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| Pre-race avoiding the rain |
Lake James was our first serious attempt at SwimRun. Mackinac Island 2022 got us hooked, but we weren't able to race it at all and we spent a lot of time practicing leading up to the race. To get there we had an 11 hour drive with my wife, Emily, as our sherpa. A more leg by leg recap is on the Low Tide Boyz podcast we did after the race.
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| Pat was our "kid" for the weekend |
Important Pre-race Events:
- Shakeout with Marcus & Beak (Amy & Trista did another group)
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| Pre-race at Fonta Flora |
This was critical for us to get a demo of the islands, practice some transitions with all our gear, and get level set that what we thought was acceptable was a joke. Much thanks to those guys for taking the time to help us mere mortals.- Met some other teams including our new nemesis "The Mamaaboyz" who we still refer to as the "Mamma's Boys"
- Awesome Pre-Race Meeting and Location:
- Fonta Flora Brewery is the start of the race and has an awesome location with great beers and atmosphere. I had a couple beers and we made new friends with Pete and Jarett
- Pre-race Thunderstorm
- It was pretty wild and we really feared this wasn't going to happen, but the race directors were great, we had a 30 minute delay, but nothing else. Thankfully a narrow fast moving band.
- Really focused training block
- We were much better prepared than our first race and injury free. I (Matt) was neither in the first race, but felt ready
The Race:
The Good:
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| Courtesy Kim Moss |
The Course: It is amazing. The views on the water are breathtaking of the surrounding mountains. There is nothing like it in Michigan (which is beautiful in a different way) and as Pat was sighting the next exits, I was just taking in the scenery! This is nothing like Mackinac Island SwimRun. There is only a couple tiny sections of roads, and otherwise its all a variety of trails, single-track, fire road (which we can now identify) and red clay. LOTS OF RED CLAY. The exits out of the water were nearly all challenging climbs with or without ropes. Its just pure nature all surrounding you and you become totally immersed in it.
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| Courtesy Kim Moss |
The Race Experience: We learned so much about SwimRun, ourselves, and our partnership. Pat being stronger on swimming and running makes my contribution often minimal. I do all the detail work and the focus on nutrition which really came in handy with Pat bonking a bit at the end. Pat and I both can really press each others buttons if we are against each other, but as a team we do really well just encouraging each other and it worked out well. We had no idea what we were in for with the exits and entries and learned as we went. All the strength training really became important as you just don't get much opportunity to get in a rhythm and there are root and trip points everywhere. We learned to work as a team. We learned about nutrition. We learned about losing mental focus can result in wrong turns! We learned we are nowhere near the top teams! It was just an amazing first attempt at racing a SwimRun.- The Swimming: We nailed all the swims. Made up huge time on most other teams and they were challenging for sure. The last long swim the race director calls "Brian's Swim" was just as soul searching as she said it would be!
- The Vibe: Most people are super friendly and Pat and I were able to make friends with teams even despite us both having anxiety about bein the new guys. The best racers stayed for the finish of every team. It was just very cool with a lot of space to enjoy the end of the race.
The Bad:
- Details:
- Pat forgot his collapsible water bottle while we were waiting during the delay and ended up getting bonky at the end. Lesson learned there.
- We made a couple wrong turns following other people and not taking the time to evaluate for ourselves. As the Low Tide Boyz said, you have to be heads up racing and we learned.
- We never considered that Pat could struggle on a leg relative to me and we didn't handle it optimally. When someone is bonking, we learned that person should go first and set the pace. I pushed Pat a bit too much and he fell twice on the last leg.
- Neither of us cabbed down for the long run and that was a huge mistake on my part.
- The 8 mile run in the middle of the race deserves a lot of respect that we thought we had given it, but it was harder than we even thought.
The Ugly:
- The Call of the Buffalo: At some point on like run 7 or 8 I let out a large "noise" that I sort of imagined would be a water buffalo call. I am really loud and it was louder than intended and we kind of figured we were alone. But later, Amy was relating a story about hearing a weird noise and we laughed really hard realizing she had heard me! Then on the Low Tide Boyz podcast, Chipper made a surprisingly similar joke about the sound. Now I feel obligated to do it at future races (and did)
The Result:
4 hours and 23 mins, good for 3rd Place Mens (out of 4), but 6th overall just behind the female winners! Can't be disappointed with that!
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