Running around and stuff

This one was a bit special!

With a holiday back to NZ planned to visit my family I’d been on the lookout for an event to do while I was there. We’d be int he NZ for 3 weeks to partially coincide with the kids mid term break from school so dates were limited but while browsing through NZ trail running pages on Facebook I came across what looked to be a winner – the Shotover Moonlight Mountain Marathon, right bang in the middle of our holiday period and offering an awesome looking route running from up the Skippers Canyon through to Moke lake near Queenstown through some beautiful back country scenery through an old gold mining area and around 2600m of climbing – and most of the course was on private land which you’d not normally get the chance to run on. Unfortunately by the time I found it the marathon distance had sold out so I entered the 30km “trail run” option and put myself on the waiting list for the marathon. Just days before Christmas my present came early an a place freed up for the marathon, I was in, I couldn’t wait!

We arrived in NZ about 9 days before the race and immediately I could see I had some acclimatizing to day. NZ was enjoying a lovely period of weather in February with the weather reaching the low 20s most days – a pretty much 20 degree swing from the sub zero temperatures we’d been having in the UK! Then there was the hills/mountains, I’d forgotten that they were bloody everywhere in NZ, and despite my best efforts int he UK (my hilliest training run since Lakes in a day I managed to get 1300m of elevation over 32km by doing endless loops of a short section in the Pegsdon Hills) I found them a struggle. Running from my sisters house in Dunedin I could get over close to 200m elevation gain in the 1.5km run from the bottom to top of her hill!

After enjoying a week of camping and chilling out on beaches with my family we all headed over to Central Otago the Thursday before the race, staying at a camping ground in Arrowtown about 20 minutes outside of Queenstown. I’d forgotten just how beautiful the area is, surrounded by beautiful mountains on all sides, it really is an amazing part of the world.

Race day soon came round and I found myself waiting by the side of a street with a bunch of fit looking types just before 6am on Saturday morning. Due tot he remote nature of the course there were only two ways to get tot he start line, helicopter, or by a bus put on by the organisers. I’d opted for the bus. The bus ride tot he start was pretty special in itself, winding it’s way along the Skipper Canyon road (named on a list of the 22 most dangerous roads int he world) it wound it’s way along the side of canyons past the location used for the Gates of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the start at the base for the skippers canyon bungy.

We arrived at the start by about 7am so had almost an hour to take in the scenery and make any last minute toilet stops before making our way down to the start line – which to get to we had to cross a swing bridge across the canyon before making our way down to the river bed below.

At 8am the waiting was over, and we were off, straight back up the hill we’d just come to to get to the start!

Once over the initial climb we wound our way through a bit of a valley before climbing up a ridgeline and following an old gold mining water race around the side of some mountains for the next 8km or so.

I was feeling pretty good and was running well, I actually felt as if I was holding back a bit and was overtaking people of the flatter sections and really enjoying myself. This was probably my favourite part of the whole course, it was all narrow and often rocky single track winding it’s way along the side of the mountain, the sun was up and starting to get warmer and the scenery was just amazing. This instagram video gives you a good idea:

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A post shared by Amanda Basham (@amanda_basham) on Feb 17, 2019 at 1:08pm PST

I’d found a good rhythm and was with a small bunch of similar paced runners when I took my first tumble of the day. The track was incredibly narrow with a steep climb on one side and a steep drop on the other and rocks and small turns seemed to come out of nowhere, I took my eye off the ball for a split second as my mind wandered to think about possibly overtaking the person in front and next thing I knew there was no ground beneath my right foot anymore and of was off over the edge of the track. Luckily some tussock broke my fall and I didn’t slide too far down so I was able to scramble back up and join the group soon enough but it did knock my confidence a bit.

After a while we came off the water race into a small beech forest and after a few stream crossings began to follow Murphys Creek up a valley to the first of the really big climbs of the day up Long Spur.

Sadly my performance started to go downhill with the climb up Long Spur. After an initial reasonably runnable single track for the start of the climb in soon turned into a real slog through often chest high tussock before following the ridge line up to the top and the highest point of the course at just shy of 1100m.

I found it a real struggle and lost quite a few places going up here. No sooner had we reached the top then it was straight back down the other side with a steep descent back through the tussock before climbing up the other side, over a fence and joining a 4wd track for the next few km. This was runnable at least and after a short climb the track descended for maybe a km before we veered off it and back through the tussock for another climb onto “Death Ridge” and the Razorback which despite it’s name wasn’t really scary at all and once on it was a really enjoyable single track run along the ridge line.

It then went into a steep rocky technical descent off the ridgeline into some beech forest, I found this bit really hard on my knees and lost a lot of speed as I made my way carefully down the track before settling into a more comfortable pace once it flattened out again through the forest.

Shortly after this we came to a truly brilliant section of a couple of hundred meters descent down a scree slope. There were a bunch of people in front of me carefully making their way down but I decided to just throw caution to the wind and threw myself straight down it sprinting as fast as I could and just trying desperately to stay upright. I managed to pass a lot of people going down and almost pulled it off before gravity finally got the better of me about 10m from the end forcing me into a spectacular slide to the applause of the other runners around me. Thankfully no damage was done so I was able to quickly dust myself off and carry on.

What followed was a couple of hundred meters running along and through a river before being directed up a ladder up a small cliff face and back into native bush forest past some waterfalls, more stream crossings before eventually climbing back out of the forest and another long climb over the next 5km or say the the first major checkpoint and the half way point at Ben Lomond Lodge.

This was the first checkpoint with food so I took the opportunity to scoff a load of watermelon and oranges, refilled my water bottles, made use of the lodges toilets then headed off. The day was really starting to warm up now and must have been getting close to 20 degrees so the fresh fruit really went down a treat.

From the checkpoint we headed up a 4wd track for a bit before veering off up over a rocky ridgeline that required a bit of a scramble to get up before dropping down the other side and rejoining  the 4wd track for a nice fast descent for a couple of km before it started to wind it’s way back up the mountain from roughly the 25km mark.

The next probably 8km was the hardest part of the whole course. It was right bang int he middle of the day with NZ’s ozone free sun baring down on me, and the 4wd track wound it’s way up the mountain for about 5km, climbing 500m, with the last km back on the single track as it wound it’s way to the second highest point on the course. Just before the top I passed another small checkpoint where the marshal manning it pointed out that if I looked across the valley I could see the final checkpoint at the top of the last climb, it was sitting just at the top of the track in the image below.  He also said I’d hate getting there! It required a very steep descent, loosing about 600m of elevation in 3km (with no track to follow at all) straight down from where I was to the bottom of the valley before following the 4wd track back up the otherside, regaining 300m of elevation in little of 1km.

The descent was pure agony, after all the climbing and descending my poor legs were shattered and didn’t know what to do, my calves were constantly cramping and at one point both cramped at the exact same time leaving me with no choice but to through them out in front of me and skid down the slope on my bum for a bit. Early on in the descent a girl passed me and made a joke about all the animal bones scattered around the side of the mountain being the remains of last years competitors, I was beginning to wonder if I’d be adding the pile. after what seemed like an age (the 3km of descent took me almost 45minutes!!!!) I reached the bottom, crossed the bridge over the stream at the bottom and started to slowly make my way back up the 4wd track for the final (big) climb of the day.

I was joined for the climb by another Chris, a Queenstown local who’d only signed up for the race a couple of weeks beforehand having taken a friends place. Chatting to her as we made our way up the climb helped take my mind of the task at hand a bit and was a nice change after over 6 hours of running largely on my own. 1km and 25 minutes later we’d reached the aid station! More delicious watermelon awaited and after feeding up and refillign my water bottles once again (I drank about 4.5litres over the course of the race!) I headed up over the top of the saddle and started the descent down the other side.

