Winners in the women’s category, third overall, only seconds from the second place. 9h 51min 42 sec – Team Envol HEAD Zoggs Desirée Sabina absolutely smashed it.
If you saw Desirée Andersson and Sabina Rapelli in the starting lineup with the start field of SWIMRUNMAN Gorges du Verdon you probably wouldn’t guess they would end up on the overall podium. Unless you know swimrun, unless you know Desirée and Sabina …
Gorges du Verdon Ultra is known to be a very tough race. 66 km with almost 12 km of swimming. Many tough men felt the calling! 34 male teams started. 24 finished.
Into the unknown
I know swimrun pretty well by now and I have learned that somebody’s size, muscle mass and impressive Ironman records are pretty irrelevant. Swimrun needs something else. Swimrun is not a sport where you can look at the numbers, the facts and the record and determine the outcome. Swimrun is a bit magic. In swimrun stuff that not even Hollywood could dream up happens.
Swimrun is a sport where you have to accept that you don’t know what is going to happen. You know it’s going to be hard (if you try to win!). But you don’t know what’s in line between the start line and the finish line. And no, there is no such thing as a straight line!
Hope the dog is ok
Desirée said she cried twice during the race. First because it was so beautiful, then because she was so cold and in so much pain. Sabina probably cried a few times as well (love you my Swiss Italian friend). They both know that this is part of the game. This is what you signed up for. Sabina getting bitten in the bum by a dog maybe isn’t … I hope the dog made it out alive.
Anyway, what these little ladies* have that doesn’t show on the outside is a strive to conquer. A will to push all the way to the very end. They have the experience to know that “this too shall pass” and that giving up is not an option. Don’t get me wrong, they are physically stronger than most people on this planet, but that alone wouldn’t get them to that sprint finish for the second place over all. They have trained for it, they have prepared what can be prepared. Their mental abilities and the way they have “figured out” swimrun did the rest. That and being freakin’ awesome and an inspiration to all of us.
Eyewitness testimony
“The girls had a killer look on their face at around 39-40 km. They were 4th or 5th at the time, a few minutes from a podium spot. I told them they were catching up, running faster uphill than the guys right in front of them. At the next timing station one team had dropped from the race and the girls had passed to 3rd position and started the chase for the second place. Such impressive, powerful, determined women! The final sprint was so exciting! I don’t even have a finish line photo because I was sprinting with them for the last 150 meters!”
– Riitta Charrier
Starting line, the hole in the wetsuit made by a dog, winners. Photos by Swimrunman and Riitta Charrier.
*I don’t call them “little ladies” to be patronising in any way, just to point out that they are small. I would guess 50 kg. Max!
Catarina Remires Axelsson
