Written by V!
Daniel and I entered the Sprint distance of the Grand Lacs de Laffrey SwimRunMan event, which had 2.8km of swimming and 12.3km of running. On race day the weather was ideal, the water was warm, and the route was beautiful – perfect conditions for a great race, if only my fitness was up to scratch. In the end, I was ready for about 11.5 out of the 13 stages…
We started at a conservative pace as we are wary of the “sprint starters” as we call them – people who race off at the sound of the gun at a pace they cannot maintain and which messes up everyone else’s race plans as they struggle to keep up and tire themselves out quickly. True to form, we entered the first swim in the second half of the pack, but Daniel’s extraordinary swimming pulled us through to the front half and we maintained a fairly steady pace for most of the rest of the race.
The route is very runnable with gentle up- and downhills in the forest trails, although there is some technical terrain with roots and rocks. The swims are straightforward – all between 400–600m in distance – and well-marked. With Daniel pulling and me just about keeping up, we managed our nutrition well and made good progress for the first 12.5km of the race.
We were overtaken near the top of the ascent halfway through the penultimate run when I hit my “wall” and I just couldn’t turn my legs over quickly enough to keep the pair in sight. Daniel did his best to get into a slipstream in the final swim, but I imagine it was like pulling a deadweight as my arms were ticking over in slow motion. The funniest part (in hindsight) was Daniel’s intention to sprint the final 400m to the finish line which was thwarted by my squeal of dismay as he yanked me out of the water and he had to slow down to match my shuffle!
Overall I was really proud of my efforts and always grateful to Daniel for partnering me and helping me around the course. We finished 6th overall and 3rd in the mixed category; it was fun to get on the podium and win some artisanal beer. The SwimRunMan events are always well organised with local dignitaries to present the locally-produced prizes and I’m sure we’ll be back for another event soon.
 |
| Very happy to be finished! |
Race result
25 August 202415.5km (2.6km swim, 12.9km run)
279m
2:13:21
3rd