After the slog of the last 8km of I was desperate to run again and once over the saddle we rejoined a 4wd track for a nice descent for the next 2km  and the 37km mark back down to the river bed. The final 5-6km was a very gradual uphill (although it seemed flat after what we’d been through) to the finish with over a dozen river crossings and trip trough an old miners tunnel as we wound our way to the finish. I’d been rejoined by Chris at about 38km and we kept each other going for the next few km encouraging each other to keep jogging and chatting away to try and get the time to pass quicker.

With about a mile I was getting a bit of a second wind as I could hear the finish line int he distance so after some encouragement from Chris managed to speed up a bit for the final stretch. About 300m from the finish I passed my Mum, Dad , Sister, Emma and the kids waiting by a river crossing, as I passed with Erin and Ben ran off with me to guide me to the finish line. 7 hours and 40 minutes after starting I finally crossed the finish line accompanied by Erin and Ben, collected my medal and free beer and collapsed in a heap.

Beer has never tasted so good!

What a day, the course/terrain was probably the toughest I’d done with so many technical sections that I had actually felt a bit out of my depth at times, but it had been absolutely brilliant. The course had everything, tough climbs, punishing descents, brilliant singletrack, forests, exposed mountain sides, ridge lines, scree, waterfalls, probably close to 30 river crossings, tunnels, ladders not to mention the constantly amazing scenery. I absolutely loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

You can ‘relive’ the route on the link below or the promo video also give a good taste of the sort of day I had (minus the shattered legs!)

Relive ‘Morning Feb 16th’

“50 miles, 4000m ascent – a journey on foot from the very top of the Lake District at Caldbeck to the very bottom, at Cartmel, via the stunning Helvellyn Ridge and the western shoreline of Lake Windermere. It might not be the easiest traverse but it will be the most spectacular!”

Yeah… but why?

After completing Barcelona Ironman near the end of 2017, I felt like I needed a new challenge. I’d thoroughly enjoyed the whole Ironman experience but the amount of training required across all 3 disciplines was demanding to say the least and fitting that around work and family life (especially the cycling) was a big ask, plus by the end of the year I’d gotten tired of the monotony of Ironman training, structured workouts, set plans, chasing numbers etc was starting to feel more like a chore than an actual enjoyable past time. I’d really enjoyed the complete change in scenery/terrain/experience that my unplanned foray into Swimrun that Gower had given me so when James suggested I join him in doing Lakes in a Day in late 2018 he had my attention. After a bit of research I decided to take the plunge, I had zero navigation experience, zero familiarity with the Lake District and hadn’t been up a mountain, or even any significant time hiking in the hills since I was a kid but it certainly seemed like an adventure compared to what I was used to and would certainly involve a different sort of training regime, so (probably rather naively) I signed up – it was was just a matter of slowing down my marathon pace, doubling the distance and throwing in a few hills… right?

Training

I started the year by returning to Barcelona to do the Barcelona Marathon in March, I was  targeting a PB at the distance and James joined me as an unofficial pacer. PB was achieved, great weekend was had, I returned tot he UK thinking I’d laid a really good base to crack on with the ultra training.

With the road marathon out of the way I switched my runs to mostly be off road, utilising as many local trails as possible and adding in hills wherever I could, while at the same time forgetting about trying to hit certain paces and just taking it easy and enjoying be out running in the countryside.

In April James and I had our (in my case very) first visit to the Lakes District to join a guided recce of the second half of the course from Ambleside to Cartmel, followed by a day in the mountain section from Helvellyn to Fairfield practicing our nav – this was really useful both in terms of getting to know the course and getting a taste for the conditions (Saturday on the guided recce was beautiful, mid 20s and sunny, Sunday on the mountains was freezing, rainy and blustery winds with almost no visibility).

All seemed to be going really well until early May when I started to get pain in my right knee, this slowly got worse until it was forcing me to stop runs early and would leave me hobbling around the house for a few days afterwards. I tried cutting down the runs, stretching, changing shoes etc but nothing was really helping. I eventually bit the bullet and went and saw a physio. After a thorough assessment it was decided that the cause of the paid was actually my ITB and was a result of weak glutes. I was signed off running completely for a couple of weeks and given a strict regime of S&C exercises aimed at strengthening my glutes and addressing any other imbalances causing the pain. By early June I was able to start running regularly again and start building my distance back up to wear it was. Frustratingly though this meant missing an event I had done as one of my key preparation races – a 30km orienteering race in the Surrey hills which would have been great both for the distance and the navigation practice. I was just able to  been running  enough to join James in Snowdonia for the Llanberris SwimRun (although in hindsight I really wasn’t ready fitness wise) but lack of training meant I also missed what was going to be my main warm up event of a 50km Ultra over the Chiltern Hills. Frustrating, but definitely a sensible decision.

From late July on-wards I started to have a really good run of training, a weeks holiday in the Lakes district in August allowed me to recce the entire first half of the course from Threlkeld to Ambleside over a few days which gave us both a lot more confidence in what lay ahead (although the thought of having to string it all together was pretty daunting). These recces really did prove invaluable, as my nav skills using a compass were still basic at best so having done the route already and knowing what to expect and look out for was a massive advantage.

By the time October rolled around I was feeling pretty good, I managed a really hilly marathon+ distance training run, was running at least 7 times a week and getting good mileage, I felt fitter than I’d been all year, and most importantly they’d been no recurrence of my ITB problem. I’d really been enjoying my training and felt as ready as I could be to take on whatever the Lake District could throw at me.

Race time

In the last couple of weeks prior to the race, the official Facebook group for participants started to go mad with activity, people were panicking about the kit list, was the mug they’d packed suitable, what sort of ‘fleece layer’ was required, what were the best shoes to wear, should they take hiking poles, what are the best socks…. you could really start to feel the nervous tension building. By the time it got 5 days out and a weather forecast was available things really went up a notch in the group. Compare to the previous 2 years which had great weather (and featured int he promo video!) the 2017 running of the event had had terrible weather resulting in a lot of people pulling out and returning in 2018 swearing that it couldn’t possibly be any worse than 2017. The forecast wasn’t great, 100kmph winds on the summits, heavy rain etc and by Friday it has officially been given a name – Storm Callum. The race director was adamant any decision on route changes etc would be left as late as possible and by Friday evening the forecast had calmed a little to just 75kmph winds and heavy rain so the race was going ahead unchanged.

I traveled up on the train on the Friday (via half of the north of England thanks to National Rails policy of never running on time meaning several un-planned journey alterations) and was picked up at the train station by James who’d come up the day before with his Dad. We went and got ourselves registered, picked up our trackers, did our final packing had a beer to calm the nerves then tried to get an early night, thankful that we weren’t one of the many participants trying to be double hard and camping in a flooded racecourse in the rain and wind!

We were up bright and early at 4:30am the next morning (although we both woke up long before that!) and made our way to Cartmel school to catch the bus at 5:45am to the start, a 90 minute drive away in Caldbeck.

With the forecast still looking pretty grim I’d decided to start in my waterproofs from the get go and had packed extra layers above and beyond the mandatory kit list into my pack until it was bursting (triple wrapped in individual zip lock bags) at the seams. Waiting for the bus I started to wonder if I was a bit soft, while there were others even more kitted out than me, the number of people whose bags looked next to empty and were in nothing but tiny shorts and what looked like barely waterproof nylon jackets was a bit disconcerting – was I just soft or had they just not thought things through!? Given how the day progressed I suspect it was the latter.

We arrived in Calbeck at 7:30am and the buses quickly emptied as several hundred over hydrated ultra runners all made a last dash for the 4 public toilets the small village had to offer. With that done we were ready to go. The terrible weather than had been forecast was nothing more than a light drizzle at this stage and wind was non-existent so things were looking good!

