Swimrun Casco Bay 2023 race report.
Casco Bay! One of our favorite swimruns, and a great training day for a an upcoming long race. Not exactly ideal for the race WE'RE doing, since it's pretty darn flat, but lots of running, lots of swimming, transition practice, nutrition practice, gear practice. A lot of opportunities to practice a lot of things. Plus it's beautiful and has better July weather than either Austin or Atlanta, and it's an opportunity to hang out with all our favorite people.
Since we never get to train together, Adorkable reunions are always happy times!
While Casco isn't exactly the ideal training ground for Rockman, we learned last year that it IS the perfect training ground for ÖTILLÖ World Championship. This year the Kalamanders, one of our most favorite sister teams, is heading to Sweden for WC, and we recommended they do Casco as part of their lead-up, if they were able.
Unfortunately only half the team was able, so while Ben had to give this one a pass, Anna really wanted to go out and get some island to island practice, nutrition practice, long choppy swim practice, rock-hopping practice. But she didn't have an alternate partner, and she didn't particularly want to be out on those long swims in the middle of the ocean by herself. Enter the best idea ever: ADORKABLE THREESOME.
Anna is a faster runner and we're faster swimmers, meaning this threesome would benefit nobody in the actual race standings, but it would mean Anna wouldn't have to race alone, and it would mean the normally superfun Adorkable race experience would be EVEN MORE fun! Assuming Anna didn't murder us mid-course because we're so annoying and so unfocused (AKA "fun").
Another superfun part of this was that our coach flew in to do the race! We love getting to spend time with him, learn valuable swimrun things, get inspiration for new hairstyles, make fun of his accent, and hope he doesn't fire us (see above: we're very annoying).
The learning goes both ways, though, people. He teaches us to be better athletes, we provide him with valuable slices of Americana.
Coach Nico is an amazingly experienced and knowledgeable coach and athlete, who regularly holds clinics and training weekends through Envol Swimrun, and he generously agreed to hold a swimrun clinic the day before the race, completely open invitation. It's become pretty normal at this point to have a little pre-race shakeout gathering, but this was next-level. Nico imparted super valuable information to the masses, Marcus showed people how to run over technical rocks, Kawika showed people how to do quick and efficient transitions, Trista got amazing footage of the whole experience, and I sat there looking terrified and hoping any advice I was giving people wasn't just completely terrible. (Introvert problems, y'all.)
At the end of the clinic, Trista, Anna and I finally got a chance to gather up and try out the big threesome unknown: two tethers! I would be in the middle, and standing around with two tethers attached to me was intimidating and promised to end up with all my limbs completely tangled up and lying on the ground immobile. But in reality, once we gave it a try, it was pretty smooth. Not flawless, but I managed to correct any time a tether got on the wrong side without faceplanting, so we called it good. Two rounds of practice, nailed it, ready for race day.
Afterward we hit up packet pickup, which somehow ended up taking a lot longer than it normally does (the downside of record number of participants, I suppose), but it gave everyone a lot of time to chat and catch up, and for Trista and I to sign our first AUTOGRAPH!
Race Day!
Parking opens at 4am and the ferry starts loading at 4:30am. And this year our lodging was a little bit further away. Which means a VERY early start to the day. The streets were full of already-up swimrunners clad head to toe in neoprene, and also the still-up clubhoppers, probably also clad head to toe in neoprene.
It's really a testament to how great this race is, that people come back and do it every year, despite how PAINFULLY EARLY the day begins.
Then begins one of the most photographed parts of the day. Anything you take onto the ferry has to be with you the entire race. That means all phones either stay in your car on the mainland, or go in your drybag. Drybags do not go on this ferry, but are taken separately to the finish line. That means the ferry journey is practically a no-photo zone, and all pre-race photos must be taken on the ferry landing, in the dark, under the terribly bright terminal lights, with a bunch of sleepy faces.
At 4:30am, we loaded onto the ferry, and at 4:45am, the ferry set sail for the start line on Cheabeague Island.
I have no real concept of how long the ferry ride is supposed to be. It's basically social hour. A big boat party. Complete with communal lube. Everyone just chats and roams and crams things in their various pocketholes and eats snacks. Except John, who slept on a bench, his flight having gotten in at 1am.
