to the new length, I think Amy's swim is just really good right now. She's been putting in the work in the pool, doing all the long workouts that coach Nicolas Remires had us doing leading up to the race, and it showed on race day. She was hauling ass back there. Proud teamie moment.
We emerged onto land, an easy shore departure, and as we climbed over some roots, Trista said, "This is where you fell!" Ah, memories. Memories we relive every year when that pops up in our social media history. Who am I to deny our fans that joy? We grabbed some water at the Amy's Folly Aid Station, then turned right onto the trail following another team who came in after us but drank faster.
We were chatting and being obnoxious, standard Adorkable fare, and then Trista said, "Wait, what's that?" because off to our right, through the trees, was an American flag. On the other side of some water. The race directors put American flags at the exit of every swim, because they're very visible and make it very obvious where the swim exit it as you're swimming. Except why was this one over to our right? Was this a later swim? Nope. We stopped and turned around to see a pink blaze hanging from a tree behind us. And turned a little further to see a SIGN WITH AN ARROW hanging from a tree before that. Super obvious turn, but we'd just been following the team ahead of us, which is what they call "heads DOWN racing", and is very much not advised.
As we backtracked to turn, we started yelling to get the attention of the team in front of us, who were very much going the wrong way. But they were pretty far ahead of us at this point, and paying no attention. So we ran back down the wrong trail again, yelling as loudly as we could, trying to get them to turn around. Finally they heard us and realized they had gone the wrong way, and turned around to come back. Meanwhile we got back on the right trail and did this short little 50 yard swim, which we were LUCKY was so short, because otherwise we might never have seen that flag!
So.. you're welcome, mystery team. Already feeling like race superheroes for helping other teams, yay us.
A series of short runs and middling swims followed, and then back to another easy shore departure. "This is where you fell!" Oh, we're back HERE again. And technically, THIS is when I actually fell, the second time through, because Patty had been yelling about starting our long run as she recorded me being assaulted by a root and plummeting to the ground. Damn nature, always trying to kill us.
And indeed, now we were starting our long run! After grabbing another cup of water and taking our first GU.
This time we hooked a left out of the aid station, and then settled in for the long haul. The longest run we'd done so far in the race was 1 mile, then 0.3, 0.08, and 0.55. Lots of short, sweet runs, saving up for the big one of the day, which would account for our more than half of our total run mileage for the race. I referred to it as the 7 mile run, Trista referred to it as the 8 mile run, but on paper it was listed at 7.7 miles total. Which is a long run after all those short little ones! We also referred to it as the 23 mile run.
Our full menu for the day. 26 transitions, by my count. Oy.
Also I learned a bit about the Care and Handling of Trista because of this run. I love that we are still learning about each other. Trista's kryptonite is longer runs, not because she can't do them, but because she overthinks them and then dreads them. I tried to counter that with some motivational "It's not 8 miles, it's only 7.7! It'll be fine!" but eventually came to realize that she works better with a little reverse psychology. If I kept up a steady supply of "Oh, man, this run is like 25 miles, and it's going to be TERRIBLE!", she had a much better attitude about the whole thing. Who knew! (Now I know.) (And now that I know that you know I wonder if your trickery will still work)
On a warmer day, we might have cabbed down (unzipped our wetsuits and taken off the top half) or taken off our swim caps or any number of things to keep our temperatures down on such a long run. But this day was still completely overcast and grey and, unbeknownst to us at that time, still in the 40s. The only modification I made was to take off my goggles, because wearing those on your forehead for 7.7 miles is a recipe for a headache, and unfasten the velcro at the neck of my wetsuit.
I was trying to decide whether I wanted to attach my goggles to the carabiner on my belt that my paddles were attached to, or whether I wanted to unzip my wetsuit and shove them in there, when Trista said she was just going to hold hers. So I decided to do that, too. Because it was easier just to follow her lead than to come up with my own plan. Team Shitshow! So I carried my goggles in my hand for that whole long run, which in hindsight, and even at that time, seemed like a questionable decision. But it worked out fine, and became sorta like a security blanket, really. Plus while definitely long, the 7.7 mile run is blissfully non-technical, so I didn't need my hands for grabbing things or balance.