A short spiel from race director James Thurlow and we were sent on our way bang on 8am. Despite repeatedly telling ourselves we’d not rush off at the start we sound found ourselves overtaking lots of people and by the time were were a km in we were already going faster than we’d done on any of the recces! Once the groups thinned out a little we slowed and fell to and easy jog/walk rhythm as we were joined by another runner Kevin who we recognised from the two organised recces we’d been on. I was feeling good and we made it to the top of the first climb at High Pike bang on time according to James nicely laminated schedule that he’d produced.

In the build up the event James and I had discussed target times and based on the recces we’d done we thought that conditions dependent a time of around 14hrs should be achievable – giving us plenty of time to enjoy the Cartmel pubs before the closed for the night! I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with James the whole way but had said I’d try and stick with him as long as I could – hoepfully (optimistically!) as far as Ambleside.

I was feeling really good across High Pike and some fun descents down past Lingy Hut and towards the River Caldew. With all the rain the river which was only ankle deep when we went though it in August was now waist deep in places and flowing really fast. A rope had been installed by the organisers so we all carefully made our way across in single file clinging the rope.

Once across the river we crossed another stream before starting the long arduous ascent up Mungrisdale Common to the summit of Blencathra (868m, 13.5km in), the first of the major summits for the day. I stopped briefly to get my hiking poles out of my pack, it’s a real drag of a climb through horrible clumpy, boggy grass I wanted anything to make it a bit easier. By the time I got going again James was starting to get away from me, he’s always much stronger on the climbs so this was no big surprise, I didn’t want him waiting about for me and figured that if all went well I might catch him on his way out of the first aid station or something, I forged on into the clouds and made it to the top of Blencathra on target and feeling good.

From the top of Blencathra there was a choice to make, down the famous Halls Fell Ridge, a steep and rocky ridge line descent into Thelkeld without much margin for error or the longer safer route down Blease Fell. Halls Fell was the main route that we’d been encouraged to take in the build up yet it seemed like more people around me were opting for the Blease Fell option. The rain had picked up a little by now, but there still wasn’t much wind, I’d recced Halls Fell twice in the build up, one of those times in similar conditions so I opted for the more direct route. As it turned out Halls Fell was pretty straight forward, quite a few people around me were take the odd tumble and I passed one guy mopping up a very bloodied nose but I seemed to be over teh worst of it in no time and made it into Thelkeld only a couple of minutes slower then when I’d gone done in on a recce in the sunshine so entered the first checkpoint at Thelkeld bang on schedule 3 hours in.

I was feeling strong so tried not to spend too long in the checkout, grabbing a few pastries, re-filling my drink bottles and getting on my way, as I was filling up my bottles I caught up with Kevin who’d been with James as they left me going up Blencathra, he’d lost James by then (turns out he was about 15 minutes or so ahead by now) but said he’d been looking strong. I popped James and Emma a quick txt to let them know how I was going and headed out of the village.

The next few kms were fairly flat or only a gentle climb as the route crossed under the A66 and wound it’s way towards to foot of Clough Head. I was feeling good through this bit and passed a lot of people heading through the fields before the grind up Clough Head began.

While Clough Head is only about 726m high, it’s another real slog of a climb on tired legs and must have taken close to an hour, just to really toy with me there are also several false summits to keep teasing you each time you think you’ve reached the top. The weather hadn’t been too bad up to this point (it was raining but not much win to speak of) and I was really looking forward to reaching the summit and getting into a bit more runnable terrain as the route headed towards Helvellyn. Boy was I in for a nasty surprise. Pretty much as soon as I hit the summit the conditions changed, I was hit with a howling southerly head wind and within minutes this was joined by horizontal sleet. I tried to run but it just wasn’t happening, I was going straight into the wind and for every meter I went forward it knocked me back half. All I could do was get my head down and try and keep moving as best I could. When the route dropped below the ridge line a bit I was able to do some running but it was tough going with little respite from the steadily worsening weather.

As time went on I started to more and more hungry, the bars and gels I’d packed in the easy to reach external pockets of by bag just weren’t cutting it and I was starting to really crave some real food and I could feel my temperature starting to drop, poblem was there was absolutely no shelter and I was worried that if I stopped to open my bag I’d risk losing half it’s contents in the wind. I knew there was a cairn at the summit of Helvellyn where I could get some shelter so decided to push on until I got to there. Problem was although I recognised parts of the route I’d put by watch on Ultratrac mode to ensure it didn’t run out of battery and all the climbing seemed to have totally confused it and it was over reporting my distance traveled by about 10km by this stage so I was having a hard time trying to figure out exactly how much further away Helvellyn was. I eventually reached Helvellyn around 2:30pm, 3:16hrs after leaving Threlkeld and about 6 and half hours into the race. By this stage I was starting cold and tired so the shelter of the cairn was a very welcome site. I sat down next to another runner exchanged the best small talk my tired hungry body could muster (“nice day for it” “looking forward to some pizza”), then wolfed down a bag of dried apricots and mangoes, a handful of beef jerky, a pepperami and some pretzels and quickly added a fleece layer under my jacket before heading off again.

Despite having added a nice new thicker layer of clothing, stopped and even briefly taking off my coat and caused me to cool down quite a lot and my teeth were starting to chatter, luckily there was a gradual downhill for a bit and I was able to run for 15 minutes or so and get my temperature back up. The weather was pretty miserable by now with the wind really building in strength and the rain becoming quite incessant. I soon came to the descent down Dollywagon Pike towards Grisedale Tarn. While most people I could see were taking the main path zig zagging down the hill I decided I didn’t want to muck around and threw caution to wind and headed straight down the fell runners route. This was great fun and I gained a lot of places before rejoining the path as it flattened out just before the tarn.It was shortly after this I was captured on video by one of the event support team heading the other way – I don’t really look like I’m enjoying myself!! https://www.facebook.com/groups/runitinaday/permalink/2272567542971056/

For water for the run I was primary using two soft 500ml flasks which sat in pockets on the front straps of my running vest that I could easily refill at aid stations etc, however as I knew that the Threlkeld to Ambleside leg could well take 5+ hours between aid stations I had also had another 1l of water in a hydration bladder in my pack that I’d planned to use for this leg. As I soon discovered though something must have been blocking the hose for this and I just couldn’t seem to get any water out of it – trying to fix this would have meant completely unpacking my pack which in the winds I feared would result in my loosing half it’s contents so by the time I as approaching Grisedale Tarn I was almost completely out of accessible water. With all the rain Grisedale Tarn was looking more like the north sea and water was flowing quite quickly from it’s outlet stream so as I waded through the knee deep water to cross it I managed to fill up my soft flasks from it to replenish my supplies. The general consensus from everyone beforehand had been that this was the best place on the course to do it so I figured it’d be worth the risk.

From here began the ascent up Fairfield, by no means the biggest climb of the day but certainly one of the toughest. Conditions were getting pretty bad now, visibility was reduced to about 10m and a couple in front of me had obviously decided they’d had enough as they peeled off down an exit route towards the road below. The climb was utterly miserable, the wind must have been up around 100kmph now with the sleety rain lashing down into my face, the path (which by now resembled more of a steady stream/waterfall) zig zagged it’s way up upwards through the clouds and every time it turned to the right it sent me directly in the wind and rain, progress was painfully slow and I couldn’t look were I was going, forced to bow my head down and look at my toes to avoid a face lashing and I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of another. Strangely for me I actually overtook a few people on the climb but by the time I reached Fairfield summit (873m) I was knackered and decided to shelter in a cairn for a few minutes to take on some more food and have a short break from the wind.

After another handful of beef jerky and apricots I was feeling better and ready to go again. Visibility was terrible and even on a clear day Fairfield is an easy place to get lost (apart from a couple of spotters on Halls Fell Ridge the course is completely unmarshalled, and unmarked all the way to Ambleside, so you’e totally reliant on your own navigation skills), I could see a group in front heading off in what looked to be the wrong direction – heading off to the right down a different ridge line. So many people just seemed to be following whoever was in front of them trusting that they new the way. I was confident from my two recces that I needed to veer left from here so I set off on my own across the rocks.