I mostly sat at a table inside. The one time I did venture out for a photo (yay, someone had a GoPro!), I noted it was pretty dark and foggy, given how relatively late in the morning it was getting (I mean, it was only just after 5am, but the sun comes up early there). I didn't think much of it.
Meanwhile the race directors were doing nothing but thinking about it. At some point we stopped for a while, then started moving again. It seemed like we had been out there an awfully long time. And then at some point an announcement was made that it was too foggy to safely start the race as planned, and a contingency plan was being put in place. But we would NOT be starting on Cheabeague, and were now heading to Great Diamond Island instead.
We had no idea what the plan was now, but it definitely wasn't what everyone had written on their paddles.
Once we got to Great Diamond, we filed off the ferry, a little stiff for having sat around for over 2 hours, but happy to be off the boat, and happy to be doing something, even if we weren't entirely clear on what it was!
We were fairly far back in the crowd, so when Lars (I assume it was Lars) started making announcements over the bullhorn, we could barely even hear that there were announcements, much less what was actually being announced. From what we could hear, and what we gleaned from people around us, we WERE going to be able to start a race, from Great Diamond, and we'd go backward from the intended course, swimming to Cow Island. That's basically all I got at that point. My masterful plan was to just follow everyone else. And if we ended up alone, follow the course markings, and hope they were course markings that were still applicable to this rerouted course. Solid plan. No room for things going wrong! I think the plan was basically to run us around in a little safe area while the fog burned off, then let us finish the original course once it was safer.
Best laid plans.
We scooched up through the crowd to wish our fasties at the front a good race, then scooched our way back to the back where we belonged.
And then we were off!
To do.. something!
Our ferry parked at the south end of Great Diamond, and looking at Garmin Connect, we evidently ran up to the north end of Great Diamond, which was 1.77 miles. We were at the back, as usual, just having a chill little warmup, except it was in the mid 60s and tremendously humid (see: fog), and we were wearing wetsuits, so we also had sweat pouring down our faces pretty quickly.
Speaking of wetsuits, obligatory gear overview.
Trista and I were both wearing the ARK Uto, because while the water was allegedly cold (low 60s), the air temps were supposed to get up in the 70s. Trista loves her Orno X the most, but it was just too warm for the Orno X. Anna was wearing.. the Orno X. But she historically runs cold, especially in cold water, and wanted to stay warm and also test out that suit on longer distances. No sleeves, no gloves, no extra warmth.
We were all wearing the Adidas Terrex Speed Pro shoes that are all the rage currently. Anna was presumably wearing a pair she knows and loves. I was wearing a newer pair that had been broken in, but that I plan to wear for Rockman, so I'm starting to get some real distance tests in with them. Trista was wearing a brand new pair that she removed the tags from race morning. Situation Normal. Everything new on race day.
We were also wearing Monkey Sox! This is a UK brand that sponsors some overseas swimruns, and I've always been intrigued by them and follow them on Instagram. But when I went to buy some socks to try them out, they don't ship to the US. Rude. BUT. I shan't be stymied. So I reached out to my favorite pasty Brit Alex, and asked if he would order me some socks delivered to his house, then ship them to my house. He's a really nice guy, so he agreed. And then had MASSIVE REGRETS when he saw which socks I chose. He is quite a fashionable Brit, and his kit is all coordinated reds, blacks, and whites. I asked him to purchase colors and patterns visible from space. But he's selfless enough that he performed this terrible task for me, and I presented sock gifts to our threesome team to wear on race day. We got several compliments from friends and strangers alike, so I think all the hassle was well worth it. (Thank you again, Alex!)
And so we ran up to the north end of Great Diamond island, chatting and enjoying the quaint Maine houses and scenery, having a lovely time.
When we got to the water, we could easily see why the decision been made to alter the race. It's not a far swim to Cow Island, but we couldn't even see Cow Island, it was so foggy.
Trista and I had been tethered for most of the first run, once we got out of the start craziness, but we decided having three people running tethered together was potentially a recipe for disaster, so as we waded into the water, Anna came up behind me and hooked her tether to the back of my belt.
