The Wales Swimrun

One thing that is new for 2024 is that Envol is endorsing races around the world that especially capture the community and adventure spirit of swimrun. Coach Nico and I were both keen to do Wales but the epic suffer-fest Rockman got moved to the same date so we needed to take different races. Nicolas would be there and I would be at the Wales Swimrun. 

I liked the look of the format; 6 big seas swims in a 32 km point-to-point format along the Pembroke coast.  The full distance has five sea swims at around one kilometer and the ultimate swim just over two kilometers for a total of 7840m (if you swim straight) and six runs totaling 24160m for a total of 32 kilometers. That is 75.5% running and 24.5% swimming which is a high swim split for most swimrun events. The shorter format race was just over 20 km in total with almost 6km (30%) swimming and 14 km (70%) running.

Note that the shorter course starts on run 3 below with 630m of running then follows the long course.

I particularly enjoy point-to-point racing. The landscape looked amazing and the course that Matthew and his team from Activity Wales Events had charted could hardly fail to make it a great day out. 

Another thing for me in 2024 was a social experiment to experience swimrunning with a wide variety of different partners from complete beginners to World Championship finishers; each with different ambitions, experience levels, and strengths. Relationships are a mirror to our souls and the experience of pairs swimrunning is deeply revealing. Seven races in total; Valras, Utö, Wales, Norrtälje, Juniskär, Västerås and Hydra.

For the Wales Swimrun, I would be racing with Samantha P one of the Envol UK members. We didn’t meet until we got to the race venue so the aptly named Team Envol Blind Date was formed. 

The race HQ is a wonderful harbor village on the south Pembrokeshire coastline. Saundersfoot began life as a few medieval cottages in an ancient forest clearing in Coedrath, meaning Wood Hill, which extended over much of the land between Tenby and Amroth. It became a hunting ground for the Norman Earls of Pembroke. Five hundred years later, Saundersfoot Harbor was built to transport coal from mines in the area and the village grew into a thriving coal port with its abundance of anthracite coal and exported 30,000 tons annually from its harbor. 150 years on, the coal industry vanished and Saundersfoot evolved into the popular seaside resort it is now.

Due to travel logistics, I arrived on Thursday evening after flying into Heathrow and driving the M4 from London into Wales, a drive of just under four hours. With no one around until Friday I was resigned to a quiet pint in the pub and an early night - Welsh hospitality had other ideas, thanks gents, skål.

Friday morning I ran the last run leg in reverse and admired the view across the bay of the 2.1km final swim. I also got to meet the very active local sea swimming community. In the afternoon I met up with Samantha and another Team Envol member Daan who had flown in from Holland. The race brief was in the evening where Matthew and his crew did a great job with the course overview, a dinner, and the bib presentation. I did a talk representing Envol under the somewhat aggrandized title Pro Athlete Talk - it was cool to see so many swimrun first-timers in the hall. Everyone was in great spirits and we were ready for an early night and an even earlier start, with a bus taking the long course athletes to the start at 05:30.

The start shot was at 06:30 so we had a brief window to change, drop bags, and warm-up before toeing the line on the beach. It was time! Tethered up we ran the short distance from the start arch to the sea. I kept to the right, out of the way of most of the racers as we plunged into the crisp clear sea waters. Samantha had said she was more a runner than a swimmer, but I gauged from her slapping my feet that she’d been modest. I put my head down and got swinging. We emerged on the beach after almost 1km of swimming as the first team with a single soloist a few meters in front.

The nature of the coastal path meant that after each swim there was typically a steep climb up the the tops of the cliffs and the rolling path along them. Cold legs didn’t make those steep sections the most elegant part of the runs but once the vertical had been achieved the trails and the views were truly stunning.

After two big swims and halfway through run 3 from Manorbier Beach to Lydstep we could hear the music from the shorter course start where the athletes were getting ready to rock. We came through with some high fives from Dutch Daan and then dropped down to sea level again for swim 3 followed by a long run section from the cliffs then along the beach from Lydstep to Tenby Esplanade, we were moving well.

The next swim to Tenby Castle was on paper the shortest at 870m, but it turned out to be one of the hardest with strong currents halting our progress. During the past run and swim sections we were seeing a pattern emerge with now familiar faces coming past us on the runs and then we leapfrogging them on the next swim. Everyone was enjoying this magical swimrun adventure, the smiles said it all.

After the castle, we ran up through the bustling town of Tenby much to the surprise of the shoppers and pubgoers. Soon after Tenby the nature of the trails changed into more wooded forests with twisting ups and downs. Through the penultimate swim we were getting closer to Saundersfoot Bay and the big swim I was so looking forward to. We were now mixed in with the faster short-course racers as we hit Glen Beach and were pointed at a gray-roofed building in the far distance. 

We submerged for this final push. Samantha wasn’t enjoying the close calls with the jellyfish that passed underneath but so far we managed to avoid most of them. As we approached Wisemans Bridge I could see Daan swimming to our left. He was in second place in his class and he has no intention of letting that go. We beached just behind him and started the 2km run doubling back on ourselves towards Saundersfoot. The sun was out, the people were out, and we were almost there.

We ran down the red-carpeted finishing chute claiming third place in the mixed team class and finishing a few minutes in front of the women's winning team who in turn finished in front of the men’s team winners. We started as strangers but after 5 hours and 16 minutes, we had become friends with a new goal of sub 5 next year. We’d worked out who and when one of us should lead the runs, we’d polished the transitions, we’d had a great race.

We then hung around the finish to welcome in the remaining competitors before regrouping at the Captain Table Pub for the prize ceremony and rehydration. The Activity Wales Events Team of Matthew, Oliver, Sarah, and countless unnamed staff and volunteers managed to very successfully combine a laid-back attitude with the organizational precision of an outfit that has many years of experience. Chapeau, I will be back and recommend it to the highest degree, it’s a special race in a special place.