From Fairfield to Ambleside is largely downhill, but the ground underfoot is horribly rocky so for at least a couple of km running wasn’t possible and it was just a case of carefully picking a path over the rocks and keeping moving so as not to get cold. After a while I came to a wall that follows the ridgeline more or less all the way into Ambleside, from here on there were sections that were quite runnable mixed in with more horrible rocky/boggy section. You could tell the tiredness and conditions were starting to affect peoples decision making a guy in front of me slipped over on some smooth stones and snapped his hiking poles in two, a bit further on I passed another running slump up against a wall all wrapped up in his emergency bivvy bag – he didn’t look great at all but there was a group of about 4 other runners with him who were phoning for help so I kept on moving.

Along this section most people were following the most obvious trail which ran right next to the stone wall, this was a more or less straight line but often involved clambering slowly over slippery rock sections which really slowed me down and disrupted my rythym. I’d noticed a women who while being a slower runner was constantly overtaking me by taking a lower route slightly further down the the slope and avoiding all the clambering, she looked to be making much easier work of it so I dropped down and started running with her. She seemed to welcome some company and after hours of slogging it out on my own it was nice to have someone to chat to for a bit. It turns out she (Olivia) was running the event for the third time so knew all the best lines to take. We dropped down the slope together and found our way onto a much flatter and more runnable 4wd track that made easy work of the remaining journey into Ambleside overtaking a lot of people on the way. On the way down we were passed by 3 mountain rescue ambulances heading back up, a grim reminder that as tough as I was finding it some people were having a much worse day!

I ran into the checkpoint in Ambleside with Olivia almost bang on 6pm – 10hrs after starting and a good hour behind schedule. The Ambleside aid station was amazing, I completely changed into fresh and dry top layers, put some dry socks on and wolfed down about 7 slices of pizza. There were a a lot of unhappy looking people sitting about, one Norwegian runner was going from person desperately looking for some Sudocreme because his “balls were chafed so bad” poor guy!

I left Ambleside around 6:20pm feeling great, the dry clothes had made a world of difference, I was well behind my planned schedule but the next 32km was a lot flatter and more runable so as long as i could do it in around 5 hours I should still make it to the finish in time to get some beers in. I called Emma as I was leaving town and it was great to chat to her and the kids for a bit plus speak to a normal person again and not some other rain soaked mountain nut job. Thankfully by now the rain and wind had eased off and although it was now completely dark and I’d donned my head torch to see where I was going, it was infinitely better to run in so I was feeling positive.

Shortly outside Ambleside a river had burst it’s banks and the road was completely flooded and had been closed to traffic – the dry socks must have lasted all of about 15 minutes! After wading through the water for 50m or so it was relatively straight forward for the next few km with a mixture of roads, graded paths and forest trails as the route wound it’s way up the hills above Lake Windermere. This section was way marked at each major turning point with bright glow int he dark arrows which was a major help in the dark. The field had really thinned out by now, a lot of people retired at Ambleside and those that were left were starting get get really spread out over the course. I passed a couple of guys coming out of Ambleside but it was probably a good 3 hours before I saw another human.

After a couple of hours the route dropped down to the Windermere lakeside, James had txt’d me to warn me it was pretty flooded but it was even worse than I was expecting. Pretty much the whole lakeside route was under at least a foot of water – rising to almost thigh deep in places with lots of hidden roots under water to make things that bit more hazardous. In the dark with my head torch I could only see maybe 10m in front of me and progress became very slow.

Ambleside to the last checkpoint at Finsthwaite was roughly 20km, we’d recced the entire 32km Ambleside to Cartmel section in good weather in April in roughly 4hrs so I had it in my head that I should be able to manage around 5 hours for it today – 3 and a bit hours to Finsthwaite and around 2 from there to the finish. Over hours after leaving Ambleside and still a long way to go to Finsthwaite I could see things weren’t going to plan. My legs were starting to feel it now, every time I stopped running my quads immediately cramped up and I was needed to eat and drink more frequently.

I eventually caught up with a group of about 6 other runners (including Olivia who I’d run with earlier) maybe 5 miles  from Finsthwaite and after so long with just my own thoughts for company decided it would be nice to have some company for a bit. Together we slowly wound our way through a way and boggy trails, walking a bit, running a bit and up the last biggish climb of the day up to High Dam, from here there was quite a nice runable trail and we all started running for a bit as we made our way down the track to the checkpoint.

I got to the Finsthwaite a minute or so ahead of the group having passed another couple of runners on the way down but all the wading through the water had taken it’s toll and I was feeling pretty broken by the time I traipsed through the doors at about 10:50pm. It had taken almost 5 hours to get to Finsthwaite, and I was hungry, knackered and had finally realised I wasn’t making it to the pub tonight! The volunteers at Finsthwaite were great, I was handed a mug full of the most amazing potato and leek soup and I sat down to change teh battery in my head torch and called Emma to check in. I turns out people had been getting a bit panicky as my tracker had stopped working just before Ambleside showing my last known location as in a waterfall! Emma had been fields calls from my parents in NZ and other wondering if I was OK – she wasn’t too worried, having spoken to me at Ambleside and was confident I wouldn’t have quit but was glad to have official confirmation that I was indeed still alive and just about moving. Em was also able to tell me that she’d spoken to James who had finished by this point (in a bloody amazing time coming 19th overall – the freak!!). I was over the moon for James and the thought of him still waiting for me at the finish spurred me on. I told Em to tell James I’d be with him by 1pm and was out the door by 11:05pm.

While still knackered I was determined not to keep James waiting too long and set off running, before too long I passed a a few others that had left the checkpoint before me and within an hour I caught up with Kevin who’d been running with myself and James earlier in the day and had passed me way back on the climb up Clough Head some 12 hours earlier. He was really struggling by now and after jogging with him for 10 minutes or so I left him and set off on my own again. I was starting to feel quite good and was overtaking lots of people. I felt like I was running well and enjoying myself again, I recognized landmarks and knew the end was in sight. Unfortunately I was getting a bit too confident. Going through one of the last fields I missed one of the way-marking arrows and headed off at right angles to the course. I’d probably gone almost a km off course before realising that things didn’t look right and stopping to check my phone. I was gutted, but I could see relatively simple way to get back on course so all wasn’t lost, after climbing a couple of walls and following some trails I rejoined the course just as it joined the road going to Cartmel, despite my big detour it didn’t look like I’d lost any places as I could see the last people I’d passed just coming out of the field as I went down the road.

I knew there must have only been about a mile to go now, it was just a matter off following the road tot he finish line. I took my phone out of airplane mode to ring James and saw a bunch of missed calls and txts from the race organise asking where I was as they’d realised there was a problem with my tracker. I called James let him know I was on track for 1am and headed to the finish. I passed the church in Cartmel just as it struck 1am, a solitary depressing ‘DONG’, rounded the corner to the school and trudged across the finish line after just over 17 hours and 2 minutes of what was easily the toughest event I’d ever done.

James was waiting at the finish, his video of me crossing the line says everything you need to know about how I was feeling! I was a wreck, absolutely shattered, physically, mentally, emotionally I was done.

James guided me inside the school hall, filled me up with cup fulls of Coke and got me a hotpot from the food van outside. I called Em to let her know I’d (finally) made it and was struggling to hold myself together. after collecting my dry clothes bag I struggled through a shower before we made our way back tot he holiday home. It took us both about 5 minutes just to get into the car, we both just kept cramping up as we bent down to get in – we must have looked a right pair! Back at the holiday home James’s Dad had an awesome stew waiting for us at 2am, chased that down with a good ale and we were both ready for bed by 3am – almost 23hrs after our day had started.