Again, picture taken on a much sunnier day.
And now, for all of its length, I don't really have that much to say about this run! It was nice. I had forgotten how beautiful this race was, and this run especially. The tall, green trees, the soft, spongy trail, the bridges, the birds, it's just stunning. Now that you say that, I do remember you saying a number of times how soft and spungy the ground was. I did miss the sun being out, just for the dappled light it provides, but I didn't miss the heat that the sun would have brought. And in fact, it was during this run that it really started to rain finally. It sounded so amazing against the tree canopy, and very little made its way down to us on this trail.
New bridge!
A couple teams passed us, we passed some back, the shortcourse frontrunners blew by us like we were standing still, and mostly we just chatted and walked up the steeper uphills and inexplicably carried goggles in our hands for what ended up being 8.16 miles for us. See? Trista was right to be pessimistic about the distance!
We hit at least one aid station during this run, and I got to pet our new friend Wendy's dog, which was definitely a high point!
A low point, though, was that our favorite bushwhacking section of the race had been completely obliterated. Mowed/chainsawed/clearcut. I'm sure there were good reasons, but I really missed that section where we just ran around in the middle of the woods like carefree children, jumping over and climbing under fallen trees.
I'm sure more interesting things happened in here! Maybe Trista remembers.
(Oh. Right. Ducks.) Should I mention it here? I dunno....am I the only one who didn't know ducks have gay sex? Or that crows are capable of learning how to use (non sex related) tools? But in other race news, this is where I think our second superhero act occurred....when we saved a second team from heads down racing. They tried to go the wrong direction out of the unmanned aid station and we led them down the correct path. Yay, us!
OH, I remembered another very important and riveting episode from the long run. Some time nearish the end, when we were on a fairly wide, nice, soft trail, running side by side and chatting, Trista suddenly lurched off to the left side of the trail dramatically and stopped for a second. I pulled up beside her, concerned, and asked if she was okay. She said, "Yeah, just felt like I was going to puke for a second there." And then we ran on, and never spoke of it again, and to my knowledge, no puking happened, and no future potential puking threatened. (I mostly remember this non-episode because I was afraid it was going to be a repeat of the end of Swimrun Tennessee, where Trista felt pukey for the last several miles, but in fact it only lasted like 10 seconds. Much improved on your puke-handling, Trista!) Thanks, I've been puketraining for you. But this reminded me that we also had to stop to tie my right shoelace like 3 times. Damn you, new shoes on race day!
For maximal badass-feeling/exhaustion, the long run is immediately followed by the longest swim! 1600 yards straight shot across the lake. YES, FINALLY...my favorite swim, and favorite part of the race. Not only because the long run was behind us, but because this swim was just....swimrun bliss.
Let me gush a little bit about the swims in this race. It's a LOT of swimming, over 6000 yards total, with legs of 1600, 1300, 800, 700 yards, mostly across the middle of a big body of water. But as mentioned, each swim exit has a giant American flag marking it, which is highly visible, and the longer swims also have a strobe light at the exit, which makes it SUPER easy to see where you need to swim, even when it's overcast, dark, and raining. Huge kudos to the RDs for this, by far the best swim exits I've seen in any swimrun race. I am torn on this one. I love the blinkies, for sure. It makes sighting so much easier and takes all guess work out of it. There is no doubt you are heading in the right direction. But it also....takes some of the adventure out of it. No guesswork. No navigation skills to question. I can't obsess if I'm off course, or irresponsibly leading my partner to the wrong island. No excuse to stop and defog the googles to see the exit clearly. Way too easy :)
And yes, I said raining above, because now it was most definitely raining significantly. I am in swim heaven!!!!
Fortunately it turns out that Trista and I both love swimming in the rain! We agreed that this longest swim was the best swim of the whole day. So beautiful, just to be out in the middle of the lake among the islands full of tall, green trees, with the rain hitting the water. I was able to sit right on Trista's feet and take full advantage of her draft and just cruise along without a care in the world. Swimrun flow.