Logistical note for anyone who might want to engage in a threesome in the future: This is NOT the guide you're looking for. Google has failed you. This is about swimrun. Sorry, and good luck.
Logistical note for anyone who might want to engage in a SWIMRUN threesome in the future: We had a couple different ideas and recommendations, and ultimately what worked for US was me, the middle person, carrying one tether, and Anna, the back person, carrying the other. It had been suggested that the middle person carry both tethers and then be in charge of clipping into the other two people, but that sounded like too much chaos for one person, and too much responsibility for one Amy, so we tried it this way, and it worked great. It was honestly no different for me than normal, other than making sure I stayed still long enough for Anna to hook her carabiner to my belt. She would just come up behind me as I was getting my gear in place, clip in, and I didn't even know it was happening.
And pretty quickly and efficiently, we were off for our first official threesome swim! I really hoped Trista knew where to go, because my goggles were foggy, the world was foggy, and I couldn't see a damn thing. I just obediently followed her feet.
As usual, even though we were relatively alone near the back on the run, we caught up to people in the swim. This was an interesting experience, because normally I only have to worry about getting myself around other people and teams. This was a rare occasion where I had to make sure I didn't put Anna in an awkward position. I mean, there wasn't a ton I could DO, necessarily, because I also had to stay right behind Trista, but it was definitely on my mind that we were a very long train that was winding its way through a sea of .. I honestly don't know where I was going with that metaphor. A literal sea of people, though, I guess. There were never any incidents, but it was a weird new thing.
The water was all over the place, temp-wise. It felt tolerably chilly at first, then we'd go through patches of SHOCKINGLY COLD, but only for a few seconds, then we'd return to presumably that first chilly temp again, except now it felt very warm in comparison to the shockingly cold. It was super dynamic, which I guess is how oceans do. Also some stray loose seaweeds, but never anything at all like we had that first year in Casco where we were losing paddles and limbs to the grabby weeds.
Don't tell, I know I'm not supposed to, but I was sighting every so often, just to see if I could see.. anything. And I couldn't. Couldn't. Still no. Nope. And then suddenly land right there! The closeness of the island before I could see it really drove home how foggy it was. Super grateful to Trista for getting us through that mess.
Back on land! Shakily, since this was a rocky, weedy, slippery shore exit. One where you're seeking out the rare bit of rock between all the slimy plants, so your feet don't come out from under you. Anna very wisely unclipped from me, since I was still clipped to Trista, and that was sketchy enough, trying to keep up with her and also keep my feet under me. I think Anna and Trista both ended up getting a little scratched up from that exit, which.. it's rare when I'm not the one who draws first blood! Score!
As we were fighting for solid ground, we were very confused by people seeming to come onto the island from the side. Were these people who just did the same swim we were finishing, but were terribly off course? Were these people who were so far ahead of us, they were completing the SECOND swim? Did the second swim come into the same place as the first swim?! We had no idea.
Then we saw Coach Nico! Okay, so this is people finishing the second swim. And we had gleaned that they should basically come up on the land, run a few feet, then get back in the water to swim back across to Great Diamond. We tried to yell that to Nico, and I'm not sure whether that helped or just added to the confusion of shouting.
Cow Island! I thought Cow was one of the few islands I actually remembered, because I knew it was the one that had a rope to pull yourself up a steep, rocky climb after the swim, from the first year we did it. (It should have been at the end of the run, BEFORE the swim, this year, but now we were running Cow the opposite direction than intended, which was the same direction we ran it the first year we did it; confusing.) But then I remembered nothing about the REST of Cow. I have no memory of running across weird concrete tubes and structures. Super sketchy. Fun. Loved it.
Cow was only a little over half a mile, and then we were back to the water!
Evidently things happened in this swim, but I just kept my head down and swam, so I didn't really witness any of it. Trista told us the story, and I will attempt to do it justice, but will fail.
She tells it sorta like a whodunit mystery.
Clue #1: As we did the first swim, from Great Diamond to Cow, everyone else was swimming off to the right. Trista had no idea why. I mean, you couldn't SEE Cow, or the flag you were trying to swim to, but she roughly knew the map, knew Cow was straight ahead, and knew that going off to the right was not the right answer. She swam straight, eventually saw the flag, and got us safely through swim 1.