It was one hell of a day – I knew it was going to be tough going into it (you don’t enter these events because you want easy!) but it was far far tougher than I expected, and yet despite the weather, despite my aching body I absolutely loved it. I never felt like I wanted to quit, it was a brilliant challenge and the feeling of fighting against the distance and the elements was incredibly invigorating. I finished a good 3 hours later that I had targeted but couldn’t care less, of the 378 only 240 finished – a massive 37% DNF rate so just getting to the finish line felt like a huge achievement in itself. I can’t wait to do another.

More than anything though the whole experience of training for the event, doing the event, spending time out in the mountains and trails, away from roads, people was really quite therapeutic for me. I reminded me how much I love this sort of thing, no bells and whistles, very little health and safety nonsense and people making decisions for you, just you out in the fresh air enjoying the outdoors. I have a fair idea of my events will look like in 2019 now and it involves as little roads and as many trails as possible!

Apologies in advance – this could be a long one!

Why??

When I was in high school I played lots of sports.  I grew up in a small town in NZ  with quite an outdoorsy family so we were always out doing something. However upon reaching university, moving to cities and entering the workforce this tapered off to pretty much nothing until I met my wife Emma in London in 2006. Emma was doing quite a few charity 5 and 10km runs and I started doing some of these with her, building up to doing the Milton Keynes half marathon in 2007 in a time of 2:37! – I was totally broken for days afterwards!

We both kept up the running on and off until 2010 when we started to have children and I started to really embrace the “Dad bod”. With no exercise past walking to the train and back for a few years by late 2012 I was pushing 100kg and decided I needed to sort myself out. Over the course of the next year I worked myself back up through the distances until I could complete a half marathon running the whole way in mid 2014 (the Greenway Challenge in Letchworth).

Later that year a friend from work, Sophie, convinced me to sign up for the a sprint triathlon at Eton Dorney.  As part of training for this I joined my local triathlon club Freedom Tri which over the years has proved to be one of the best decisions I’ve made. The Eton Dorney sprint came and went and safe to say I was addicted. The next few years were spent doing sprint and standard distance triathlons as well as a couple of marathons, becoming a level one triathlon coach and generally getting involved with everything triathlon as much as I could.

After doing triathlons for a while I think a lot of people start thinking about Ironman at some point, and so it was for me, by 2016 I had decided it was something I wanted to have a crack at. I decided Ironman Barcelona 2017 looked a great option in terms of location and timing and decided to sign up, a few others from Freedom Tri (Kev Smart, Simon Jackson, Rob Sedgwick and Dean Heuer) also decided to do it as well which made the prospect even more appealing. Then following too many drinks one night after work it was my turn to twist Sophie’s arm and she also signed up along with another friend Carl Halvorsen – it was shaping up a great experience already!

Training

After chatting with club mate Andy Jones and reading his report from Ironman Wales 2016 I decided to use Don Fink’s book Be Iron Fit as the basis for my training plan. It offers 3 different 30 week training plans all based on time rather than distance which seemed like it should be the easiest to fit around my life. A big requirement was that I wanted the training to have as little impact as possible on family life – hard to avoid when it comes to 6hr bike rides etc, but where ever possible I tried to fit in sessions early in the morning or after the kids had gone to bed.

I started building slowly from the start of the year to build up my base fitness and also focusing mostly on my swimming (which I knew was a weakness) and my running as it was easy to tag along with other friends who were marathon training to build up my distance over the winter. By the time to start the plan proper came around on the 1st of March I was already slightly ahead on my weekly numbers which made picking up the plan feel quite easy.

Overall training went really well, I managed to avoid injury all year and was able to complete most the sessions. There’s always going to be some weeks where you can’t fit everything in around family, work etc but generally I was able to make it work. I ended up using the Don Fink plan as more of a guide rather than following it word for word – I more or less stuck to the general daily structure of it following the daily hours etc in it and the way it built but managed to make it fit in with my normal club running sessions and swim sessions from both the club and a separate Swim Smooth Ironman swim training plan.

It’s often said that just getting the start line of an Ironman is an achievement in itself – and it’s right! The training is tough, I can honestly say I trained harder for this than I’d ever trained before resulting in me dropping to a weight I hadn’t seen since my early twenties despite having a completely insatiable appetite. There was lots of early wake ups, dragging myself out of bed when I’d have much rather been sleeping. My biggest training week of 21 hours was about 3 weeks about from race day and on average over the course of the 30 week plan I averaged somewhere around 11 hours.

In terms of my training breakdown, each week was usually 3 sessions of each discipline, one speed/intervals, one technique and one endurance. At least once a week an extra run would be thrown in after a bike to make it a brick session.

My weekly training usually looked something like:

Generally there was never much more than two hours of training a day on the weekdays so as long as I was disciplined about getting up early in the morning or cracking on with it once the kids were in bed in the evenings fitting them in wasn’t too bad – it was the long sessions in the weekends that were more difficult to fit in around family etc – by the time you’ve done 5+ hours on the bike followed by an hours run there’s not much of the day left!

The total breakdown per discipline for the 9 months leading up to race day was.

Each of which was far more than I’d ever done in a whole year previously. (swim and bike were both 3-4 times what I’d done any other year)

As far as longest distances for each discipline went, swim was the only one where I actually did the full race distance in training (once in the pool, twice in open water).

In hindsight I think for me this worked out pretty well, my swim was what needed the most improvement and I was really happy with how it came on over the year. I would have maybe liked to do one or to more 100+ mile rides in the build up, but it’s so hard to fit these in anyway. Running wise I think I’m probably running the best I ever have so going into race day I was feeling pretty happy with how everything had gone.

Practice races

As part of my training I’d planned to do a half Ironman (also my first at that distance) roughly 10 weeks out. This ended up being the Bustinskin Weymouth Middle Distance in mid July.  This was a great experience practicing using my race day kit, getting some sea swim experience and general strategy for the race. My big takeaway from this that I needed to sort out my nutrition strategy. I had a great run and bike, but didn’t eat nearly enough on the bike so really suffered mid way through the run with horrible cramps and generally feeling pretty weak.

Although not planned I also did the Gower Swimrun in mid August, filling in for a friend who could no longer take part. I was pretty nervous about this as a) it was a pretty tough event and I hadn’t really done any specific training for it and b) at only 6 weeks out from Barcelona I was really worried about getting an injury. In the end it turned out to be a great experience and was a real confidence booster both in terms of how tough particular the swims on it were (I knew Barcelona wouldn’t be anywhere near as tough on the swim as that) and in terms of general endurance – it took just shy of 8 hours to complete – much longer than my Half Ironman so was great to prove that I could just keep going!

Nutrition

I had real trouble trying to settle on a nutrition plan I felt happy with. Initially I tried just relying on gels and typical energy bars along with water and isotonic drinks but this just never seemed to be enough and always let me feeling weak int he stomach and pretty washed out. It wasn’t until after my 100 mile bike ride right at the end of August that I really settled on something that worked for me. In the end I decided to stick to solid food as much as possible, so on the bike this was several Clif Bars, Clif Shot Bloks, Pretzels and Jelly Babies with a salt stick tablet thrown in every hour. I’d worked out how much I’d need and took a bit more of everything just to be safe. For the run I took 5 gels with me and also had drinks and a slice of orange at almost every aid station. This seemed to work really well on the day and I didn’t have any problems that I’d had previously.

Race weekend

I flew out to Barcelona the Wednesday before the race along with Emma, our 3 kids and Emma’s Mum, Carole – I wanted to get there a few days beforehand to acclimatize and ensure I had plenty of time to sort myself out before the big day.

Thursday was spent putting my bike back together, registering and just chilling out on the beach with the kids. In the evening I met up with club mates Kev, Rob and Simon for a nice meal in the town center. A couple of quiet beers to calm the nerves and a good chat with lots of advice from Ironman veterans Kev and Rob left me feeling a lot less nervous than I had been.