I mean, other than when Trista had to stop to fix her paddles. The flow didn't last long. She has Reynaud's, so wore neoprene gloves to keep her hands warmer, and the gloves kept making her paddles feel like they were slipping off her hands. So she stopped several times to pull her paddles back up on her hands, which is hard to do when you've got paddles on both hands and are in the middle of a lake, so she had to use her teeth to bite the tubing and try to pull it back further on her fingers. Which meant she looked for all the world like my allergy-ridden German shepherd chewing on her paws. I kept telling Trista what I tell the dog, which is, "Hilda, don't chew on your feet." Which would make me laugh. And it's hard to laugh and swim at the same time.
I also used this time to brainstorm finish line antics. Funny. Because so did I! Trista mentioned during the long run that we needed to come up with something to do at the finish line, and my brain had nothing better to do, (see, if we were obsessing about where the swim exit is, your brain would have a job here) so it workshopped some ideas, and finally decided that Trista should do a handstand at the finish line, then I should put a buoy between her legs, then I should lean out to the side from behind her and do jazz hands with my paddles. Clearly a harder endeavor for her, but whatever, she's tough, PLUS it would take care of her handstand streaking obligation for the day! Win-win. Best ideas are mid-race ideas.
After this longest swim, there's a series of 5 very short runs and 5 very short to medium swims, and this is where things got a little more difficult. Which is interesting, because compared to last time we raced LJ, this part of the course seemed eerily empty. Much less shitshowy than last time. This series is where we encountered what we called Shitshow Island in our first Lake James race, because the swims are cold but the runs are so short that you don't really have time to warm up on the run before you're back in the cold water again. Because of that, people really struggled with hypothermia last time, and on Shitshow Island, they were running in circles that weren't mandated by the race, or doing jumping jacks to try to get warm again before getting back in the cold water. Other than Trista losing feeling in her feet last time, we didn't really have any problems with the cold.
This year was a little different. The water wasn't as cold, but we started to get COLD during the runs. In fact, getting in the water felt GOOD because it felt WARM. We worried that was a clear sign of hypothermia until someone confirmed that a front had moved in with the rain that made the air temps even colder, which meant the water temperature was significantly warmer than the air temperature. It felt like the pool at the gym in comparison! While all of that was a little reassuring, I was starting to wonder how worried I should be. As Amy has mentioned before, we tend to do ok in the cold. I've never had real issues with it. I mean, sure....extremities go numb for a while...but I've never been concerned. But somewhere in this part of the race, I started to question if I was okay. I knew it was a tough section, but my body just wasn't working as expected and things got REAL uncomfortable. More so than I have ever experienced before. And I was.....worried. And trying to decide how much of this worry I should express to my partner.
One side effect of this was that we felt incredibly unsteady on the runs. These short runs mostly only took a couple minutes, but they generally went straight up one side of the island and straight down the other to the water, and this is where we got to do our bushwhacking, since these islands were far too small to have any sort of established trails on them. Sometimes we'd just walk the whole island, because we were so clumsy and cold. Which just compounded the issue, because we couldn't run fast enough to warm up.
Which made the swim exits extra exciting! At the athlete briefing Kristen mentioned there were more ropes and climbing exits than in the past, and that was DEFINITELY true! We'd exit the water to a fallen tree that we had to climb on to get up to a ledge, assisted by a rope tied to a tree. Or we'd have to crawl OVER a fallen tree in the water to even exit the water, like a jungle gym. Extra challenging when you're short, and instead of swinging your legs over a tree, you have to hoist your butt up there, swing one leg over, slide down, then swing the other leg over. Our most common refrain, other than "Hilda, don't chew on your feet", was "Don't rip the suit!" Fortunately our beloved Ark wetsuits survived unscathed.
