As I was quick to find out while trying to train and stay in shape, living in British Columbia means hills. Going up them, going down them. Many people have heard of the Grouse Grind which is a trail that takes you up Grouse Mountain (rather than taking the gondola).
I haven’t done that one yet, but there is also the Abby Grind in Abbotsford, which is more convenient, since Abbotsford is where I live. I’ve wanted to tackle this one for a while but I waited till I didn’t have the Cultus Lake Triathlon on the horizon. This weekend was my chance, especially since the weather was nice and dry.
The trail starts off steep, which is good preparation for what is to come. There are few flat or even gradual stretches to give you relief from climbing. And don’t count on stairs or ladders to make things easier either. There were times I don’t think I made more than 10 feet of elevation progress before I wanted to catch my breath. I did appreciate the signs marking the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks.
Progress Markers
There’s at least one good lookout before the top, but I think it was before the 1/4 mark, so there’s plenty of time to wish you were at the top.
There were plenty of people of all ages, shapes and sizes making their way up and down the trail, so that’s encouraging to anyone who wants to try it; one just has to take one’s time. There aren’t a lot of markers to reassure you that you’re going the right way, but the trail is always obvious, and the right way is to go is up. Eventually of course, you’re treated to the glory of making it to the top and enjoying the view.
Going down seems easier at first, but I slipped a few times in the dust. I avoided falling on my butt, however my recovery was probably more dangerous since I ended up correcting by taking some steps forward onto uncertain footing and could have pitched downhill. I thought I spent roughly an hour going up and a half hour coming back down, but Strava makes it look like it was roughly equal time in each direction. I’d like to repeat the challenge again in a few months or maybe the new year.
Has anyone heard of the Ski-to-Sea relay race? It’s a relay from the top of Mount Baker to Bellingham Bay, done in seven different legs: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, running, road bike, canoe, cyclocross/gravel bike, and sea kayak. I heard about it (or at least, a now defunct Canadian version) years ago and had it on my bucket list, but I realized last year that now I live close enough to give this a try without having to spring for airfare and shipping equipment.
I’m not in shape to try it the next iteration, so I figured I’d start trying to build a team for **next** year, that is, May of 2026. A team needs to be from 3 to 8 people (less than 3 is logistically impossible anyway). The link to the event site is here: https://skitosea.com/
Each leg of the race has some details that one should be clear on – for example, the downhill ski portion has a climb so it would be best for someone with backcountry ski gear for climbing. Stand-up paddleboards are not allowed on the canoe or sea kayak portion. No aerobars are allowed on the road bike portion. I’ll examine each leg and rate how plausible it is for me to be a candidate for completing that leg as part of a team.
Leg 1: Cross-Country Skiing (Length: 6km)
Cross-country skiing is one of my favourite sports (check the receipts!). I’ve been doing it since I could walk, and the distance isn’t too onerous. The terrain will probably be tough (intermediate to advanced according to the description) and being the first leg means getting up extra early for various logistical reasons. I just got some new skis this year so I can work on my skating (which is banned during the first 100 yards of the race), so this feels like an area I can shine in.
Plausibility: High
Leg 2: Downhill Ski/Snowboard (Length: 4km)
This sounds like a no-brainer, but unfortunately, there is a portion where you must climb to the top of a hill – over 1000 feet of elevation gain! I thought this required climbing skins and back-country skis, but according to this year’s rules that kind of equipment isn’t allowed. So I guess it’s just a matter of toughing it out in heavy ski boots, and the rest is all downhill, literally.
Plausibility: Medium
Leg 3: Running (Length: 13km)
13 km is beyond my current running endurance, but it is something I could train up to. Mountainous terrain (though it is a road run course) adds extra challenge. The problem is, in a group of 3-8 people which the relay demands, running is one I imagine most people would want to have for themselves.
Plausibility: Medium
Leg 4: Road Bike (Length: 66km)
Seems simple enough for a triathlete, right? It’s even a net downhill! However! Aero-bars are only allowed in the competitive division, so I’d be riding my old road bike might be the better option. There are also no course markers, so having a good familiarity with navigating the course is important. Last year my son and I failed to complete a 50 km bike ride due to some wrong turns on a fundraiser, so that shakes my confidence a little.
Plausibility: Medium
Leg 5: Canoe (Length: 30km)
I know how to canoe, but I don’t have one in BC, and I don’t relish getting strong enough to complete this leg. It is completed in a team of 2, which further complicates training.