Clue #2: As we got to the water to begin swim 2, from Cow back to Great Diamond, we saw Brent Molsberry, RD extraordinaire, and we chatted him up a bit as we waded into the water. Which was perfect, because Trista was able to get details from him on exactly where we should go for this swim. And he said to swim along this island for as long as you can, when you get to the end of the island, hook a hard left. Got it.
We headed out, and as we approached the place where we'd come into Cow from swim 1, Trista got confused, because in her head, the end of the island WAS where we came in from swim 1. Do we turn there? It seemed like a bad place to turn, because there might still be people actually coming in from swim 1, and we'd all get tangled up. She asked a kayaker, and they said to go a little bit further, then turn. Check. Got it. Trista went a little bit further, turned left to go back, and basically ended up on the same exact path we'd swam (swum? swummed?) on our way over in swim 1. She could see the flag. We were heading right for it. Perfect.
As we're swimming along, she notices that all the other swimmers are over to the left. She thought that was weird, but didn't think much else about it.
Clue #3: Suddenly several teams ahead of us hooked a SHARP left. And that was DEFINITELY weird, because straight was straight for the flag. No left necessary! She was trying to puzzle that out, when suddenly SHE hooked a sharp and non-optional left!
Mystery solved! Ding ding ding! There was a stiff current. That's what was sweeping people out to the right on swim 1. That's why Brent said to go all the way to the end of the island, to get out of that current, and that's why those other teams, and now us, were being swept off to the left.
As she fought against the current, which was like swimming in a swimmill, she noticed a team way off to our right, merrily swimming along in a straight line, fighting no current, and she glowered at them from afar, wondering how they knew, and why they hadn't told us!
Eventually we made it to shore unscathed, and in fact, 2/3 of our team was entirely oblivious. So nice job keeping your shit, and all of our shits, together, Trista. Swim MVP! SwimVP!
Back on land on Great Diamond! My brain tried to be vaguely confused as to how we don't appear to have ever been at that place where we saw Coach Nico coming in from that swim, but quickly threw that away as not useful to dwell on. Now that Trista told her story, I know that we DID go past that spot, but where Nico got out briefly onto the island, we just swam by it.
It turns out that team way off to the right, NOT sucked into the current, was Sarah and Tracy, no surprise, because they are locals. Trista said "How did you know?!" and they said "Our husbands told us!" Home field advantage is real, man!
And now we run all the way back down Great Diamond! The exact same run we did earlier for run 1! I had no idea! I probably shouldn't admit that I didn't know that until I looked at my workout in Garmin Connect to write this report! Hopefully this is some insight into why we're always Team Shitshow. Maybe everyone else knew and it was just me who had no idea. Let's give everyone else the benefit of the doubt, that they recognized we were doing the same run in reverse. Good job, team. (Except Amy.)
This run was lovely and as far as I can remember (which we just established is NOT very far), largely uneventful. So let's use this time to talk about nutrition!
Trista and I are in a pretty solid place, regarding long course race nutrition. It's been a process, but we've put in the work and are solid believers in taking a gel every 30 minutes for races that will take us many, many hours. (See: World Champs.) Anna came into her World Champs training in a rather more "I'll just split one gel with Ben over the course of this 5 hour race" sort of place. Which isn't ideal, maybe, when doing a 10+ hour race. As a minimalist eater, it's not easy to train your body to take in the number of calories you need to maintain a good body- and head-space over that much time swimming and running, but it's worth the effort. Anna definitely recognizes that she needs to get there, and has been an eager learner and experimenter. We put it out there that we would love if we could use Casco as a test of her WC nutrition, which would, yes, mean a gel every 30 minutes. It's terrible, but you don't want to try it for the first time during your big race.
