There is no mention of a bike in the writing of this Report!
So what is this Swim Run? Breca Buttermere is an epic swimrun race across some of the UK’s most stunning and rugged wilderness – the Western Fells of the Lake District. Over 17 consecutive legs, teams of two will complete a total of 6km of lake swimming and 38km of trail running, including 1,900m of vertical ascent and the infamous Honister Pass.
So at about lunchtime on the Friday, I met up with Kev at the airport and first thing on our minds was food. Both of us are training for Ironman later this year and food is never too far from the top of the agenda. We were flying into Manchester a nice short flight and then 2/3 hour drive from there to Buttermere. We were allowing ourselves plenty of time to get sorted and luckily so as Kev announced he had no socks with him. I had the misfortune of not using socks on the run in Mallorca 70.3 and quite simply said, “We need to get you socks”. While we were hit with terrible traffic on the main motorway, it gave us time to find a retail park with sports direct and luckily picked up blister socks. The good news there was also a number of food options, so decided a good time to load up.
The drive from Manchester was mostly motorway until we took our turn off for Buttermere. We were presented with rolling, climbing hills/mountains, rugged greenery and sporadic brown headed sheep along the way – this was our first introduction to the landscape we were going to have to navigate the following morning. I say navigate as while the course was going to be marked out with saw dust arrows, it was compulsory to have a map, compass and whistle. In fairness, the scenery was breathtaking, waterfalls, lakes, streams and valleys – our home for the next 2 days. After a beer we decided to call it a night and get some sleep. Kev was on top 😉
After a restless enough night, a 4 bed dorm, with creaking bunks our next stop was the bio-security checks and registration. We registered with no issues as we had all the kit – wetsuit, clean shoes, and mandatory equipment including a waterproof bandage. We went downstairs for breakfast and started eyeing up the some of the other teams. There was a good mix of your typical outdoors type, fit looking b*stards, Runners & Triathletes with a few normal people thrown in for good mix…. We were Ironmen, we’d be grand!!
There was a good buzz in the hostel and unusual how calm you can be with plenty of time on your hands. Start time was 10AM a bit more forgiving than your normal Triathlon, where you can be up in the middle of the night trying to digest a breakfast you no more want for the day ahead of you.
For the race we had to be self-sufficient and apart from 2 gels each, caffeine tablets (to be taken at about the 30k mark) we were reliant on the well-stocked aid stations. I forgot to mention this race needed to be completed carrying/wearing everything I’ve mentioned and this meant running/climbing in our wetsuit and swimming in our runners – another thing to consider as you train.
THE RACE
There was calming Café Del Mar type music building up to the start. At 10AM and to Guns & Roses “Welcome to the Jungle…” the race Director opened the gate and we were off. No real warning and all of a sudden we were like a herd of cows squeezing through a swung open gate.
Everybody was in great form with high spirits as we were running down the first 600M to the first swim leg. We both said we were out to enjoy this and use it as a BIG training day, looking after each other and not doing anything stupid, keeping each other in tow. The water was cold, but as we are triathlete’s just got on with it. The water conditions throughout all the swims varied in temperature and welcomed on some legs, yet dreaded on others. The water for most of the swims was just so clear and practically drinkable.
We climbed out after 600m and started running, I think we picked up a number of places but we kept ourselves in check, reminding ourselves that this was going to be a long day. The 2nd swim was on us, this time across Crummock Water, the wind had picked up quite strongly and the water was actually quite choppy. Running down to the 2nd swim, we thrashed through reeds and at this point Kev was behind me and had the luck to see me practically go up to my waist in what can only be described as a combination of mud, bog & sheep shit – I just wanted to make sure my runners didn’t come off as I had never signed up for bog snorkeling. This was going to be a long day……but it did give the Beades lad a laugh (if only these moments could be caught on camera). For most of the swims, I was doing the sighting and halfway across the lake, we found ourselves scrabbling over some rocks with some bemusement. This must have looked ridiculous to onlookers from the shore.