Plausibility: Low
Leg 6: Cyclocross (Length: 18km)
I’ve flirted with Cyclocross a little, and always wanted to get a Cross bike. Even if I didn’t, a Mountain bike can be used.
Plausibility: High
Leg 7: Sea Kayak (Length: 8km)
While I don’t have a kayak in BC, I’d be willing to consider getting one and possibly training myself up for this event. Still, getting time on larger bodies of water might be difficult.
Plausibility: Low
The Hidden Event: Logistics
The ideal team has 8 people – one for each event, except canoeing which has 2. This has the simplest implementation, since everyone on the team has one starting line they have to be at (on time), and one event to be competent enough to finish. I think it might take a little of the ‘multi-sport’ fun out of it, though. Any fewer team members (to a minimum of 3) and somebody has to shuttle between events after finishing a leg. The race demands certain road closures, and getting equipment and bodies moved around will take several vehicles (they list 3 vehicles for the 8 racer scenario).
Recruiting and managing an 8-person team has to be challenging too – ensuring everyone is trained, equipped, and informed is a serious bit of management/leadership.
If anyone reading this wants to join a team with me, drop a comment or reach out online. I might start recruiting in local Facebook groups in 2025.
I had hoped to do the Vancouver Triathlon this year, but by the time I got around to bringing up the registration page, it was sold out (I learned later, that transfers are actually allowed, which wasn’t the case when I lived in Ontario). So I signed up for my third time of the Sprint distance at the Cultus Lake Triathlon. I’m nothing if not a creature of habit.
I mentioned in last year’s report that Dynamic Events runs a really tight ship with lots of verifying that athlete’s have their I’s dotted and T’s crossed, so I wised up a little by buying my annual membership in Triathlon BC. That way, I was able to show my membership card (or at least a digital version I had saved on my phone) and get my race kit in short order on the Saturday. I also left my bike in transition on Saturday to have one less thing to manage on Sunday morning.
Swim
I got in the water a little behind the crowd, and as they wanted to keep their schedule, they started the countdown before I had gotten in up to my waist. I think I lost 30 seconds to a minute from the gun start before I crossed the finish line. There were many first-timers according to an informal ‘hands-raised’ poll before the start, and it showed in terms of the early swim melee. One guy was doing a backstroke, which I do recommend if you’re panicked or not feeling up to a faster stroke, but is terrible for navigating through a crowd.
A few times I saw an opening and tried to ‘sprint’ swim to spots where there would be less crowding, but somehow, I struggled to recover my breathing after these bursts. I felt well trained in swimming this season, as I had gotten plenty of open-water swims in, so I wonder if the wetsuit (which I didn’t train much in) somehow affects my breath control. All through the race there were collisions, it only improved marginally after the first few hundred meters. Still, I finished in good time – 19:42.
Bike
I really enjoyed the bike this year. I passed, I got passed, but overall I felt like I had a good speed for the majority of the time. The big hill climbs were tough, but for a BC bike course, I find this to be a pretty forgiving one. I did lose my chain after a turn, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if not for the fact that I have a chain catcher – not only did this not prevent the chain from falling off, it made it a lot harder to get back on. I figure I could have lost as much as 4-5 minutes due to this mechanical problem. Time: 49:34
Run
I came out of the second transition feeling pretty strong with the idea that I was moving at a good clip. That didn’t last though. The run course has the most subtle incline on the way out, but the good news is you notice the downhill once you hit the second turn around. I had the good fortune of being told when we only had 1.3km left by someone who had a tracker, and I shared that info with a woman who had caught up to me. We ran side by side for a stretch, and when we figured we had less than a kilometre to go, I explained the German concept of Endspurt to her (a burst of speed toward the end that you can magically manage because of your hope to be finished), then I demonstrated it.
Time: 35:32.