And guys, she nailed it. Trista is our designated "watch the watch" person, and calls out when it's time or almost time for a gel. And Anna obediently ate every time. I mean, there may have been a few times where Trista said "Gel in 3 minutes," and Anna yelled in disbelief, "REALLY, ARE YOU KIDDING?!" But then she ate it every time. And nary a gag, stomach issue, GI issue, or energy deficit among us! Do the work, it works. No matter what else this race was or wasn't, it was a solid nutrition training test, which Anna passed with flying colors. So proud. She's in charge of passing that knowledge on to Ben now. We can only do so much.
We (evidently) cruised all the way back down Great Diamond, and then ran through the "swim" to Little Diamond, which was "dry", but also notdry, slippery, and treacherous. One of the many outstanding volunteers involved in our day was standing there recommending that people stick to the drier, less-rocky, far side, where it was less slippery, which was super appreciated advice. (All the love to all the amazing volunteers out there.)
At some point during our cruise, people started running back toward us. Unexpected. Was this an out and back? Was it supposed to be an out and back? What was going on? But we dutifully cheered for all the fasties at the front. Coach and Justin. Marcus and Beek. And THEN Hugo and Max? Again, unexpected. Why weren't they at the front? That's weird. But whatever. We'll find out later, presumably.
Eventually we hooked a right off the road onto a trail, where we found Stephanie and Scott running toward us. They were the first folks we knew who stopped to chat with us, and they were the ones who informed us that the race had been called. It was officially over. Just too foggy. The hope that it would burn off over the course of the day was not realized, and it just wasn't safe. They told us that ferries were being brought to the dock ahead, and they would ferry people, 50 at a time, to Peaks, the finish line island.
Oof.
They also told us that there was an aid station just ahead at the dock (the first of the day, but fortunately we were carrying water flasks in one of our 27 pockets), and that people were just going out and doing out and backs to get some extra distance until the ferries showed up.
(We wondered why they were the first people to tell us the race was canceled, when we'd passed by so many people, but evidently that was because when those people went back out, all they knew was that they couldn't keep going forward to the next swim, and they were allowed to go out and run more, but it was very unclear whether the actual race was canceled, or still going on. They weren't just trying to psych us out or anything, evidently. Whew.)
We hit the aid station, which was at the dock where the dock jump normally is before you swim to Peaks, grabbed another gel, refilled our water, and then headed back out to run some more, because why not? We weren't going to get the 6+ hours we anticipated out of this day, but we might as well get what we could.
I'd say at this point we ramped down the effort and just took it easy, but if you know us, you know we just continued at exactly the same pace we'd been going all day, which is Adorkable Fun Pace, and we continued having a lovely time talking about everything and whatever, and cheering and chatting with other folks out there.
As we ran back over the sandbar to Great Diamond, we found Lars patrolling! What a day he must have been having. But he was in great spirits, and we thanked him for what they'd been able to pull off, so grateful to be out on the islands adventuring. He confirmed what we had heard whisperings of from others, which was they were trying to organize a Something on Peaks, once everyone made it over there. Unsure what it would be, but they were trying to put together a loop that had running and whatever swimming they could, that was just contained on Peaks, so minimally fog-impacted. Again, they could have just canceled the whole thing, but they were trying their damnedest to give people as much swimrunning as they possibly could. All the love to the Odyssey RDs.
At some point after that, on our way out, we ran into the Low Tide Boyz, so we stopped for a bit to chat with them. Then we decided we weren't committed to going out any further, so we turned around and headed back with them. Then we sent them on their merry way ahead of us, because Adorkable Fun Pace is too slow for most people, and we're cool with that.
We made it back to the dock again, and there was a ferry there waiting, with people loading up. Perfect timing. We hopped on, and I stopped my watch and saved the workout. Whatever might still be to come, THIS workout was done. Anna stopped her watch, but didn't save the workout. Trista just kept hers running, giving us an opportunity to see whether Ferry Pace was faster or slower than Adorkable Fun Pace. (We never looked, let's just assume we're faster.)
On the ferry, one popular topic of discussion was: If they DID have a little event on Peaks, would people be doing it? Some people wanted to do more, and were all in. Some people had been sitting around for quite some time at this point, with more sitting presumably to come before anything could be pulled together, and their heads and heart just weren't in the game anymore. They weren't going to do anymore once we got to Peaks.