On Friday I left the family to do their own thing for most of the day while I met up with Dean for short bike test ride out on the start of the course (the roads were so nice!) then a short swim/wetsuit test with Dean and Sophie, off to the pre-race briefing before packing the transition bags and heading off to drop the bags and bike off ready for the big day.

That night I checked into a separate hotel to try and get a good sleep away from the kids etc – I needn’t have bothered though as I think I only ended up sleeping for about 4 (broken) hours all night before giving up around 3:30am and spending an hour or so nervously googling Strava bike segments from previous years races like an idiot.

I met up with Kev, Simon, and Suzy for breakfast 5:30 along with Kev’s friend Johanne who’s pre-race breakfast consisted of a single small coffee!! Then we met Dean and made our way off to the start. It was game time!!

Swim

The atmosphere pre-race was pretty special, thousands of nervous athletes pacing about waiting to get going while loud music played over the soundsystem. We gathered around chatting a bit before heading off to our self seeded start pens ready to go.

The swim was a rolling start and we were set of in groups of 6 roughly 5 seconds apart. I’d put myself in the 1:10 pen with the plan of jumping on a slightly better swimmers feet and getting a good draft on the swim, however lots of other (slower) swimmers seemly also had this idea, so for the first 300m out to the first turn I felt like I was doing a lot of overtaking, then once we turned the corner we had a 1700m straight against the current. I couldn’t seem to find anyone decent the draft behind, people either seemed to be zig zagging all over the place or doing some sort of weird semi breast stroke kick so I spent a lot of time swimming on my own – it seemed to be taking forever, I also kept having problems with my goggles leaking a bit on one side until I finally gave them a good whack to stick them on – resulting in a bit of a black eye afterwards!

Once we reached the turn around point at about the 2km mark the current was behind us and I managed to get on the feet of a good swimmer and stuck with him pretty much the whole way back – the return leg seemed to fly and I really enjoyed it, the sea was lovely and clear so you could see fish (and the odd jelly fish) swimming around below you and as we made the final turn back toward the swim finish and could hear the music blaring it gave a real incentive for that final push to the beach. Out of the water in 1:14 – pretty much bang on target.

Bike

Into the transition tent I found my bag no problems and went about changing into my cycle gear – I took my time, had a small bite to eat, slapped on some sun screen then was out and onto the bike course.

The first 3km through town we weren’t allowed to pass or be on our tri bars due to the narrow road and hazards like speed bumps etc the drafting rule was also no in effect for this section, this meant we were able to ease into the bike somewhat but also that by the time we got to the main course large groups had already formed, these spread on a bit on the climbs for the first 10km but when you have 3000 people on a two and a half lap fairly flat, straight bike course it’s always going to be pretty crowded. I was really enjoying the bike, making sure to pass any groups that formed near me and with little wind to begin with the first lap seemed to fly by, I was hitting a much faster pace than I’d planned without feeling like I was working to hard – the road surface was brilliant and as I headed into the roundabout to end my first lap was really enjoying myself, this was where the crowd was at it largest on the bike course, with the supporters packed along both sides of the road cheering and spurring everyone along, I spotted Dean and Simon’s wives cheering in the crowd, and heard (but didn’t see) Emma, and had a big grin on my face as I headed up the hill to start the second lap.

About 15km into the 2nd lap I’d slipped into a bit of a happy place and wasn’t really paying attention when a group of about 7 riders passed me and immediately slowed down, just as a draft buster bike pull along side, I registered it a bit late by which time I was only about 3m back from the bike in-front rather than the 12 I was supposed to be, I immediately sat up, straight, rested my hands on my arm rests and glided to try and drop back and make it obvious that I wasn’t trying to draft, it was too late though and I was shown a blue card meaning I had to stop for 5 minutes at the next penalty tent I came to. I was furious, there had been so much other blatant drafting going on by big groups but after a bit of under my breath name calling I knuckled down and made it to the penalty box around the 90km point where I sat out my 5 minute penalty watching pelotons of riders cruise past and my average pace slowly fall from the 34km/hr it had been on…. grrr.

Once I got going again the wind had started to pick up which meant the outward leg of each lap we were straight into a head wind and it was starting to have a noticeable effect, pace was down and the going was definitely tougher. The big upside of the lapped course however was it meant I kept seeing the others each lap, it was always a big boost to spot them, get a yell and wave, big grin then back to work. The return leg had the wind at my back so was much easier going, it became a matter of not losing too much pace going into the wind then trying to make to most of it when it was at your tail. I was also determined not to get another penalty (3 and you get a DQ) so any time I got close to anyone I made sure I put in a bit more effort to get in front and put some space between myself and others. By the end of the bike my feet were killing me, too long in the narrow bike shoes, as I swung myself off the bike to go into T2 I could hardly bare to walk they were so sore – this didn’t bode well for the marathon to come! I was over the moon with my bike split though, despite the penalty, my target had been around 6 hours to to come off in 5:40 was much better than I had expected

Run

Going into T2 my feet were in agony, I got out of my bike shoes and socks as soon as I could to give my feet a chance to breath while I changed into my run top, applied a bit more sun screen and had a quick bite to eat before putting on my trainers and heading out on the run course. Luckily by the time I put my trainers on the pain had almost completely disappeared so I was able to find my stride fairly quickly.

The run was a dead flat 3 lap course with a little extra out and back bit at the start. About 500m into the run Simon passed my going the other way about a mile into his second lap, he was flying but gave me a big shout and a thumbs up which spurred me on a bit more. I was feeling really comfortable and without really trying found myself sitting a bit under 5min/km pace – faster than I had planned on going but I didn’t feel like I was pushing it so decided to try and stick to that pace for the first 10km and see how I went.

Around the 6km mark I had to stop for a brief toilet break before keeping going at much the same pace I had been until probably just past the 9km mark, I’d been grabbing a drink of water or ISO at each aid station but I was starting to really feel the heat so I let the pace drop a bit and decided to start walking through the aid stations. This seemed to work really well, it allowed to me maintain a good overall pace and the walks gave me a bit of recovery and a chance to have a good drink and slice of orange at each aid station.

By around the 10 mile mark the heat was starting to get to me, at each aid station I was grabbing a small bottle of water, drinking a bit then pouring the rest over my head, as well as having an orange, some ISO drink and some Coke whenever it was on offer. I kept seeing people I knew on the course though and the hi fives were keeping spirits up. We had great support my various wives and partners which really was brilliant. About mid way through the run it started to rain which was an absolute god send, it took the edge off the heat but was light enough to not be annoying, it was around this point though that I started to notice some sand or something in my left shoe that was slowly starting to grate on the bottom of my foot, My mental arithmetic was telling me if I could hold the pace I was on I would be on for a sub 4hr marathon though so I gritted me teeth and tried to block it out.

About a km or so into the 3rd lap at probably around the 29km mark I caught up with Rob, he was struggling in the heat after putting in a storming bike leg, we swapped a few words and I carried on, my running was felling good, I was trying to concentrate on holding good form and the short walk breaks at each aid station were giving me just enough recovery to keep a decent pace for the runs. With about 7km to go I caught up with Kev, I had thought I’d run with him for a bit, but he was full of encouragement and urged me to keep going at my pace. Shortly after I left Kev I went through what would be the second to last aid station, I was tired, but the legs were feeling like they had a bit left yet, I downed a selection of drinks, swallowed one last slice of orange and upon looking at my watch realised a 3:50 marathon could be on the cards – but I’d have to step on it!

With the end almost in sight I dug in and tried to up my pace and finish the last 5km as fast as I could. I past the last aid station without stopping, saw Dean heading out the other way with about 1km left to run, got a big should and hi-5 from him and was pretty running on adrenaline from there to the end, just before rounding the corner to the finish chute Emma was jumping up and down screaming me on, emotions were getting to me now and I was starting to tear up, I turned into the finish straight and caught sight of club mate Suzy hanging over the edge cheering me on, I must have just about taken her hand off with a hi-5 as I passed her, 50 meters to go and I slowed down to a walk as I crossed the line to hear the magic words from Mr Ironman Paul Kaye “Chris Clark… YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!”

