The Fast & Amphibious

Swimrun races require running in wetsuits and swimming in shoes to cover ground and water quickly – it’s a high-paced parkour race against nature, a true obstacle course against the elements. We took part in the the first one in Africa and we’re hooked. Here’s why you’ll be too.

- Arthur Jones

ICE-CREAM HEADACHES. THE FIRST WORD OF THAT Statement makes you think of creamy, tasty soft serve, but it’s when paired with the second word, it loses all its innocence. These head pains hit you instantly when you hit cold water, and stick around until your body (and mind) adapts. I had my first proper double serving of brain freeze once I hit the frigid waters of Sandy Bay for the first swim of the Torpedo Swimrun, where the temps hovered around 9-degrees.

SWIMRUN INVOLVES, AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, a lot of swimming and running. In a two-man team, without stoppages for transitions, you’re involved from the get-go in a brutal, primal duathlon: scrambling up rocks, beaches and trails and swimming through kelp, rip tides and swells, all without changing your gear. That’s right: you’ll run in a wetsuit, and swim in your shoes, but you’re able to choose smart accessories like a buoy (for added flotation), and hand paddles for extra pull in the water.

The start of this Cape Town-based Torpedo SwimRun (torpedoswimrun.com) was near the top of Suikerbossie, and was broken down roughly into three heats of 25 teams of two. That enforced partnership is for safety reasons, and a helpful motivator too – you’ll need to keep within 10 metres of each other in the water, and 20m on the beach, boulders and trail. The finish for this race was on Clifton’s 4th beach – so as long as you kept the ocean on your left and 12 Apostles on your right, you couldn’t go wrong.