We did not engage in those discussions, because when your coach is at your race, it's a foregone conclusion that you will be doing whatever is on offer, and possibly more if he can figure out how. We never even questioned it or him. All in.
Once we got to Peaks, chaos ensued.
The short course was supposed to start later in the day than long course, so they never even headed to their start island, they just went straight to Peaks and had been there for I Have No Idea How Long. Time was super weird the whole day, honestly. I couldn't tell you what time we arrived, though the first "race" started at 7:15 and we had 2 hours of moving time there. Once the race was officially over, I think I stopped my watch a few times when we weren't moving. So that's maybe 9:30? And my watch says we started the second "race" at 10:45. So 75ish minutes of ferry and standing around at the finish line before we started back up. None of our bodies felt like starting back up was a good idea. For one, we were HUNGRY. We hadn't had anything to eat since we stopped and got on the ferry, and we had no idea how long we would now be out again. And I definitely didn't have enough gels still on me (my plan had been to take some from aid stations, and I had, but only one). Fortunately Kelly and Sarah were super generous (and knew they'd be out on the course for less time than us!) and gave us a couple sympathy gels to carry with us. Life savers, they are. (Even if one of the gels they gave us was a raspberry Huma. That's, like, my nightmare gel. I made Trista take that one.)
They started making announcements over the bullhorn, and just like at the FIRST race start, many hours ago, we couldn't hear anything. Some of the information eventually disseminated its way back to us, and we found out that it was going to be two loops of run, swim, run, swim, run, with the swims being 600ish and 500ish each loop. Beautiful. Sounds amazing. Then one of the swims was shortened. Okay. Then it was only going to be one swim, but it was going to be 1000. Okay. Then it was only going to be 500. We were a group of swim-lovers standing around getting ever sadder, the more we learned. That's basically where it settled, though, it seemed. ~1 mile run, ~500 yard swim, ~4.5 mile run, then do the whole thing again. A runner's race, but a race at all, which was more than we could have expected.
And a race, indeed. We then learned that because everybody went different places and distances in the earlier race, the times were all being thrown out as far as standings/points go. Makes complete sense, there was no way to figure out who "won" in that chaos. But Casco is a merit race, and there were points to be distributed. So THIS little two loop race would be the points race.
Which changed OUR plans.. not at all. Still Adorkable Fun Pace. Always. But it definitely mattered to some people. And some people didn't get that memo at all. Like I said.. chaos.
Eventually they announced that everyone would start together, short course and long (CHAOS), and had us walk up the street a bit to what they deemed the start line. Looking around, it was almost all short course swimcaps, barely any long course in the crowd immediately around us. I was super glad that the short course people were at least getting some swimrunning in, especially the first timers. This wouldn't be representative of most swimruns, but it wasn't just a cute finisher's shirt that they'd never be able to wear, because they hadn't actually done the race.
And then we were off! Again! Oof!
It wasn't a course that one would ever necessarily put together on purpose. Kudos and eternal gratitude to Greg and Bronwen, who instead of racing the short course as planned, went out and figured out a course for us, and marked it with spare swimcaps. Hopefully we'll never do that course again, but I'm happy they made it and marked it for us. The first mile was all terrible road down to the beach, and then it was terrible beach. We were told we couldn't actually get into the water until we could see the exit flag down the beach, and since it was so foggy, it was a long time before we could see that flag. We just followed everyone else. It was also low tide, so we had to wade for a very long time before it was deep enough to swim. Then we just swam out a bit, across a bit, and back to the shore. That first 500 yard swim got us 150 yards of swimming. (Sad swimmers.) But it also got us another two-tether practice! We kinda nailed the two tether thing, overall.
Back out across the sand, then back for more road running. Eventually the course cuts a hard right into the trees. We could tell exactly where it did that, because having started so far back in the pack, and having run at a solid AFP, we were at the very back of the conga line of congestion that was caused by 500 people suddenly trying to enter into a narrow single track trail. The line stretched down the street, and we came to a full stop, and then crept our way forward as people got on the trail.
