ISLAND TO ISLAND RACING
WHEN YOU THINK the swim in a traditional triathlon is not long enough, you don’t like riding your bike that much or if you need a little bit more adventure in your tri-life, you need to check out SwimRun. It all started in 2002 in Sweden with a drunken bet between Anders Malm, the owner of hotel Utö Värdshus, his friend Janne Lindberg and some of his staff. They challenged each other to swim between, and run over, the islands in the Stockholm archipelago, from Utö to Sandhamm. It was the kick-off of the famous Ötillö (island to island) that lead to an official race in 2006. Today the Ötillö (with a total of 10 km of open water swimming and 65 km of trail running) is internationally recognized as the SwimRun World Championship and has been ranked by CNN as one of the toughest races in the world.
SwimRun Victoria
With races all over Europe, SwimRuns are now on the rise in North America as well. Canada hosted six SwimRuns in 2018, with two brand new races in Saint John, N.B., and Victoria, B.C. The event in Victoria is close to my home on Salt Spring Island and, as a former swimmer, a SwimRun was on my to-do list for a while.
After being involved in the sport for about fifteen years, packing for a triathlon is a routine. SwimRun is a different story, because you can bring a whole set of gadgets that you’re normally not allowed to use (or simply don’t need, like a whistle and a first aid kit) in a triathlon. Luckily, swimming in Thetis Lake in August doesn’t require a wetsuit – for SwimRun events, you can buy specific wetsuits with short or long sleeves, short legs and a zipper in the front so you can strip down (running in a wetsuit can be hot) so I could cross that off my list.
You’re supposed to swim and run and repeat that a few times, so it is wise to swim with your shoes. I just used a pair of old trail shoes for my first SwimRun, but a pair that will drain quickly is a smart choice. Unlike a normal triathlon, you’re allowed to use a pull buoy to prevent your feet from sinking, as well as hand paddles. You can even use fins (not longer than 15 cm measured from the end of the toes to the end of the fin), but running with them is challenging and taking them off and putting them on again takes a lot of time, so I didn’t consider it as an option for me. I brought the pull buoy and the paddles, though, and a friend made a velcro strap for my pull buoy, so that I could slide it to my outer thigh and run comfortably with it.
In most of the races, participants in a SwimRun have to pair up in teams of two, tethered with a rope. That’s basically for safety reasons, so everyone has someone to look out for him or her in the open water
and on the trails. The SwimRun in Victoria is open to solo participants as well.
“I wanted to give as many athletes the opportunity to experience this new event”, says Rob Dibden, the organizer of the SwimRun in Victoria. “You could say this is a perfect race for beginners. You don’t necessarily need a wetsuit, and you don’t have to have a partner – you can go solo as well. It’s fun to pair up with someone who has a similar speed in swimming and running, but they can be hard to find.”
I decided to go on my own, as I couldn’t find a matching partner. The long course in Victoria consists of 3.8 km of swimming and 23 km of running on the trails around Thetis Lake. I ran the first run leg, splashing in my soaking wet runners, with my cap and goggles on my head, but decided to take them off and stuff them in my tri suit for the other three legs. The highlight was the climb to the top of Schafe Hill – affectionately named The Monster – where a cold beer awaited the competitors. I took a few wrong turns, ran some extra kilometres and even though swimming almost four kilometres with paddles is challenging, I had so much fun and can’t wait to do some more races in 2019.
Amphibious Challenge Sheenboro
The only Ötillö merit race in Canada is held in Sheenboro, Que. Organizer Simon Donato, the creator, and host of Boundless, a program dedicated to adventure and endurance sports currently airing on the Esquire Network, did his first ever SwimRun in 2015 in Sweden.
“I first heard about SwimRun while I was doing research for my television show Boundless. I was looking for tough and unique ultraendurance races to compete in around the globe and came across the unicorn that is the Ötillö. It took a few years before we made it happen, but we ultimately competed in it in 2015,” says Donato.
As much as he dislikes swimming, he totally loves the combination of swimming and running in rough conditions.