Conclusions/Lessons Learned
Total time: 1:52:50. I blew away last year’s time of 2:12:09, but 2023 me was faster still with 1:44:41. The only real improvement I made was my T2 transition, which I shaved a few seconds off. I do feel that if I hadn’t gotten a late start on the swim (because I detoured to get a good luck kiss from my wife – totally worth it!) I might have had a better swim time (19:03 vs 19:42). Bringing my bike in for a pre-race tune-up might have saved me the problem of the chain popping off, and might have resulted in a faster bike time (47:45 vs 49:34 = 1:49 difference, well below what I estimate the delay was). Where I could really use some improvement is taking my wetsuit off in T1. I thought about taking the timing chip off my ankle to make it easier, but I heard a horror story earlier in the day about someone who left theirs behind. I didn’t want that to be me. On the bike I passed a lot of people who swam without wetsuits; I’ve always sworn that the speed increase a wetsuit gives you makes up for the time lost taking it off, but maybe I need to re-visit that.
I found my older medals in my bag, and I’m really happy to have three-peated this event.
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Beggars can’t be choosers, I always say. Between wanting to train up for the 2025 Cultus Lake Triathlon (the Vancouver Triathlon was sold out before I got my act together), and wanting to swim 10k in August to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society (please consider donating), I knew I had to start getting some open water training in – my pool sessions from earlier in the season weren’t going to cut it.
Training in the Havel in Northern Berlin, proved challenging however – there’s lots of boat traffic, including river cruises, and the weeds grow thick and right up to the surface.
I used to track swims with a Garmin watch, but between keeping track of the charging cable and software reinstallations, I just can’t be bothered anymore. I felt I didn’t need that many serious metrics for most training tracking and I could get by with my phone for biking and running; but what about swimming?
I decided to look into wearing my phone in a waterproof pouch that would rest on my back, hopefully near the surface.
The pouch has 3 ziplock seals on it that are then folded over each other. I can say it did a good job protecting my phone, but I’m not so sure the tracking worked well.
I mean, I know I don’t swim perfectly straight, but that’s a little ridiculous. My wife began to worry about getting caught in the weeds and the boat traffic, so I opted to look into buying a swim buoy. I found one that could also house the phone.
I had hopes that with the tether attached to the underside of the inflatable buoy the phone would stay on top and thus track distance perfectly. Unfortunately the weight of the phone made the buoy flip upside down and the pouch was facing downward. I opted to flip it back upright at every turn-around to guarantee the location would be tracked at end points.
Looks like the location tracking worked better, but that moving time measurement is completely bogus – each of these swims was 20 min. I do recommend using a device like this though, as a just in case you get tired floation device in addition to making you more visible to boats or loved ones spotting you from shore.
Abbotsford has several multi-use trails they label ‘Discovery Trail’, but since there are several, shouldn’t they comprise one network? The answer was never obvious from the trail entrances, but there is a website and a map:
Still, I had struggled to really understand how it could be used to cross from one end of town to the other. Until I made a concerted effort this July to get across town. Because I knew some sections were gravel, I opted to take my mountain bike. Having a gravel bike (my next bike – the correct number of bikes to own is the number you have plus one), would have been ideal.
I wore my Shokz Open SwimbPro Bone Conduction headphones to provide music for the long ride. I filled my hydration pack with a water/electrolyte mix and I set off to find the entrance to the first Discovery Trail West of Whatcom Rd.
Scenery/Musical Highlights
The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ came on as I rode into an open field “Out here in the fields… I fight for my meals.”
“Out here in the fields”
On the way home, I had to do a lot of climbing. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” was playing (I guess I had a Classic Rock soundtrack for this ride). Most of the song (I’m sure you’re familiar) is slow and plodding, but right before the monster guitar solo, the singer says “Won’t you fly, Free Bird…” and that was the moment I crested a hill and started coasting down a well-deserved downhill run.
Challenges
One of the things that has kept me from being able to pursue this little project is the boardwalk West of the Abbotsford-Mission Highway has been in disrepair until this spring. I’m so glad they’ve fixed it and I’ve used it for some trail runs already. It crosses a beautiful marshy area.
Crossing the Highway itself is also a challenge – there isn’t a good crossing that is on the way, my best solution was to cross at McCallum and ride on the shoulder on the wrong side of the road until I could turn off toward the trail.
Whenever the trails peter out and you have to transition to a road, it’s good to have done your research to know which road will keep you on route to the next trail entrance. I didn’t leverage this website, but maybe I should have.
Since it’s an out-and-back, getting to the end was the climax, and then I had the long (and net uphill) ride back to look forward to, and most of it was the same scenery.
Nature Highlights
I saw 2 snakes (probably garter snakes) on the ride – it was a sunny day, and I think they enjoyed the heat. There was also a moment where I could swear a dragonfly was trying to race me – it flew alongside me for a few hundred meters.
