Is swimrun a dangerous sport...?

My recent knee injury (and Jassu’s broken foot from two years before) made me realise just how vulnerable we are. One minute I am happily running a split second later I am on the floor with an open knee cap and a ruptured quadriceps tendon. At least for me these injuries forced me to rethink my approach towards personal safety in swimrunning. “Think First, then Act!” immediately springs to mind. The question I struggle with…was it pure misfortune or actually lack of focus? I guess the answer lays somewhere in the middle. In my case I have been accident and injury free for many years simply because I thought I knew what I was doing. However, this self knowledge is by no means a guarantee that nothing will ever happen, as I found out. Only now, after 4 years of practising the sport of swimrun, I really start to understand and appreciate the real risks involved and also what we (as a team!) can actively do to lower or even mitigate certain risks. Below I have summarised three scenarios where I believe we made mistakes and what we could possibly do to prevent it from happening again. This is by no means a conclusive “idiot proof guide” but merely a personal write up of specific situations. Of course by sharing this information I hope that people will also rethink their own approach and attitude towards personal and team safety.
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