For the longer runs we had said we would strip our wetsuits down to our waist and started that process of removing our bibs unzipping the wetsuit, when somebody said it’s only a short run and no need. Next stage was a 5.7k run with just shy of 200m climb – don’t listen to anybody and go with your own plan as this confused us a bit. We were reduced to walking quite quickly, hands pushing off knees, calf muscles on fire. The hill turned into a rocky staircase hewn out of the mountain itself and we dragged ourselves up, pausing only to see the lake we’d just swam in far below us and a steady stream of swimmers still making their way across.
We reached the summit scrambling over some rocks to stay on the track, sheer drops down to our right kept us focused. At this stage I’m thinking this is not a normal trail run and we needed to concentrate on descents and give the route the respect it needed – we needed to be very careful.
Enjoying the run we made it down to the first checkpoint (FOOOOOODDDD) and we entered the 3rd swim. This was one of the two longest 1k efforts. This was a nice swim section, crystal clear water again and what felt to be warmer than the 3 previous swims. Since it was a longer swim, it gave us plenty of time to get into a nice stride/pace. There was times Beades thought he was in a triathlon sprint and I had to drop back to reign the young lad in. Given the remoteness, there was still great support as we exited the water. All around the course there was walkers, hikers, locals and enthusiastic volunteers that cheered us on. We must have surprised a few of them running round in wetsuits though, but we had at least embraced and mastered that look on Howth head, scaring the bejaysus out of tourists out for a leisurely hike (let’s not talk about the seals)
The longest run of the course (12.8k) was easy in elevation compared to other sections, call it undulating with a couple of tricky navigational patches but we kept it ticking over nicely. I’d love to know how many gates we actually climbed and opened over the course of the day. We got an absolute biblical shower here and at one point considered putting on my goggles to see where I was going.
By the time we got back down to the next swim, it was pretty rough weather again. There was a bit of chop on the water and the swim exit 800m away looked a long way off. Once we got out here we were into a series of short runs and short swims. A bit of concentration was needed here as we were constantly putting on/taking off our paddles, adjusting the pull buoy, goggles on/off etc. We were onto the last long 1 KM swim. On entry one of the marshals said it wasn’t the last long swim, a bit disheartened we lost a bit of concentration here as thought we might have misjudged the course/route.
During the swim, I was feeling it and was hitting a bit of a low as this swim felt a lot longer than what we expected for a shorter route. There was a check point here, the final one before the climb up Dale Head to the infamous Honister Pass. We had made it to the other side and the Marshall was like, “well done, that’s the last 1K swim”, only 1 more swim. This gave us a great lift and dived into the aid station, eating everything practically at once – I tried everything and it was AMAZING!!! The volunteer here was in great form and gave us another lift we needed before starting what would be the hardest section of the course (at this stage 30K in). At this point we took the caffeine tablets as all we could do was look up to what was in front of us (800M vertical trail ascent). We didn’t even take down our wetsuits as we were that cold. I think it was here the 2 of us were a bit delirious and found it funny we were talking to each other like our mouths were slightly paralyzed, to the point where Kev threw himself into the surrounding ferns to lie down (the first sign he is actually human!!!)
The view back down to Lake Buttermere was pretty cool, and as the climb started to level out a bit we could see that we were only half way up. The winds started picking up as we got closer to the ridge, it was a struggle to stay on your feet at times and as we got closer to the top the heavens opened up. Visibility had dropped to less than 10m and we were being whipped with hailstones. It must have been at least 10° colder up here. We’d already put our swim hats back on for warmth and we were really concentrating on locating the saw dust arrow markers. The briefing had said that if we were likely to get lost on course, it would be here. As people were sheltering behind rocks and I was waiting to hear the rescue helicopter, Kevin roars out “IS THIS ALL YOU CAN THROW AT US??? CMON!” Yeah funny now, but I kid you not over a week later and I still have a bit of tingling in my arms.
