SwimRun Sydney – Paul Murray & Regina Wright

Race Date: May 12th    Results: 2018
I’m writing this report 2 days after the SwimRun event, and I’m still physically shattered and sore. How did this race cause so much discomfort?
BACKGROUND:
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This story commences in late 2017 when Paul Fenton (PF) had heard about SwimRun and was pitching to Richard Palmer (RP) to be his race partner after a FLyeRS run.
Regina Wright overheard PF’s conversation and thought it would be a great event, and RP suggested that she partner with me. So when she came over to my seat I literally had no idea what I was signing up for – but she insisted it would be “fun”. (In hindsight, what escaped me at that time was the fact that Reggie’s idea of “fun” differs somewhat from the general population – she enjoys completing a very tough course, or finishing on the podium, or preferably a combination of both.)
Story of SwimRun: SwimRun began way back in 2002 when a group of 4 crazy Swedes did a multi-island pub-crawl as a bet. Since then SwimRun has steadily grown to 180 races around the world and it’s still growing. Competing in pairs, the objective is to go from a starting point to a finish point through a course with at least 2 swim and run segments – our Sydney race had 27 segments! All the equipment that a participant starts with has to be carried all the way to the finish line, and flotation equipment, wetsuits, shoes, and hand paddles are allowed.
​Regina (Reggie) Wright background: Many people aren’t aware that back in 2009/2010 Reggie raced for Australia in ITU Triathlon, which has extreme qualification standards – individuals must be truly exceptional swimmers and runners to be eligible to represent their country against the world’s elite triathletes. So, by comparison, most local “non-elite” events are pretty civilized – which is why she often achieves a podium place on a minimal amount of training.
THE PREPARATION:
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To begin with, we needed to identify what on earth to wear. A stopwatch and swimming pool soon highlighted just how much drag standard running shoes added, so various options were tried until I settled on an old pair of Nike Luna Racers which are made of plastic, low profile tongue, and very light. In Europe, many competitors use pull buoys, but swimming core-shorts seemed to offer the same buoyancy with no drag and were ok for running. And most importantly, the extra mid-body buoyancy made swimming with shoes far more efficient. To finish off the race gear, I ordered a proper SwimRun wetsuit (with built-in prerequisite whistle) because race conditions in May might be very cool. (Interestingly PF and RP bought their SwimRun wetsuits locally in late 2017 without a problem, but by April 2018 I found all SwimRun wetsuits were sold out in Australia, N.Z., and the Netherlands. As a sign of a booming sport – the only country with available stock was England!)
Next step was the training. I generally swim more often when I’m injured – so my chronic patellar tendinopathy has meant many hours in the pool over the last few years. But a protracted post-holiday virus in Feb/Mar meant no substantial running until April – leaving only 6 weeks until the race – so it was going to be tight. Meanwhile, my partner Reggie was in training for Coolangatta Gold (surf lifesaving’s premier event) – so she was in great shape.
As a confidence booster RP, PF, Reggie, and I tried a couple of trial events at Horseshoe Beach and Merewether baths – but this had quite the opposite effect, as we all quickly realised that one of the hardest aspects of the event was all the transitions in and out of the water. The large number of transitions meant it was really hard to get any sort of rhythm and keep your heartrate under control – as a comparison triathlon has only 2 transitions swim-bike and bike-run; whereas our SwimRun race in Sydney has a staggering 26 transitions!
Training through April was ok, but (on reflection) an average of only 50kms/week of running was nowhere near enough. To try and gauge our general fitness and stamina levels going into the event, we decided to run Sydney:10 to sharpen up a week before our race. Conditions were perfect and we all ran better than expected, especially Reggie who was only seconds off her lifetime PB – but ran totally relaxed. Whereas, I was about a minute slower than where I’d hoped to be.
Based on all the build-up training results above, I’d estimate my fitness ‘scorecard’ before the SwimRun race was:
  • Endurance – 60%
  • Stamina – 70%
  • Technique – 80%
  • Gear – 90%
Not ideal, but should be sufficient to finish respectably – and (as mentioned) we were simply there to have fun, weren’t we?
RACE DAY:
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Unfortunately, after months of beautiful weather, race day was windy and cool. Nonetheless, the Rose Bay clubhouse was a great location to pick up race packs, get changed, and hear the race briefing. After a somewhat lengthy conversation amongst the 4 of us, 3 of us opted for wetsuits – except RP who thought core-shorts were still a better choice, even in cool conditions – and he turned out to be right.
​The men’s-pairs went off at 8am, with our mixed-pairs wave 3mins after. In our mixed race, in the “RP position”, front and centre, were 2 very fit looking young athletes – Moya Johansson and Mitchell Frankish. They were both pro-triathletes, and Moya had won the mixed race in 2016 and everyone in the clubhouse seemed to know her – wishing her luck. They were clearly going to be very difficult to beat.
After the gun, it is 650m across Rose Bay beach, then a 550m swim to the Hermitage Reserve. The swim is horrendous as the water is very choppy and we were already swimming through back-markers from the men’s wave. Out of the water, I’m quite dizzy from the swim and very unsteady on uneven rocks. Reggie and I scramble up to the walking path and surprisingly we’re only 10 meters behind Moya & Mitchell. They also seemed surprised to see us there, but push on at a strong pace in an attempt to drop us. We run to Hermit Bay for a 220m swim, then run to Shark Beach for a 230m swim – around the outside of the shark net(!), then run to Parsley Bay beach for a 150m swim – during this time both teams are surging to try and gain a gap, but each time it’s covered by them or us - much to their astonishment. The transitions into the water are a particularly good place to recover a few meters.
Running along The Crescent in Vaucluse, both teams take a wrong turn at Wharf Rd and then we bump into RP and PF at the end of the cul-de-sac as they also made the same slip-up. A quick return back up the hill for everyone, means we only lose 90 sec – but it’s an extra climb I didn’t really need. (Note: A number of the climbs from the beach to the running route are brutal – I like climbing, but not when your heartrate is already in the 90%+ anaerobic zone at the bottom of the hill!)
While the running and swimming pace is not extreme – it’s becoming clear to me that Reggie, Moya and Mitchell are all *very* fit, as there’s absolutely no respite on the hills, beach, water, or transitions. We push on to Gibson’s Beach (190m swim), and then Camp Cove (200m swim), before reaching the turnaround point at Hornby Lighthouse.
The next 2 swims back towards home are curious as Reggie swims on the feet of Mitchell (and they make some odd navigational choices), and Moya on my feet. By Parsley Bay I’m trying to swim and run as efficiently as possible in an attempt conserve energy, but by the time we reach the steep climb out of Shark Beach I’m in real trouble getting my breathing under control. The rubber band starts to stretch as my substandard endurance fitness become telling after 1h40mins, while concerned Reggie is just ahead yelling motivation sayings to me like “You can do it!” and “Dig deep!”. (I was digging, but the well was empty)
​Still no respite anywhere as I labour across Hermit Bay and run to the entry to the last big swim to Rose Bay beach. Reggie is still close behind them, and I do my absolute best to get back on – but I’m completely spent by this stage. The swim is long, choppy and shallow, with some wading towards the end – and at this point I’m just trying not to disintegrate.
Along the beach, and one short 20m swim gets us to the finish line 43 seconds behind Mitchell & Moya, who were deserved winners.

It’s one of the best, and toughest races I’ve ever done – mainly due to insufficient fitness. I was very wobbly on my feet at the end – which is a first for me. Reggie was amazingly strong through the whole event – in fact, I think she actually stronger as the race went on.
This picture completely sums up the final stages of the race: Reggie is looking for our competition, while I'm looking for an ambulance!
RESULTS:

The Flyers results were:
  • Travis Shields + Andrew Cross finished 2nd in the men’s teams – 2h0m
  • RP + PF finished 11th in the men’s teams – 2h12m
  • Paul + Reggie – 2h4m (Approx. 2h3m excluding our wrong turn)
(The tough conditions meant only 1 team broke 2 hours this year, which is unusual.)
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All and all – an amazing experience and one I’ll remember forever. Entries for 2019 opens on October 1st – limited to 150 teams.
FINDINGS:
  • They need a lot more water-points on the course.
  • The race direction markers were poor.
  • Wetsuits were too hot and restrictive – even in cooler conditions. It's better to compete with core-shorts and a swim-top with pockets.
  • The course is pretty unforgiving – 3.5kms of swimming; 14 kms of running over sand, stairs, steep climbs, trails, paths, banks, and rocks; 26 transitions.