(Addendum story I remembered when thinking about the jungle gym exit swim: That swim exit was a little confusing, because there was no obvious Beach or Open Land we seemed to be aiming for, just a bunch of pink blazes hanging from some branches. We hoped it would become more obvious as we got closer, so we just kept soldiering on in that direction. Except suddenly there was a bunch of debris in the water! The water was mostly really clear and clean, even in the entrances and exits where mud and sediment might usually get stirred up. But this debris seemed for all the world like GRASS clippings. Like we were swimming through a just-cut lawn. WTF? So, since I was so conveniently sitting right on Trista's feet, I took that opportunity to pound my paddle on the bottom of her feet a few times to get her attention. (I figured I was hitting her feet accidentally with enough frequency that a polite tap might not get her attention.) It worked, and she sat up and looked back at me with curiosity. "What is with all this motherfucking GRASS?!" I yelled. This! This is why I love having a teammate during the race. Because when stuff like this happens, you can share your random thoughts with a friend. Even if it's mid swim. I am sure once I realized that Amy was fine back there, that I had a huge smile on my face that she stopped us to talk about....motherfucking grass. Fortunately instead of looking at me like I was insane, or asking why I would stop our race to ask this dumb question, she said, "I'm SO GLAD you said something, because I had no idea what it was and thought maybe I was imagining it!" (This also reassured me I was not hallucinating due to hypothermia, which had actually crossed my mind when I unexpectedly started chewing on something. And then we kept swimming, and maybe 20 seconds later, no more grass, then or for the remainder of the race. Mystery Lake Lawn.)
But those swim exits are one of our favorite things, and one of the things we hold forth the most when we're explaining to people how swimrun is NOT just triathlon without the bike.
I was so excited to find this swim-entrance ottoman on the course, after seeing it in pre-race photos. Had I not been so cold, I would've stopped and lounged.
After that short and quick series, there's a 1.3 mile run, which seems like nothing on paper, but after so many short legs, it feels like forever. It was raining significantly at this point, and I commented that I somehow felt wetter on the RUN than I did during the swims. You know that thing that happens where you get water up on your nose in the pool and it feels awful? That happened to me on the RUN, just from the water dripping off my swimcap onto my nose and flowing UP my nose. My feet actually started to get a little numb and I started to get chilled, which is really rare for me. When Amy gets cold, you know it's cold.
Fortunately this run had us swing back by Wendy's aid station again, and as we ran up to huddle out of the rain for a second under their tent, they busted out a thermos of HOT CHOCOLATE. It was the most amazing thing in the entire world at that moment. It was WARM and it was DELICIOUS, and I almost cried. (And it made up for the fact that the dogs had gotten tired and gone back to the car at that point, so I couldn't pet them.) Volunteer VIP
Super-volunteer/swimrunner Wendy!
Getting near the end of the race, with only one long swim left: 1300 yards. This was a slightly frustrating swim that seemed to take longer than the 1600 swim. Even though the shore kept seeming further and further away as we swam towards it, I was okay with it because I was able to warm up,, or so it felt anyway. This swim definitely felt longer to me than the long swim. There were two safety boats out on the water, and suddenly one zoomed over, which is always concerning, and told Trista she was going off course, which was confusing and annoying, since she absolutely was NOT. Didn't help my mental state of "am I okay? Is hypothermia taking hold? Am I putting myself and my partner at risk?" The mind games at this point were abundant. But I was able to confirm we were in fact, on course to the blinky....it's just that the swim buoys had drifted and we weren't anywhere near them. But it made her question our destination, which is already a little odd on this swim, based on where the buoys are and where the strobe is.
But we got through it, and then it was all short through to the end! Almost! I knew we'd be okay from here on out. But man....there was a lot of race left.
0.45 mile run, 200 swim, then I told Trista to stow her tether for landing! We only had a 0.05 mile run, then a 100 yard swim which wasn't worth tethering for, then the last run! No more tether needed!
The last swim was such a joyous event the first time we did Lake James. 100 yards, a tiny little victory swim, you can see straight across to the exit. The exit is a boat ramp lined with people, and the last "run" is just up that boat ramp to the finish line. Done!
View of the last short swim from the boat dock/swim exit!
You still have that swim and that boat ramp, but now the finish line is all the way back at Fonta Flora. Trista asked me what we had left at one point, and I'm like "half mile run, 200 yard swim, 0.05 mile run, 100 yard swim, 0.35 mile run." She said, "Yeah, no. 2.35 mile run." In my defense, that part of my sticker had worn away, so I wasn't trying to be misleading, and boy was I saaaad when I realized how long that last run still was. And then I was like, just tell me when we have one swim and one run left. I can't comprehend anything beyond that.