This part was part of the regular course on Peaks, and so marked with flags, and a fun trail. I like to call this part the "boardwalk" section, because you are running on literal 2x4s that are floating in a swamp. It's.. more fun than it sounds. Also I learned that I am terrible at laughing and balance, because both loops I ending up laughing so hard I managed to miss the boards with one foot, and ended up sinking down to my waist in the gross, muddy water on the right side before I could extract myself. I don't regret all the laughing, though.
Eventually we were spit back out onto the road again, and then it was just neighborhoods back through to the start of the second loop. At one point we knew we were either almost done with the first loop, or hallucinating in the weirdest way, because suddenly Hugo, who we had assumed was out winning the race, was walking toward us on the sidewalk, in normal clothes, carrying and eating a huge bag of Sun Chips. As far as hallucinations go, it was at least an original one. Trista veered off, and I thought we'd lost her to Hugo and Sun Chips, but at the last minute, she came back to race with us (which was good, because we were tethered).
And then we finished the first loop and headed back out for another.
The second loop was largely the same as the first. We did manage to get a slightly longer swim (250 yards!) without so many other people to contend with. We stuck to our 30 minute eating schedule through this whole second race, and I somehow ended up eating the stupid raspberry Huma gel. I don't remember the circumstance, but I told Trista I must love her, because I traded gels with her and ended up with that nonsense.
And otherwise, we just.. enjoyed a foggy day with friends out in Maine. We cabbed down for both of the longer runs, because it was warm and humid, and because it was great practice that we don't get enough of. We thanked volunteers. Sometimes we ran with both tethers on, because it was easier, and by the end uncrowded enough that we weren't in danger of clotheslining any other teams. And we crossed the finish line with smiles on our faces.
And you might be thinking: Wait, you always do finish line antics. How did that work out with three people?!
And let me tell you, friends. It worked out AMAZINGLY.
A few notes about the afterparty, other than it was super fun as always. There was a very long line for the warm shower that we knew was at the finish line, and that were anticipating using as "the only shower we were going to get until we drove back to our airbnb in Boston late that night". Prohibitively long. So we just hosed off with the "definitely not in any way warm hose for which there was no line."
Speaking of lines, even though we stuck to our gel schedule, we had a big gap between races where we ate nothing, and we were definitely behind on calories for the day. But as we were standing in the "just as long as the line for the warm shower" line to get food, a man came by with a bowl and tongs, and GAVE US PICKLE SPEARS. The pickle guy was my favorite volunteer in a day full of amazing volunteers. Unless we hallucinated him.
Then ice cream, pizza at the LTBz after-party (our third pizza of the weekend, which is an impressive amount of weekend pizza), MORE ice cream, and then finally our first shower of the weekend. I don't want to talk about it. It's fine. Sorry to anyone who sat near us at any point during the weekend.
It wasn't the 6+ hour race, with 18 miles of running and 8000 meters of swimming that we had planned on doing. But it was ~4 hours, with 16 miles of running and maybe 1200 yards of swimming, which is significantly more than nothing, and more importantly, it was an AMAZING weekend of fun with friends, and I wouldn't change that for the world. We'll definitely be back next year, and we hope everyone else will be, too, especially those who were out there for the first time. Come see Casco in its full glory next year! It's worth it.
The whole weekend was full of friends and found family, but truly the most special part was getting to race with TWO amazing friends. For all the many ways it could have gone wrong, be it equipment, personalities, unforeseens, it was, in my opinion, perfect. We're so sad we won't be able to go play at World Champs this year in Sweden in general, but even more so because we would love to be there to pretend like we had any insider knowledge to impart, and show Ben and Anna and Kim around, and play in the archipelago, and cheer them on in this amazing race of theirs. I'm just as excited for their World Champs experience as I am for our Rockman experience. Send some good vibes to the Kalamanders on race day, friends.
.jpg)
I asked Anna if she wouldn't mind giving a little recap of her experience racing as an Adorkable, and she was kind enough to give a little Yelp review. I was kinda hoping for scathing, but she was incredibly kind and sweet.
And ending with another thank you to the Odyssey race crew and volunteers for putting together more than we could possibly have asked for on a day where the environment demanded we ask for nothing. I hope that people recognized that and were kind and appreciative. And congratulations to everyone who braved the fog that day.
Comments
Post a Comment