SwimRun Wild’s extreme challenge
CAPE TOWN – Fresh from his 79th Robben Island crossing, extreme open-water swimmer Ryan Stramrood and swimming partner Mark de Klerk will join triathletes and other multisport enthusiasts on the Garden Route to take part in Torpedo SwimRun Wild.
Stamrood, a businessman and inspirational speaker who pushed past the impossible to swim the Ice Mile in Antarctica, competed in last year’s Torpedo SwimRun Cape.
He said he and De Klerk were looking forward to the Wild event next month, after relishing the challenge of taking up running to do the Torpedo SwimRun Cape event.
“We both love adventure which promises a bit of pain and boundary pushing, and we both love being out in nature.
“And this challenge will certainly deliver it all,” Stamrood said.
Torpedo SwimRun Wild, from on September 14 and 15, is the first fresh-water event in the Torpedo SwimRun Series, after two Cape events last year took place in the icy Atlantic Seaboard waters and on the coastline of Cape Town.
The Wild race distance is 26km, made up of four segments totalling 4km and five run segments totalling 17km. The other 5km are made up of “swamble”, which is a combination of scrambling over rocks and swimming.
Although a relatively new sport, SwimRun has taken hold and grown, with 450 races now on the international calendar. SwimRun offers off-road and open-water adventure along coastal and inland waterways, with routes designed around the natural environment and with distances varying from race to race.
The multiple swim and run segments see athletes swimming and running in the same gear, with no transitions as there are in triathlon.
Torpedo SwimRun co-founder Richard McMartin, when asked about the choice of kit for the event, said: “With a wetsuit being optional rather than compulsory as it was at our Cape events, the choice could be an important one.
“A wetsuit will help on the swimming legs, especially through the cold Kaaimans, but in the second half of the race the runs are long and you’ll suffer on a hot day in a wetsuit.
“This is what SwimRun is all about,” he said.
Entries are available on the website www.torpedoswimrun.com
Staff writer
Cape Times