By the end of the race, it didn't even look like .35 anymore, just.. 5.
Out of the water, up the boat ramp, a sad acknowledgment of where the finish line used to be, and then a LEFT turn, which is AWAY from the finish line! Ugh.
This last run was rough. It was probably the most technical trail of the entire race, or at least differently technical. The technicality so far in the race was grass and roots and trees, but this was a rocky trail. It was actually a beautiful, fun trail, if your whole body was working! But our legs were tired, so not responding well, and our bodies were cold, especially Trista's, and so reflexes were slow or nonexistent to respond, which made everything twice as hard. I made a conscious decision here to put Amy in the lead for the run. If there is one thing I can always ALWAYS count on, it is Amy's consistency. She is dependable as they come. I knew that she would lock in on (an easy-ish) pace and take us to the finish line. Although I knew I was physically going to be okay, I was not confident in my abilities at this point. I don't think we spoke about it, I think we both just knew she needed to lead this run.
For most of the race, if we couldn't be side by side, Trista led, because she led in the water, and so just naturally led when we started the run. Plus she's a better technical trail runner and a MUCH better descender. But I took the lead for this part, since Trista was so cold, and I was hoping that I could keep us motivated (and not actually slow Trista DOWN, which was my concern). Thanks for pulling me, teamie!
So the last 2.35 miles was rainy, clumsy, interminable, and almost entirely underwater. The trails had mostly held up pretty well in the rain, but this trail was probably 50% single track puddles. I didn't even bother trying to avoiding most of them, just straight through (hoping there was nothing treacherous under the water). Pretty sure I told you I saw an alligator in one of them.
Circling back to my finish line idea (oh lord, at this point I'm not even confident I can crawl across the finish line....if we ever make it there) from the long swim, after that swim I told Trista I had been brainstorming ideas, and she said "I was thinking cartwheels... " and I'm like "Okay, so, (a) No. I would kill myself trying to do a cartwheel in the state my hamstrings live in these days, and (b) I already have it all figured out." And then I told her my plan. She seemed skeptical, but tentatively willing to consider it. That was BEFORE we got really cold and stumbly. We realized at this point we just wanted to cross that damn finish line and survive, and that handstand probably wasn't going to happen. Yeah, I just wanted to get back to the cabin and get into the hot tub.
780 hours later, the trees started to clear out a little bit, and then we heard music! We had joked about how there probably would be no finish line party, given the weather, but at least they had finish line music for us! And a couple tents to cover some folks to cheer us in! And then we were DONE! I survived!!
And then the TRUE race began, which was to get warm before we froze to death. (gah, no shit) We found all the other racers up at the brewery, gathered around the heat lamps, and waved to them as we power trudged to the car to get into dry clothes. I was shivering but relatively mobile, Trista was hit pretty hard by the cold, and kept having her muscles cramp up while she tried to get out of her wet clothes and into some warm, dry ones. It wasn't pretty to watch us trying to change in the rain and the mud and partly in the car, but fortunately nobody was around to watch us doing it. (I vaguely remember any of this) And life was imminently better when we were wearing a lot more warm clothing.
We traded some high fives for finishing ~7 minutes faster than our last Lake James race(which was longer than this year's), then went to eat burritos at the finish line and cheer in the last finishers. We were minding our own business when suddenly Marcus appeared with his phone, which seemed to strongly imply that Trista and I had gotten 3rd place in long course females. Which was ridiculous, of course, because there had been so many people ahead of us, and clearly Marcus had photoshopped this results page. Except my phone verified it. "Hold my burrito while I drag this phone over to the RD to give him hell for keeping it a secret from us" :)
I mean, it's not like we were there battling it out for the podium, according to the results. First and second place female long course teams were TWO SECONDS apart, and literally battled it out for the finish line, with the final result being flipped because of the time trial start, which is the major downside of a time trial start. Two seconds between them... then ALMOST FIFTY FIVE MINUTES between 2nd place and us in 3rd. Definitely not the case of "Man, if only we'd found a couple seconds on that course, we could have eked out a 2nd place finish!" We would have had to find a couple dozen minutes on every single leg of the course to pull that one off! I'm surprised and very proud of our 3rd place finish, but we definitely weren't in any sort of contention for a win.
