I didn't think I'd get to post a race report in 2020. Like everyone else as the months of this endless year dragged by, I watched my races get cancelled or deferred: a half marathon in Kansas City, Ironman St. George, the Leadville Marathon. Yes, I know in the scheme of things that cancelled races are a tiny inconsequential thing. But for someone who has built a whole lot of their happiness around training and racing, it was just another sign for me that the world was ending. With more curiosity than hope, I kept my eye on Odyssey Swimrun Austin, for which my friends and I had joyfully signed up more than a year in advance. Eventually it looked like the race was definitely ON so I purchased my $57 ticket (!!!) to fly to Texas and we booked rooms at a hotel near the race venue.
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| Add to the many reasons that I love my friends: we met up at a Whataburger to kick off the weekend! |
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| Pre-race shenanigans. Aixa, Sanaa, Orissa, and Julia raced the short course and I'm certain they're hooked on swimrun now too! |
This was the first swimrun race in Texas and it was organized by the same company that put on the Orcas Island race that was so amazing two years ago. When the inaugural Austin race open for registration last year and it happened to take place on Linda's birthday, it was a no brainer that I'd fly home to race it. Linda and I signed up immediately as Team SUPERSTOKED. We'd picked the long course which was made up of approximately 13 miles of running and 5 miles of swimming broken into 13 segments. This would be Linda's first swimrun experience.
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| One of the long course competitors made stickers with the distances of each leg for everyone to use. Look how cute the little cliff-jumping figure is. |
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| Team SUPERSTOKED: masked up at the time trial start for safety. |
As we took off at the 7 am time trial start, I immediately regretted that I'd spent the last six months "exercising" while Linda had spent the time training. I huffed and puffed beside her through the first 2-mile run, and as we entered the first swim of the day in the Colorado River, I realized that I had only one gear for swimming and it was much slower than hers. So I got on her feet and just tried to stay there for the rest of the race.
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Linda and I are running on the left in this picture. I am SUPERSTOKED that our picture made it into a Slowtwitch gallery! Photo by Aaron Palaian.
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We made a good team. We worked our way through the day together, watching the fluttering yellow and orange course markers and only going off course once. We decided to make a "game time" decision at the optional 30-foot cliff jump - we jumped and it was probably the coolest experience of the whole race. We scrambled up rocks and navigated rooty, rocky trails. We entered the swims with joy - it was a warm day and we were grateful for the cool water (62 degrees) on each swim entry. Linda pushed the pace on both the swim and the run, and I gamely followed. I pushed us to move quickly through aid stations and transitions.
Linda dragged me around the course for four hours until she got tired too, and then we cussed our way together to the end of the race for the last half hour. Our middle of the pack finish was so exciting for me that I ran across the finish line and practically tackled one of the race directors, yelling, "Lars! I came in last place at Orcas Island!" to which he charitably replied, "well you're definitely not in last place today."
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| Mom and Dad drove over to cheer (and kept their distance for safety). The last time I saw them in person was for the Kerrville Tri last September, so this was just the most amazing treat at the end of the race. |
Swimrun Austin was the only swimrun event that took place in the United States this year and I'm so grateful that it did. To steal a phrase from the Low Tide Boyz podcast, for the first time in months, for four and a half hours on this race course in Texas, life felt completely normal. It was as if the pandemic and the election and everything else had just been placed on hold for a few hours, and it was exactly what I needed. Now I'm sitting here writing a race report with a full heart after seeing my friends and family in Texas in the familiar environment of an endurance race venue. It can't get much better than that.
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Awesome finisher's sweatshirt that I've now been wearing for 6 days straight.
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