I helped myself to some blueberries when my energy was lowThe trail led through a cemetaryRiding Selfie
I’m looking forward to doing this ride again in the future – perhaps even extending it.
We loved our previous trip to Japan so much, we decided to go back for more (and yet also something different) again in 2025.
Arrival – Kyoto
We hadn’t had a lot of time to pre-plan our entire agenda, so we chose the Kyoto Granbell Hotel again as for our first night. We had taken an Haruka trian from the Osaka Kansai International Airport to Kyoto, and immediately crashed (me, my wife, and the Lightning Kid) in a large bed.
I love starting my mornings with an Onsen (public bath) to feel relaxed. We started our day with an exploration of the Maruyama Shrine. We tried to be respectful of the space, and ended the tour with a quiz conducted by a local group who were promoting the concept of ‘touristship’ – a blend of friendship and tourism.
We went for lunch to a pancake which was delicious and decadent. After that, I “pig cafe” where you could pet pigs. Mine tried to bite me so I didn’t love that experience too much.
The next day we visited a Samurai/Ninja museum.
We also enjoyed a couples spa with stretching, scalp and regular massage.
Our final day in Kyoto had a lesson in Japanese archery. In Japanese archery (Kyodo or Kyujutsu) there are five steps:
1. face perpendicular to the target
2. turn head toward the target
3. raise the bow overhead (with one hand on the bow, the other on the string)
4. lower the bow into drawing position
5. release
The instructor kept telling me to view the target from “outside” with my viewpoint left of the bow rather than looking down the shaft. I found that hard, and my best shots had me seemingly aiming well below and to the left of the target.
Sapporo
We flew to the Northern Island of Japan, Hokkaido, to see parts of Japan we hadn’t experienced before and to escape the heat. We found Peach Air to be a low-cost no-frills airline that still worked efficiently and comfortably.
We visited a Chocolate Factory called Shiroi Koibito Park, their specialty is a cookie layered with White Chocolate. The tour had a whimsical fantasy element not unlike Willy Wonka, and the Lightning Kid got to take a baking lesson.
Getting cleaned up to go into the kitchen
While one of Hokkaido’s tourist draws are Lavender fields in Furano, it felt wasteful to take a bus tour way out of town just to look at flowers – we found out about a field more local to Sapporo that had a lovely view of the city, and we even got a free ride to the top of the hill from some kind strangers who didn’t think walking was plausible (I think we’d have been fine – after all, we live near the Rockies).
Lavender Fields
The next day we had a longer excursion planned. We took a bus tour to the Shakotan Penninsula, we had some small stops in Yoichi in the beginning and the Chocolate Factory again on the way back, but the real highlight was Cape Kamui – the ocean lookouts feature the ‘Shakotan Blue’ of the ocean. See below.
Shakotan Blue – From Cape Kamui and the Shakotan Penninsula
The next day we left Sapporo to travel to Hakodate, but we made a pit stop in Noboribetsu and the ‘Hell Valley’. Natural Sulphur springs gave rise to demons and other underworld influences. There are many statues to illustrate what kinds of demons you might encounter, and the Sulphur lake was other-worldly.
Demon Father & SonA foot washing station A trivia question on the trail
After a long hike around the crater, we stopped into the oldest public Onsen in a town full of them (the natural springs make for a great bathing experience). We got to experience waterfalls, sulfur baths, aluminum baths, sodium baths, some hot, some cold and altogether had a great period of relaxation.
In Hakodate, we enjoyed a sea urchin lunch, a trip to the Red Brick district shopping area (with a pit-stop to play with Lego), a Harbour Cruise and a Cable Car to the top of Mount Hakodate.
LegoView from Mt Hakodate
Our quest to find a beach in Hakodate the next day came up somewhat empty, as the signs said swimming was prohibited; but at least we got a massage in on our last day.
The next day was devoted to traveling back to Osaka to prepare for our flight home. Though leaving Japan was sad, we had an exciting summer to look forward to.
I’d been wanting to combine an excursion to downtown Abbotsford with a road cycling training ride for a while. Before I committed to executing the ride, I made sure to scout out the route beforehand to look for obstacles, challenges, problems, etc.