“It was big, wild, epic and incredible in every sense,” he says. “The race was well organized and it mixed raw natural beauty with island charm and luxury. And I found out that I didn’t mind swimming 10 km to explore and run across 20-plus islands in the Baltic Sea. It wasn’t contrived – it had authentic roots, and it was something that didn’t feel mainstream or Ironmanish.”
The Amphibious Challenge Sheenboro was born of his desire to bring the incredible sport to Canada. After finding a perfect stretch of the upper Ottawa River near his home in Sheenboro, Donato launched the inaugural event in September 2016.
“The first edition drew 25 competitors, and this year we had 32 teams competing, so the sport is definitely growing,” he says.
If Pippa can do it, so can we
Sophia Chadwick is one of few Canadians who has toed the line for the world championships in Sweden. She first heard about the race in 2008, when an article about Ötillö in a magazine caught her eye. “I read about this new race in Sweden and it sounded like so much fun. But I’d just started running at that time, so I thought I was never able to do that in a million years,” says Chadwick.
That changed when she saw a picture of Pippa Middleton – Kate Middleton’s sister – crossing the finish line in Ötillö in 2015.
“I had done two Ironmans in 2011 and 2012, both in Penticton, by that time, so in the fall of 2015 I messaged my friend Mike Brown, organizer of ITU World Championships and the Super League Triathlon in Penticton: ‘If she can do it, so can we!’”
Because there were no qualifying races nearby, Chadwick and Mike Brown gained acceptance through the merit application in January 2016. “We were super excited, but terrified at the same time. Nobody in Canada had ever done it, except for Tracey McQuair, who did Ötillö in 2015. I prepared for the race by myself, because Mike was in Alberta, but unfortunately Mike had to
cancel last minute because of a family emergency.”
Sophia managed to find a new partner who could get the time off, wanted to fly with her to Sweden and felt ready to take on 10 km of swimming and 65 km of trail running over 26 islands.
“My new partner was in training for an Ironman, but he discovered very early on that Ironman training does not translate very well to Ötillö training. Two hours into the race, I knew it was going to be a long day. My partner wanted to stop a few times and ended up getting quite sick throughout the race, but I told him that we did not fly all the way to Sweden to quit,” she laughs.
They managed to push through, making each cut off, but with the time to each cut off getting shorter and shorter.
“We were roughly 40 km into the race when we reached the longest run section – 20 km on a mix of trail, pavement, gravel and singletrack. We had exactly two hours to do the run and get to the final cut off. I don’t know where it came from, but after 11 hours on our legs, and my partner basically a shell of his former self, we managed to run the entire 20 km, finishing with 30 seconds to spare,” says Chadwick.
From there, they knew they were going to be able to finish the race. “Once we made the final cut-off, it was a total change of pace from the rest of the day. Teams were hanging out, sitting on the rocks filling up their water bottles, eating lots of chocolate that some volunteers were handing out and just revelling in the fact that we were all going
to be Ötillö finishers. We actually ended up making some pretty great friends on that rock face. Once we collected ourselves, we slid down this big rock face, into the ocean, and began the final crossing of the last four or five islands.”
After the Ötillö, Chadwick was hooked. Six weeks after competing in the World Championships, she joined forces with Misty Becerra and won the women’s race at SwimRun North Carolina. Currently, she participates in them with her fiancé, Brian McArdle, and this year they took
on Ötillö Isles of Scilly in the U.K., SwimRun Casco Bay and SwimRun San Juan Islands, both in the U.S.
“In SwimRun, every race is different; you have to deal with the cold water, the current and the waves and you run in technical and difficult terrain. What I love most about SwimRun is that you get to go to these remote and beautiful, hidden places, where you would otherwise never go. On top of that, you get to do it with someone else because it is a partnered event. Being able to experience the highs and lows of endurance racing/adventuring with someone that you care about – be it a friend, family, partner or even a stranger – is something truly special.”
How to qualify for Ötillö
Since the popularity of Ötillö SwimRun World Championship is growing, it is harder to qualify. You can qualify directly in Ötillö SwimRun World Series races in Sweden, Croatia, the U.K., Switzerland, Germany and France, or collect points in Ötillö merit races. There is also a lottery and a chance to be picked by the race director.
Marcia Jansen is a freelance journalist and triathlete who lives in Victoria.