The best way to describe Team Germany’s 2024 OneWater race is that we were disappointed in the result, but satisfied with the experience.
Our first opportunity to come together as a team was 6 days out from the start. Throughout the year we spent many hours communicating through text and Zoom calls, but it wasn’t until the week before where we could train together. With all the communication leading in, we were able to gel rather quickly and get a good feel for each other’s strengths.
The days leading into the race proved to be challenging as Isabella came down with an illness. Our ability to even start the race remained in question up until 24 hours out, as we were waiting to see if her illness would subside. Finally, the day before the race, her fever cleared and we got the green light to start.
Due to our lack of experience, we wanted to stay conservative with our pacing. Our goal was to limit the amount of swimming and spend as much time on land as possible. As we navigated through the first few CPs it was becoming apparent that our pace was not the same as the other teams. What started as 25 min deficit at CP 1, quickly turned into more than 2hrs by CP4.
The wind played a big factor throughout the race. There was a consistent headwind that made some of the swims relatively challenging. When the water is rough, it not only makes it difficult for the team in the water, but also less efficient for the support crew on the boat. There were several sections where getting sea sick could have been a real possibility, but we managed to fare pretty well.
The water temperatures were manageable, for the most part. Having multiple options of neoprene layers made it easy to add or subtract depending on how we were feeling. Going into the night, we all added our full wetsuit on top of our Swimrun suit, which provided enough insulation. Conserving body heat was key in managing our energy balance.
For nutrition, we planned and over planned. We had enough gels, chews, and carbohydrate mix to fuel the entire race. But we also brought freeze dried meals and other solid foods to mix it up. Overall, the fueling and hydration was the area that we executed the best. Angelus, our boat support crew, was always prepared to hand us our next meal, warm drink, caffeine or carbohydrate.
As we entered into the first night, it was clear that we were falling behind on our pace. We reached CP5 going into the dark of night and we headed straight into “hell island”. On paper, this island isn’t difficult to navigate, but the dense interior of the island makes it challenging to maintain a fast pace and keep your whereabouts. After spending a lot of time on that island, we went into the early hours of the Day 2 morning knowing that we were falling behind. As a team, we stayed positive and kept pushing forward. As the light started to return for Day 2, the sleep deprivation started to affect our decision making. Our transitions started to get a bit slower and the time on land started growing longer. Ultimately, as the length of the race grew, it was becoming apparent that we were hitting up to the 8 hour time limit. We had one more swim before reaching CP8, so we made it a goal of getting to that point. At CP8, we decided that pushing further was going to risk our teammates health.
It’s a testament to the team spirit that even though we had to make the decision of DNF, we were still smiling and happy to be in each other’s company.
There’s still a large part of the course that we didn’t get to experience and it left us all with the urge to come back and find out what is possible. We weren’t pushed to our limit physically or mentally, but the course on that day proved to be too much.