Marshall Road has a nice 2-way dedicated bike lane, but I did have challenges with Amazon delivery vehicles blocking it, and it ends right as the downtown area really starts in earnest. By the time I got to the area with the most interesting shops and businesses, I was walking my bike (in bike shoes). On the positive side, I rode along Gladys Road without having any cars to contend with and noticed some bunny rabbits that ran alongside me (instead of perpendicularly away from me) as I rode.
I had scouted out where I was going to park my bike and what I was going to eat when I reached my destination, so 2 weeks later all I had to do was make sure I was prepared. I packed my Salomon hydration pack with a U-Lock and sandals to walk around in. Of course, I also filled the hydration bladder with water and electrolyte powder.
One of the things that had annoyed me on my initial scouting ride is there seemed to be no way nicely cross Highway 11 – Sumas Way. On this attempt, I turned North after the Marshall Bike lanes ended and thought the map was showing me a secret trail. That ended up being a dead end, so I used the bridge over Old Yale.
After that, I had a pretty easy way into the downtown core, and I parked and locked my bike under the supervision of 3 upstanding Abbotsford citizens.
I took the time to do a little shopping at the Spruce Collective – I grabbed an Abbotsford keychain, a magnetic poetry kit and some post-cards (I’ve taken up post-card writing as a little hobby – old school correspondence for the win!).
The ride home was tedious, not only because I crossed Hwy 11 the hard way (dismounting and crossing a multi-lane roadway as a pedestrian), but also because it was a net uphill, and my hydration supply had gotten luke warm in the summer heat.
Still, I’m proud of the accomplishment, and had a nice little excursion.
I chose to co-write this blog with my son, the Lightning Kid, whose exploits you can see on his YouTube Channel.
On Sunday, May 25th, 2025, my mother, father and I went to the Run For Water. My dad and I ran the 5km. Before the race, I pet a lot of dogs. My dad was focused on his phone. We went to the start, but we were at the back of the crowd. We started running and saw my mom on the sidewalk.
After we passed some trees, we took a break because I had a stitch. We did the rest of the 5 kilometers going slowly with walk breaks. I tried to speed walk. It wasn’t too hard and it wasn’t too easy – it was in the middle. We saw a drone in the sky a couple of times.
I sprinted so fast at the finish line that I beat my dad. We got medals at the finish line. I had my picture take with water jugs. After that we went to Table Bistro for brunch.
If you have never run a race like this, you should close your eyes and imagine you are playing soccer and running after the ball, but there is no ball.
I had a Kobo eReader, but I bought the Libra Colour for 3 reasons:
1.) You can use it to take notes, and the onboard OCR (optical character recognition) will digitize the note for upload, copy/paste and search.
2.) The colour screen would let me read comic books, I mean graphic novels.
3.) It’s waterproof. That means reading/writing in a hot bath, a cold bath or the hot tub.
In fact, in regards to #1 and#3, the entire preceding text was written in the sauna.
I’ve never really been one to track my swim sessions with a lot of accuracy; I’m just not that hard-core obsessive about it.
I downloaded a Swim Log PDF from Etsy and uploaded it to the Libra, then packed it in my swim bag during a recent training session.
After each set, I was able to jot down the details, especially time, and have a record of each set.
Of course, there are some drawbacks:
Now I’ve edited the original file, so to have a blank log for next time I have to overwrite the file on the eReader from the original download.
I can’t export the file from the eReader to the cloud. I couldn’t even find the file when I connected it to my computer via USB. There is a “Sync To Dropbox” button, but the edited file doesn’t seem to show up anywhere in the account. From what I can tell, the imported PDF is neither a “Notebook” nor a “Book” which I can annotate and export those annotations.
The records stay on the screen, within the eReader. I would have to transcribe them to paper notebook, spreadsheet or app to have a record of the training session elsewhere.
Well, the first weekend of May was a busy one. We stayed in downtown Vancouver while my eldest went to a gymnastics competition on the Saturday, then a training camp on the Sunday. The Lightning Kid had an ultrasound at BC Children’s hospital, then on Sunday he auditioned (successfully!) for Vancouver Kids Fashion Week.
My big adventure was probably the Canaqua Sports MudSkipper Swim Run “Ice Cracker” Try It” event.
