There was never really a question of whether we would come back for another crack at the One Water Race. The terrain is beautiful yet brutal, cold one moment, overheating the next. The 60-hour race format ensures high intensity racing where teams walk the line of success and physical collapse. We came agonisingly close to the finish in 2023, demonstrating physical ability but a slow demise of physical and mental capacity causing a fatal error that ended our race. So with that experience behind us, our strategy for 2024 was different. It wasn’t about training harder or longer, it was about knowing our roles and executing when we needed to.
So as we stood at Arholma amongst 28 racers, the anticipation was palpable, but instead of nerves, we felt focused with a very healthy respect of what we were about to put ourselves through. And then the great map reveal as the start sire sounded, leading to a general split into two groups toward CP1, one taking a longer run, the other more swimming. We took off on the long run option, soon joined by previous winners – Team 6. After an hour of racing, we arrived just 8 minutes behind Team 6, crossing paths with several teams along the way. The first few hours flew by as we maintained a steady pace and settled into our team roles:
- Brock: The big barefoot man with three red buckets full of maps and nutrition.
- Hilary: The Canadian powerhouse ensuring any silence was broken by ‘Good job team’, and threatening to tow the team if we ever hinted at stopping before reaching Landsort.
- Mitch: One job – keep the team on the right track.
- Marcus: The engine room – towing the team on land and water.
For the first few hours we sat in 5th place but steadily moved into 3rd by the end of the first day feeling good but still a long way to go. There were a few crucial race moments but one great memory was racing to get across a shipping channel with a Ferry looming down on us, thankfully @marrecusen had spent the past year either sleeping or in the pool and we made it unscathed but with a cool photo to take home.
As the sun set on the first day, we were delighted to get a warm meal in and head into a string of islands without tracks – reminiscent of the brutal orienteering courses Brock had set amongst the mangroves for the Australian contingent of the team back home in Townsville. The gap to our Aussie mates in second place was ever so slowly closing and we could hear the voice of Julian from Team 3 carrying across the water louder than our own megaphone. Time seems to speed up into the second day of racing, the body and mind is in a fluid state of motion, all physical and mental energy is directed to one goal – moving forward.
The second night however is a little different, the brain is crying out for sleep while the body keeps on moving. Thankfully, we were in a significantly better state than last year when we hit Ornö and Utö for the long road runs and managed to avoid a repeat of sleep-walking ourselves in the wrong direction. Nobody is immune though, and the simplest navigation became like solving a rubik’s cube for the first time. We were able to work as a team to stay in touch with the map and bumble on to the next checkpoint where Brock was becoming increasingly concerned about our need for sleep. We were less than 10km’s from the start of Denziger Gatt but this would prove to be one of the hardest sections as we walked the fine line of functioning on two nights without sleep eventually navigating the dark with our swim-safety lights to make it to Check Point 14. The time gap to the teams ahead had grown quickly so we opted for survival, taking a 15-minute power nap on the rocky coastline before taking the final 2km stroll over to start Denziger Gatt. The howling wind was an ominous calling as we approached Denziger Gatt.
We pulled on our cold water gear, doubling up with our long wetsuits for the 7km swim into what was an angry ocean, wind blowing straight into our faces. Fate was on our side this year as we narrowly beat another ferry across the channel (avoiding the alternative – treading water for 40 minutes), and then the ocean calmed and it actually became an enjoyable swim to the finish… Well, at least it felt like the finish. Brock delivered the harsh news that we had at least another 4 hours of racing to the finish line. One thing we will all remember here is Hilary thinking we had less than 3 hours to get to the finish line, thankfully this was not the case as we battled fatigue on a slow and hot walk to the finish, causing much stress to our supporters back home as we almost made several crucial errors on the home stretch (sorry!).
Ultimately, our strategy, nutrition, and execution proved effective. We raced smarter, not harder, and crossed the finish line in 3rd place after an intense 56 hours of racing. The One Water race is not just a test of physical endurance; it’s a demonstration of teamwork and a platform for catching a glimpse of the ultimate human capacity. While we are thrilled with the result, there is still room for Congratulations to all the teams, wherever this race took you, you are stronger for it. Thank you to the race organisation for giving us the opportunity and creating this platform to test ourselves, we all need a challenge in life, and this is a big one.