After a couple of mountainous ups and downs we reached the Cairn that had been mentioned in the safety briefing and we knew we had to head south from there down to the quarry – a steep descent which we mostly walked as our quads at this stage were SCREAMING. To us it just was not runnable especially with prehistoric jagged rocks sticking out all over the place. As we approached the quarry we could see a tent at the bottom and the marshals were waving madly at us, this was the final checkpoint. I wanted Jelly Babies, but as my hands were too numb, I couldn’t get a handful. The marshals offered to scoop them out for me and said it was nothing to be ashamed of being hand fed. Laughing I was like “No, I can do this” and managed to scoop them out like I was trying to hold water. The weather had thrown everything at us but we knew that it was all downhill to the end now. The next 4 or 5k was along a winding Tarmac road. Although our runners were not made for running on the road we got into a nice enjoyable steady pace and actually felt good. Our endurance training was really paying off here.
Cars, Buses & Random people along here were all waving and cheering. This was a 10k section and it must have taken us close to 2 hours. I was actually looking forward to getting back in the water! We hit the final swim, 400m and had no paddles here. They were ditched as we needed our hands to climb, hold onto the fence going up the pass. We entered the water with another team who had paddles and we cruised. I’ll admit I got a little competitive here and got into a nice stroke with Kev on my feet. Yep we took them and then on the exit had our sights on another few teams ahead of us on the trail. Chip Chip Chip…
The final trail run alongside Buttemere lake was beautiful. We were very much above the water. The path entered a rocky tunnel, it was pitch black and we were shouting and whooping, purely as I was a bit disorientated and might smack of the side of a wall. There is a light at the end of the tunnel……
As we were chipping along taking the last team out in our sights we went wrong. That didn’t stop us bouncing up the last hill and as we were rounding the final corner (the wrong way) the Youth hostel was in sight. The Breca flags that marked the finish line were flapping in the wind and cheers went up as we came into the driveway. We gave each other a manly hug and welcomed the beers, finisher medals we were presented with after 7 hours and 30 minutes. We were relieved and still a bit in shock as to what we had done. Overall we were 24th, not bad considering the specific training we had done. We had well exceeded our targets of being somewhere in the middle of the original entry list of 100 teams and of course a bonus not dying.
Post race
We hung around outside to cheer in the next couple of teams before heading in to get warm and dry. Along the route at some point somebody mentioned they wanted a burger and a few beers. This was clearly stuck in my mind and wandered down to the only other pub in the village and had exactly that followed by warm sticky toffee pudding and a few wife beaters!
We chatted to a few other teams all of which reflecting on what they had achieved in a truly amazing event. Speaking to the Race Director we’ve summed it up as a ¾ Ironman. All in all, spectacular scenery, great encouragement, support and really well organized. I have to say….now….one of the best/hardest events I’ve ever done. My legs gave me the cold shoulder for a few days, but now speaking to me again. Would I do another one? Yes….sure we have a PB to chase! 😉 I think its key you do it with somebody who is in the same frame of mind as you (Slightly NUTS). If you can’t laugh at them, them laughing at you and accept it….it could go wrong. I had an amazing experience, experiencing mostly highs with a few lows, but never once wanted to give up or hit that wall. Maybe another factor – having a team mate you don’t want to let them down either. I will point out for all that know him Kevin Beades is human (well half), he’ll admit it… IT HURT!!
Check it out, there are 2 more events this year and would highly recommend you parking the bike for a day. There’s an option for a shorter distances if the longer endurance distance doesn’t suit your training. http://www.brecaswimrun.co.uk/
Some Tips:
Like Minded Team Mate, same level in Run/Swim if possible
Train on similar terrain as the course (we completely underestimated this)
Training as much together as you can (our Ironman training took priority but helped us with the endurance/distance).
Use colorful paddles, socks/calve guards, goggles to help identify your partner easier in the swim leg – and you do have the option of being tied together for these legs.
Caffeine Tablets – gave us a kick when we needed it/easy to carry
Fuel up well the day before – we ate enough for a team of 6
COMMENTS