So, swimruns are events where you swim with shoes on and exit the water and start running immediately, without a transition of any kind. Everything you need for swimming or running must be on your body. I’ve been curious about this for a while, and I got so curious that I bought a pair of Solomon tech amphibians in anticipation of the event, after having tried to do a little swimming with a pair of Vibram Barefoot shoes – that attempt did not seem promising. The purchase was made in a bout of stress-related retail therapy, but sometimes buying something will prompt you into taking the plunge into a new venture so you can retroactively justify the purchase.
Swimrun seemed like a natural fit for me, since it’s an outdoor multisport endurance event, and it even takes out the biking from triathlon, which is probably my least favourite discipline. The Ice Cracker event was the first of the season and promised the coldest water temperatures, but since I play around with cold plunges and cold therapy and I have a killer wetsuit, I was less intimidated by that part.
What I was intimidated by was the technical aspects and the overall distance. Most of the events are described in total distance, so how much of it is swimming and how much is running seemed to be up in the air. The “try-It” event was a great idea for me, because it would give me a taste of it without me putting in too much extra training time to get up to swims more than 1km.
Due to the Vancouver Marathon occurring that same morning, we had some trouble navigating our way out of Vancouver, and when we got to Belcarra Regional Park, we couldn’t find the race site. Luckily, Chris the on-site race director was available and responsive by text, so we found ourselves at the race site with a small number of brave souls, many of whom were there for a pure open-water swim race (no running).
The pre-race briefing made it clear that it would be a 900m swim followed by a 2.6km run around Lake Sassamat for the total of 3.5km. I would rather that swim had been broken into 2 legs of 450m with a run between them because I think that represents the swimrun experience better, especially at higher levels (the other swimrun events were 6.5 and 13km) and also because I wasn’t confident about finishing 900m at a respectable pace.
The longer swimruns went in the first waves, whereas the Try-It athletes started with the open-water swimmers. I have to say, swimming with shoes is like torture. It’s common for swimrun athletes to use a pull-buoy and hand paddles (this is legal) so that their legs are inactive but floating while they get extra pull from the hand paddles. My wetsuit always ensures my lower body is floating, and I didn’t like the idea of the extra strain on my shoulders by using hand paddles for the whole race – I only train with them for 100-200m at a time. You’re also responsible for carrying everything with you on the run, so I didn’t want to do that.
The swim course was triangular with the leg to the first buoy probably being well over half the total distance. Nowhere did I feel slower due to the drag of the shoes than going around the buoys. The open water swimmers had left us way behind, but I thought I was in second of the swimrun athletes doing the Try-It Course. It was a beautiful day, and the water temperature had been reported at 16.5 degrees Celsius. I was worried about my hands getting cold, but I hadn’t thought about my face! I stopped noticing the cold, or got warmed up after 200-300m.
When I reached the swim exit, there were no other swimmers exiting the water, so I gently clambered over the rocks to the trail. One of the volunteers warned me about “swim brain,” and sure enough, I felt a little off-balance on my first few steps. Once that cleared, I was on my way. The Techamphibians did fine on the trail, which was gravel in parts, but in others, a regular hiking trail with roots, rocks, etc. I had tested them out on a short run or two beforehand. Swimming with them counts as breaking the “nothing new on race day rule”, but the upper mesh ensured water drained out so I wasn’t sloshing around as I ran. They felt almost like sandals, but slightly more supportive. I did notice a lack of cushioning when I went over the cement “Float Walk” that spans the southern tip of the lake (people use it to fish off of), but for trail-running, they are reasonably suitable – overall, I’m pretty happy with my purchase.
I had taken off my swim cap and held it in my hand to stay cool, and I unzipped the back of my wetsuit, but I was reluctant to take off the top part for cooling, as that’s not what a swimrun athlete would do if they had another swim leg to look forward to. I think managing your pace to not overheat might be a fundamental part of the sport, at least if you wear a wetsuit. I felt the heat the most when exposed to the sun on the Float Walk. Eventually, I did take off the top part of the suit, not only for cooling, but my arm was itching something awful.
When I had rounded most of the lake and saw a beach, I thought I was done, but it turns out there are two beaches, so I did have to gut it out a little further.
I only got passed once on foot, which was by a bone-dry couple out on a fun/training run, not part of the Swimrun. So at the end I figured I had finished second. Not so, I was second last.
I’m a little unsure if I want to pursue this sport further. I have to get up to longer distances in both swim and run anyway, so maybe it’ll make sense to try a longer one that will expose me to the ins and outs (literally, in and out of the water) of swimrun.