But how fun is that, unexpected podium! The first place team had already left (seriously, they won an hour ago), but second was still there, and they were great sports when I teased them about how we were RIGHT ON THEIR HEELS. And they took some podium photos with us, as well as helped me realize my dream of reenacting our 2nd and 3rd place battle at the finish line. Complete with beer in hand. Team Phyllis Hold My Shower Beer was so fun, and such good sports about their second place finish. They have a good story about their second place swimrun finishes, btw.
They were trying to show how very close they had gotten to 1st place.
So we didn't achieve my handstand finish line photo dream, but I love the finish line photo we ended up with, which we could never have planned for or anticipated!
And even though it was cold and arguably a little miserable toward the end, I had SO much fun at this race. I had forgotten how beautiful and fun Swimrun Lake James was. Same!
I went into the race afraid that I might not love swimrun anymore, and afraid that I would drag Trista down, (so silly and unsubstantiated) but I feel like both of those turned out to be untrue, and I've overcome my demons from Swimrun Austin. At least until the next race.
I'm not sure if it was shortening the tether, or just doing multiple 4k yard swims every week, but I was able to stick on Trista's feet more than I ever have in the past, and actually sit in her draft the entire time. (I already shared my thoughts on this, and I think you need to give more kudos to your training than the tether) And my arms didn't feel like they were just going to fall off by the end, which was probably a combo of being better trained this time, my amazing new Ark wetsuit, and the shorter tether/better draft.
And despite having lived in Texas my whole life, 40 degrees all day (it never got out of the 40s) and raining, with 55-58 degree water temps is obviously a much better combination of conditions for me than air temps in the 60s-80s and warmer water temps.
Which is great news for Rockman! If we ever get to do Rockman. We'll continue to train with the assumption that we're heading to Norway in August, so please cross your fingers for us. During the race (when I thought I was hypothermic in warm temps) I was thinking this didn't bode well for Rockman. Meaning, if I can't handle these temps well, how would I handle Rockman? But after doing some comparison....I think these temps are more similar than I realized. And I'm hopeful I'll be just fine if we ever make it to Rockman. I may add a layer under the wetsuit...just in case :) Or spend more time acclimating to cold water swimming. But I think we'll be just fine.
I just want to make a short little note here at the end to say how much swimrun means to me, and how much this race drove that home. I've historically had little groups in triathlon and in running where I felt like a part of the group, but mostly I'm such an introvert and such a midpacker that I've never really felt like a big Part of Something. Swimrun is still small enough and the people are so great that I really do feel like part of a family. I want to add something here, but man....you nailed it.
I'm still an introvert and a midpacker, but I'm also part of Team Adorkable and we've met up, either online or in person, with so many other great individuals and teams who participate in or are interested in swimrun, and they always make me feel loved and cared about. During a year+ of such physical social separation, having a community to share photos and training data and tips and tricks with really made such a difference, and then getting to see them in person, some for the first time, and constantly be like "Oh, are you.. ? I follow you on instagram!" all weekend.. it was pretty magical.
Plus just being partners with Trista basically makes me a local celebrity anywhere I go. She's kind of a big deal. (Shameless Low Tide Boyz podcast plug here !) ILYSM, Amy :)
Representin' the LTBz with RD Kristen Jeno!
And some finish line love from RD Tony Hammett. Also maker of the amazing race awards. Tony and his wife Lisa are very skilled and caring peeps.
If you want to try something new and exciting, I strongly encourage you to try out swimrun! It's all the best parts of open water swimming, trail running, and even sort of adventure racing! And you have a partner there the whole time to complain to! What more could you ask for? If you have questions or hesitations we can help clear up, please let us know! We love to spread the word and welcome more people into the fold.
💓💓💓
Ha! Thanks for posting the link from LJournal, and very well done.!!
ReplyDelete