Home Surf and Turf
JENO
prepares
a struc-tured
plan for local
teams, easing
them in with
workouts that
last around one
hour. Gradu-ally,
she builds
them up to
12-mile runs
and 3-mile
swims that take
up to four hours
to complete.
For athletes
like the Double
E’s, routines
may change based on the race they take on. But SwimRun or not,
they’d still be coming together six days a week to train.
Local athletes take advantage of Banks Channel and the Intra-coastal
Above: Jennifer (left) and Shane Devers, John
Cockrum and Bridget Phillips train together in
Wrightsville Beach, fall 2019. Right, top to bottom:
Athletes navigate the course at the 2019 and 2018
SwimRun Lake James events.
Waterway when they can, although this winter has been
colder and wetter than usual. Jeno tells her athletes if the cumula-tive
temperature (water and air) is less than 100 degrees, minimize
the time spent in the water.
Gonzalez and her partner haven’t let the weather affect their
training.
“It was raining but you’re already wet so it doesn’t really matter,”
she says.
They also like to keep things simple by swimming at the YMCA
pool.
Jeno’s plan calls for more running than swimming just like the
race, but she also includes strength training drills like burpees and
lunges to be sure athletes training on the beach flats nearby are
ready to tackle big hills and rocks and elevation.
Swim. Run. Why?
LIKE all athletes, SwimRun participants are competitive.
But the nature of the sport adds a less intense layer to the
group.
“SwimRun people are very relaxed,” Jeno says. “It’s
another culture.”
Winning is a plus if and when that happens. Devers and her
Wilmington partner Bridget Phillips placed second in the female
division three years in a row. But it seems the satisfaction comes
more from stories of the adventure than from the timed results.
“We’re not there to win something,” Gonzalez says. “We’re
there for the experience.”
COURTESY OF SWIMRUN LAKE JAMES COURTESY OF JENNIFER DEVERS
april 2021 28
WBM