Race Coverage

Pursued by Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies...

Saturday, 17 August 2019 23:20

By Christina Roberts

IGNITE SWIMRUN RACE REPORT- This past weekend, I teamed up with Corey Towle to successfully defend our title in the IGNITE MN SwimRun race up at Cuyuna regional park! We raced the long course which totaled just over 17 miles of swimming and running. There were 9 run legs ranging from 0.02 to 3.9 miles and 8 swim legs ranging from 0.15 to 1 mile. The runs weren’t too technical but they required focus to avoid falling and leaving a little blood on the trail, which happened to nearly every team out there. Every single mile was an adventure. And we smiled and laughed (mostly at our botched transitions) every single mile. It was so much fun. IGNITE put on an awesome race!  ...

Race morning was un-eventful. We started with a mandatory gear check in since we are required to carry a whistle, a compression bandage, and GPS tracker. All other gear is optional. You can use anything you want (but no motors!) as long as it’s with you when you finish so you can get as creative as you’d like. And yes, you swim with your shoes, and paddles, and a pull buoy. When the gun went off, Corey and I took off near the front of the pack. The first leg is a 4-mile run so pushing it a bit during those first few miles allowed us to separate from the field. We both opted to run without cap and goggles on which meant we had to be ready to get fully equipped a little before swim #1. This required some coordination and my focus was to try and avoid tripping over rocks while getting my cap on just right. This is where having a partner comes in handy - someone to hold your paddles while you get other equipment ready to go. Our first transition was a little discombobulated. Even though we practiced our transitions a few days before the race, there’s so much to think about and we weren’t quite ready for it… cap on, goggles on, tether hooked, walk into water, slide pull buoy over, check with partner, watch split, GO…. Lots to think about and coordinate with your partner in the right order! I’d say that we nailed all of the swim exit transitions, but failed on the majority of our swim entry transitions. Most of the time, we’d do something out of order, like put paddles on first, which makes it impossible to do anything else. Then we’d start laughing, get everything sorted, and then start swimming.

This course is unbelievably beautiful! The majority of the runs were on the mountain bike trails, so we got to wind through the red dirt trails of Cuyuna. The swims were all in the old mine pits and because they are spring fed, the water was crystal clear and blue. I could have stayed in that water all day. But I had some running to do. The only eerie thing about the clear water is that you can see VERY far down… maybe further than you’d like because you can see trees that had grown when the lakes were drained and used for mining. I had to distract myself when I started to imagine that the tree branches were going to grab me and pull me under. I guess that’s another good reason to be tethered to your partner.

We knew that we had to push the entire race because team "Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies", which was Scott and Andrea Myers, was not far behind us, hot on our trail. No resting too long at the aid stations! We kept a solid pace once outside of our messy transitions but we also made sure to soak up the beauty of the course. We crossed the finish line in 3 hours and 47 minutes and then had a blast reminiscing about what happened during the race with everyone afterwards.

In my opinion, SwimRun is one of the coolest new sports that’s out there! It has the vibe of an off-road triathlon or trail run and you have to be flexible for changes in the course on race day or even during the race. I love the race atmosphere, I love the adventure, and I love doing it with a partner. I’m still smiling thinking about race day and can’t wait for the next one!