It was over, I’d done it, 9 months of hard work, and what a feeling!! 11 hours, 2 minutes and 19 seconds (and a 3:49:59 run split), far, far better than I could have hoped for, I was absolutely over the moon!

Post Race

I was handed my medal, finishers t-shirt and towel, but it was all a bit of a daze, I was more exhausted than I’d ever been in my life, there was a huge spread laid out with all the food and beer we could drink, but all I wanted to do was sit. I went and got my street bag and phone, called Emma then just plonked down onto a bench until Kev finished about 10 minutes later. We were joined by Simon and Rob and enjoyed a couple of beers before heading outside to find our partners and watch Dean and Sophie finish (less than 10 minutes part).

After meeting back up with Emma, and picking up my bike and bags from the transition tent, we met up with the Freedom Tri lot and their partners etc for plenty of beers and relived each other experiences from the day. Despite being absolutely knackered I don’t think any of us were remotely ready for sleep – the Ironman buzz takes a long time to wear off!!

Race video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLBLEvs6sNQ

Strava: Swim | Bike | Run

Thanks

While triathlon is a fairly individual sport it’s made so much more enjoyable and easier by the others around us. The biggest thank you of all has to go to my amazing wife Emma, while I was out swanning around the countryside in lycra she was juggling 3 young kids, her own business (more young kids!!), generally keeping the family running while all the time being incredibly supportive and encouraging of my mad pursuits. Without Emma’s support I couldn’t have done it – love you so much Em!!

Kev, Dean, Rob, Simon & Sophie who all experienced their own version of this journey. Being part of this with you all sharing the weekend with your really made the event the amazing experience it was, seeing you all out on the course, getting the hi-5’s the mutual cheers of encouragement etc and elation at the finish really was the highlight of the weekend. Well done all of you!

All the others wives, partners and friends of the above who made the trip out to Calella to support us – you probably don’t realise just how big a boost seeing a familiar face gives us when we’re out there. Your support was amazing!

Everyone at my amazing club Freedom Tri. Joining this club really was one of the best decisions I’ve made, and without the support encouragement and inspiration I’ve received from you all over the years I would would never have though completely an Ironman was something that was possible for me – much less actually going and doing one!

A special mention should also go to James Parsons who seemed to fall into the role of training buddy for me over the course of the last year for much of my swim and run training. Having someone join me for all those 5:00am starts to get across to Luton pool or countless miles around the Greenway not only ensured I actually did the sessions in the first place but your encouragement and enthusiasm really was invaluable. We must be due a fair few beers now!

Firstly for anyone that’s not familiar with SwimRun we’ll attempt to give a quick overview. It’s a relatively new sport to the UK only really popping up in the last couple of years, but has been big in Sweden where the truly epic ÖTILLÖ SwimRun world champs take place each year. Essentially it’s a multi stage race combining multiple alternating swim and run stages through natural environments in pretty stunning locations. You compete in teams of pairs where you have to stay together at all times and generally in the UK at least the total distance equates to roughly that of a marathon. Competitors carry all their kit with them, so that means swimming in your shoes and running in your wetsuit! A much better description can be found here 

James signed up with Andy Jones for Breca Gower at the beginning of the year as their A race. As the sport in the UK is still in it’s infancy, not much was really known about it so it was a bit of a step into the unknown, we didn’t know anyone that had done one and there seemed to be lots to learn. Lots of new equipment to try out (swimming with a pull buoy seemed to be recommended to counteract the slowness that swimming with shoes creates), a new special swimrun wetsuit to buy, lots of differing opinions online about what options works best (paddles or no paddles) – and even how to train for such an event. It as also the first year this race has been run so details of course were fairly sparse for anyone who wasn’t familiar with the area.

A month before the race and struggling with ongoing issues with shin splints Andy was forced to pull out due to not being able to run and Chris was called in as a fairly last minute replacement. (Chris had planned to do one in the future but with his first Ironman coming up at the end of September a SwimRun was firmly in next years plans) however James assured him it was “perfect Ironman training” and Chris figured “well I’ve been swimming and running a fair bit anyway so what the hell”, arms and legs were cut off an old wetsuit, about 5 swims done in the SwimRun kit, sorted, how hard can it be, right!!?? Well….

Race weekend began on the Friday night with registration and a safety briefing at Swansea University. The race director Ben, ran us through the basic details and words like “dramatic”, “dangerous”, “arduous” were being bandied about – we figured he was just bigging it up trying to scare us, turns out if anything he was under selling it! We were told that these races typically have a do not complete rate of roughly 10-20% (teams pulling out, injury, not meeting cut offs etc) which seemed high, and there were lots of questions from the audience around cut offs etc. We then spent the evening geeking out a bit as we examined the course map, check in points and cut off times to try and work out what sort of average paces we needed to be hitting to beat the cuts offs. We reckoned if we could average 8 minute kms for most runs (one technical one we allowed 11min kms) and 3min/100m pace on the swims we should be fine, so we went off to bed feeling confident.

Race day.

We both woke up after a rubbish nights sleep about 30 minutes before our alarm, and checked the weather forecast, 18 degrees and mostly sunny, lovely! 35km/hr winds with 45km/hr gusts – arse!

Off we go to Mumbles Pier in Swansea, quick change into our gear between some dumpsters and some grotty public toilets, drop our bags at bag drop, and onto a coach (in wearing full gear – wetsuits etc) for the hour drive to the start line.

10:00-10:25
Race starts at 10am and the first section is a 4.8km run mostly uphill from Hill End Camp Site to Rhossili passing the first checkpoint at 4.4km. We knew running was going to be our strength and used this section to try and bank a bit of time, passing the checkpoint 25 minutes ahead of cut off, getting some hi-fives from Freedom Tri club-mates Sara and Emma and getting to the first swim in 6th place (and feeling pretty pleased with ourselves).

10:25-10:40
Time for  wake up call! The first swim was a 400m swim onto the dramatic Worms Head. With the high winds there was quite a swell up and we were having to swim straight into it, it was pretty impossible to get any rhythm going and other teams of strong swimmers using hand paddles started to power past us. We exited the swim onto the rocks of Worms Head probably at least 20 places down on where we entered it having had a rude introduction as to what SwimRun was all about!

10:40-11:18
Third section was another eye opener – a 3.9km “run” to the end of Worms Head and back then around to the next bay. Easy enough right? Except most of this section was literally scrambling over sharp jagged rocks, dodging blow holes, rock pools, deep gorges with nothing approaching a trail in sight, one false move and it would have meant serious injury or worse. Even the flatter sections were over loose stones and rock pools making it pretty hard going on the ankles. Once off the rocks of Worms Head we followed what can only be described as a mountain goat like trail around a cliff face to the next swim entry – not the sort of terrain I’d normally consider running around! We managed to make up a few places though and were really enjoying it.

11:18-11:25
The next section was a swim, this had been shortened by about 50% due to safety concerns, it ended up actually being a pretty nice swim made better by the facet we exited the water to be greeted by Andy Jones who’d come along to marshal. Hi Fives, bit of banter – off we go!

11:25-12:30
The 5th section was a rolling 10km run from Fall Bay to the headland of Port-Eynon Bay with some good hills a few few technical sections but enough flat stretches that we were able to reclaim a lot of ground on our fellow swim runners and finished the section with over an hour of time in the bank and feeling pretty smug. Idiots.

12:30-12:56
Time for another swim, advertised as a 700m swim from a rocky outcrop at the tip of Port-Eynon Bay into the bay, sounds simple enough until Chris started feeling homesick and headed out into the Bristol channel back towards England on his own, after being herded back in by the safety boats shore was finally reached but with 1.7km logged on the Garmin and a lot of places lost. Top work. Just to really rub it in, upon trying to stand Chris was hit with horrible cramp down the whole left leg forcing him to just bob about on his bum for a minute or two while the waves broke over his head until the cramp subsided.

