Alexis Charrier discovered Swimrun in 2017 when his dad sent him the link to the Costa Brava Swimrun. Today he is on of Team Envol’s absolute top athletes, lining up the podiums!
Below is his story from that first race.
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What on earth is this? I can’t do 42km running and swimming when the longest race I’ve done is 50, 100 or 200m in the pool …
I also hated anything to do with long distance, whether it was in the pool or in any other sport.
It took some convincing to finally accept to participate in the race. Maybe I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it (or prove it to my dad!). We saw it as a team effort, my dad doing the running part as he had experience in ultra-trail running and me doing the swimming.
Once we agreed to do the race, I started running; having no idea at all what I was doing. I would randomly go out and run at whatever pace I felt like doing and I was swimming with the University squad.
Getting closer to D-day, my competitive self wanted to be in the best shape possible pushing some running sessions further than I thought at the time was possible for me.
Food is a big deal for the French
Being in Spain, we made the most of the time there with a week of holidays in the sun and on the beach.
As French as we are, food is a big part of holidays even when there is a race. To top it off, friends of my parents had come along to do the race like us, in a father-son team.
The night before the race we ate a big barbecue filling up as much as possible for the long day we had ahead.
What the hell am I doing here?!
On D-day though, the brain inevitably switches from fun to run. The alarm is set to 4 o-clock, headphones go on, maximum concentration for some crazy thing my dad dragged me into. At the start line, we were treated with a beautiful sunrise as it was at the top of a hill in a Spanish castle. I was partly wondering what the hell am I doing here . I remember looking at the “pro” Spanish guys and realised I was no where near their shape. I also remember seeing two teams with old Nabaiji wetsuits hanging on their last thread, no paddles, no pullbuoy and i thought maybe I am not too bad after all!
Chaos and calm
First swim was a mess… We didn’t put our bottles in our wetsuits (because why would you) so inevitably we lost them twice and managed to swim after them to retrieve them. First exit we couldn’t get out because my dad was dizzy and my only thought was “this is going well!”. But the rest went on quite well. We were ahead of our predicted time, the sun was out, the water was warm and we were having fun. Swims were my preferred sections but I realised I wasn’t doing too bad in the runs as well. The pre-race anxiety proved to be unfounded as I was enjoying my time out on the Spanish coast.
My brother and mom were following the race and were waiting for us at most swim exits. I would exchange a hand sign with my brother each time we saw them to signal all was ok. As you can see in the picture, I was out of the water, goggles down and joking with my brother before my dad could get up… There were also lows (connected to the big meal we had the night before …), but we got to the finish line smiling and ready to eat!
A new sport and Sabina
As mentioned in my Instagram post on that day “I might have found a new sport”!
Looking back in 2022, I guess I did! A good 30 races under the belt in the last 4 years, a couple victories! 2020-21 ÖtillÖ World Series champions, 2nd at ÖtillÖ World Champs … Most importantly I met Sabina whom I now live with, I made new friends and unforgettable memories.
I guess the morale of the story is sometimes don’t be afraid to try new things, you never know what’s waiting for you around the corner!
Alexis
