Event Review: Gribbin Swimrun 2024
John Yelland’s invitation to, ‘come and have an end-of-season blast around a beautiful bit of coastline’ proved too good an offer to pass up. The Gribbin Head is a spectacular and craggy section of Cornwall’s rugged coastline and turned out to be the perfect location for my final swimrun of the year.
‘Starting and finishing in the stunning town of Fowey and taking in the iconic Gribbin Head, this swimrun will have a bit of everything,’ John promised in his promotional blurb and I happen to agree; hills (of course), clear water, submerged rocks, scrambling, tucked away coves with fantastic names and a surprising section through a farm dodging chickens!
There were two course options, with long and short courses available to participants making it a great event whatever your swimrun experience (and fitness). The Long Course was 22.6km (total distance) with approximately 17.9km of running and 4.7km of sea swimming over 13 stages while the short course was 7.1K of running and 3.2K of sea swimming over 7 stages. Most people in both distances had opted to enter as solo competitors but those of us who entered as a pair had to ‘go long’ this time but that meant more fun and more adventure, so I was happy to embrace the challenge.
Conditions were perfect on the day and the ‘swimmers’ in the field were delighted to discover there were no changes to the course and no reduced or cancelled swim sections, as is often the case in coastal events. The circular routes for both distances also kept logistics simple and the parking and facilities at the Fowey Sports Hub made it comfortable and easy for competitors and supporters. John's briefing was understated but clear and his experience always shines through. He is committed to creating challenging and adventurous events, so we knew we were in for a treat.
It certainly did not disappoint. Both long and short course
participants started together with a downhill section through the smart Fowey
Hall Hotel grounds to our first swim out of the Fowey estuary. The water was
cool but so clear it took my breath away. There were submerged rocks in this
first section (and many more of the swims) and my swimrun partner kept me alert
on the end of the tow line, changing direction to navigate a path through. We
probably didn’t need to be so cautious as I only scraped my hand once and that
was my fault because I reached down out of curiosity!
We exited this first swim at Readymoney Cove (I thought the name might be a reference to past smuggling but apparently it developed from the Cornish word ‘roswyd basowr’ and means a ‘shallow ford of stones’, but there might have been early trading here and anything is possible). From here we had a 2.9K loop inland before heading back to the coastal path, past St Catherine’s Castle and along to Coombe Haven for the longest swim of the course (1.5K). This section, once again over submerged rocks and alongside dark craggy cliffs, took us to Menability, a place made famous by the author Daphne du Maurier. She moved to Cornwall in the late 1920s and took inspiration from the local landscape and landmarks for famous novels like ‘The House on the Strand’ and ‘Frenchman’s Creek’. She lived in Menability for a while and immortalised it as ‘Manderley’ in the book ‘Rebecca’. There wasn’t much time to think about this on the course but, when reflecting back, it has made this event even more special for me.
From Menability we struck off inland again. This was the longest run section (5K), mainly across pretty National Trust land, but also took us through Tregaminion (a working farm) which is where we actually did have to dodge chickens! The path wove down to Polkerris, a tantalising sandy beach but we were told, ‘no swim here’ and instead guided up some steep steps back to the coastal path. On this stretch, we encountered some of the front runners already on their way back! That might have been a crushing moment but there was no time to dwell on it as we had a technical swim entry to the north of Booleys Beach to navigate and then another 650m swim, hugging the cliff onto Par Beach to the turnaround point. As we doubled back on the cliff path we could see the other competitors who were close behind and that spurred us on as we ran back to Polkerris (sadly, ‘still no swim here’) and set off for the Gribbin Head.
There was another 400m swim on the way (more rocks) and further along the course, another 450m swim with a technical swim exit onto rocks and up a steep and narrow path with a rope to cling onto as the gorse bushes snagged at out pull buoys, At this point, we started to feel that we were getting close to the end but there was still another 1.5K run followed by a 900m swim back into the estuary before the climb back up to through Fowey to the finish. We’d been advised to stay close to the cliff edge to avoid the stronger tidal flow in the estuary and the water support team were well-positioned to guide us here. We passed locals and tourists as we made our way up the steep and pretty streets in Fowey and must have looked incongruous running back past the open air pool in the grounds of Fowey Hall Hotel to the finish at the Sports Hub but no one really batted an eyelid and it turned out this wasn’t the only ambitious event finishing in Fowey that day – the Saints Way running challenge was also taking place. John was in place to high-five us over the finish line and he took a comedic and spectacular dive as we tangled him in our tow line.
The presentations at the end reminded me this was a real gem of an event to finish my racing season with. There were quite a few familiar faces in the group with stories to tell and recommendations about races they’d tried or were keen to set up. Coffee and cake hit the spot, as always, and I liked the ‘spot prizes’ for random things that John and his team had noticed on the day, including the most ‘oblivious entry’ who turned up late, missed the briefing and the start but caught up with the crowd…only to wander off before the presentations!
Having pottered into Fowey after the event, I can see how that happened as there is much to distract. Fowey is a lovely harbour town with interesting shops and plenty of choice for refuelling. It was a treat to spend the rest of the day there and, even though my thighs were complaining slightly as I walked back up to the car park at the end of the day. I would not have missed this treat for the world.