12:56-13:34
Next we had more running(roughly 5km), more hills, legs getting steadily heavier but managed stay on course and rope in a few of the places and time we’d lost.

13:34-14:34
The next swim is one we’d both rather forget, advertised as a 1.1km ( less than 20 minutes for us normally) from the tip of Oxwich Bay into the beach we were in the water for just under an hour, Garmins showed over 3km of distance covered. It was awful, we just seemed to be going nowhere, James swam over several Jellyfish which gave him a brief burst of energy but safe to say we were both in a pretty dark place on this swim. Upon finally reaching shore Chris’s first utterance as he emerged from the water was “If that was 1.1km I’m the fucking tooth fairy!”, you probably had to be there but it kept James chuckling for the rest of the race. Luckily James family and Chris’s daughter Erin were waiting for us on the beach which provided a real boost to the spirits as by now we were freezing cold and by all accounts not looking too flash at all. Surely that had to be the worst of the swimming over? Marshall’s at the checkpoint also inform us we’re not only 30 minutes ahead of cut off, a lot of time lost, bugger!

14:34-14:50
Next up we thankfully had an easy 2.9km run along the beach to warm us up, just what the doctor ordered.

14:50-15:16
Then, next section… What the actual fuck!? Advertised as a 600m swim around a rocky headland (Great Tor) and into neighbouring Three Cliffs Bay. Surf was massive. 4ft waves that once we passed the headland just seemed to come from all directions. Sighting almost impossible. Would never even consider attempting normally. Rounded headland and no let-up in swell, beach just never seemed to get closer, lots of salt water swallowed, impossible to get any rhythm, flipped over completely a couple of times. After a mile of swimming finally reached the shore to be greeting by a very impressed looking lifeguard. The race organisers then closed the swim soon after after deciding it was too dangerous, cheers guys. Chris’s Garmin reckons there was 300m of elevation gain on that swim leg!! Probably not accurate but it certainly felt that way and the resulting Garmin trace certainly represents how we felt!!! We later found out that a number of teams took one look at that swim and immediately pulled out of the race. Fortune favours the brave (or stupid!) Shoulders knackered and pretty exhausted we traipse on.

15:16-16:22
Next couple of sections were fairly uneventful in comparison, more hilly runs where we continued to pick teams off a bit but by this stage neither of us fancied swimming. We were both pretty knackered and were really starting to feel it, not to mention that forgetting to apply any body glide before the race meant we were beginning to chafe – A LOT! Spirits were raised when we met Sara and Emma at the penultimate checkpoint, we load up on pretzels, jelly babies, oranges and boiled potatoes, replenish our water bottles, get some updates on from the supporters following our progress on Facebook and start to feel better for a while at least – especially when we’re told we’re in 24th place!

16:22-16:53
As we approached the third to last swim, however, we were both pretty quiet, more hills and running over loose, stony beaches had drained us, the banter had dried up and we very slowly took our time getting into the water as the waves crashed onto the stones for what was advertised as a 900m swim from Brandy Cove into Caswell Bay. Swim ended up being about 1.6km and choppy again and we both admitted when we got out that neither of us had wanted to get into the water for that one, I’d doubted I even had it physically in me to swim again. Swimming could get in the bin and stay there. Stupid swimming.

16:53-17:20
But after feeling pretty low entering the water, we came out feeling pretty euphoric. That was the last of the big swims done and the end was in sight. We knew we’d at least finish the race now. A 1.9km run followed, fairly uneventful but ended by running into Andy again at the entry to the penultimate swim. Andy is a legend and had used some of his dark Welsh magic to flatten the sea. A quite pleasant 500m swim followed from Snaple Point into Langland Bay, spirits raised considerably and talk of finish line beers began. Also a pact not to let anyone else pass us.

17:20-17:45
Another 2.5km run, a couple more teams overtaken, feeling good and into the water for the last swim, a short 200m swim into quite a narrow exit in between some dodgy rocks in Bracelet Bay. They weren’t making it easy! Ironically as we spent the day swimming with the tide coming in, the faster teams had less swimming to do. Much easier to dodge rocks when you’re running.

Right that was the last curve ball nice 500m sprint the finish at Mumbles Pier! Let’s smash this. Wrong.

17:45-17:50
Up some steep stairs, little bit of road, road? Get off that you mugs and down that cliff face for a bit, up some rocks to a ridge, poke heads over the ridge, ARE YOU HAVING A BLOODY LAUGH MATE!!?? Finish line and family is in sight about 30m (horizontal) to go, but the only way to get there is down a sheer what seemed like almost vertical rock face. Nervous bum sliding to follow, finally at the bottom, high fives gathered, up some steps into a beer garden, FINISHED and with over 30 minutes to spare!!!!

Thank god it was over, but what a sense of achievement, gulped down some hot soup then time to get the pints in, Andy, Sara and Emma all met us at the finish line and race director Ben also spent time with us all chatting about the day, turns out the conditions had made it a lot tougher than expected and drop out rate was a lot higher than normal.

Official results show us finishing in 22nd place (15th in category) out of only 48 finishers. 35% of the starters failed to finish – way above average. Wowzers!!

What a day! That was easily the toughest event either of us had ever done, brutal, character building and stunning in equal measure. Would we do another? Absolutely!

Thanks to our families, friends and club mates for their support in the build-up to and during this race – it would have been a lot tougher to complete without you!

Some stats from Garmin:

Total time: 7hrs 50 minutes
Total distance: 50.7km
Running: 38.25km (4h46)
Swimming: 11.82 (3hr04) – suspect this was actually more like 8km, hard to tell
Total elevation gain from run: > 1000m

Strava links – Chris | James

Full official event photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134146862@N07/albums/72157687954745785

Lessons learned

It seems like there’s genuine interest from many Freedom members about Swim Run, so we wanted to share some thoughts and lessons learned:

1. Swim Run is still in its infancy in the UK, and that’s part of the attraction. It’s an opportunity to be part of something from the relative beginning. Breca, which seems to be the UK’s leading Swim Run race organiser, is still finding its feet. The organisation at the weekend from a competitor’s perspective was great (would be interesting to know what Andy, Emma and Sara think from a marshal’s perspective) but it’s very different to your typical triathlon event….
2. It’s a ‘wild’ event – the organisers cannot control the conditions you’re competing in, it really is you vs nature. On several occasions we thought, ‘this is dangerous’. We just needed to be sensible and not ‘race’ over certain sections. Likewise, take the advertised distances as a rough guide, tides, waves, weather conditions and a complete inability to sight can cause these to change quite a bit!
3. There are many options for equipment – the majority of teams seemed to be using hand paddles, and when we saw them powering past us it was easy to see why! However, we hadn’t done enough training with them so didn’t want to add an unknown variable on race day. Something to work on over the winter! Some others had very minimalist shoes. We were speaking to one competitor who said, with a touch of irony, that they were great to swim in but difficult to run in, because of the terrain.
4. We spent more time swimming than expected. Mastering technique and the best use of swimrun equipment for next year is a must. We’d say that we’re swimmers of average ability (in context of Freedom) but struggled on the swim and didn’t overtake a single team in the water. It was our stronger running which helped us make some ground and beat the cut-offs. Also don’t underestimate how much wearing shoes in the swim slows you down – as an example Chris normally swims in the lake at around 1:55 per 100m pace, in the swimrun wetsuit and shoes this dropped to more like 2:15 per 100m!!
5. Choose a Swim Run partner that complements your abilities. It’s never going to be equal, but it wouldn’t be fun for either partner if the gap between you was too big. Also choose someone you don’t mind talking to for 5-8 hours!