Swimrun is on the rise and, if you’re looking for a new challenge, it’s well worth checking out the ÖTILLÖ series.

Precision Fuel & Hydration athletes Ben and Rhian Martin have qualified for the ÖTILLÖ World Swimrun Championships, which has been ranked as one of the toughest endurance events in the world. It involves 65 km of running and 10km of open water swimming across 26 islands in the Stockholm archipelago in Sweden.

They’ve shared their race report from one of their warm-up races for the World Championships, ÖTILLÖ Engadin in the Swiss Alps. Definitely worth a read if you’re considering a Swimrun yourself...

Ben and Rhian's Swimrun experience...

We wanted to let you know that we survived the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Engadin race and, despite it being the hardest race we’ve ever done (yep, harder than an Ironman), we really enjoyed ourselves.

Before we get into the race report, here’s our race by the numbers…

  • 5.8 - The number of km we swam.
  • 9-14 - The temperature of the waters during the swim, in degrees celsius.
  • 46.8 - The number of km we ran.
  • 120 - The number of teams who finished out of 160.
  • 10 - the maximum number of meters we were allowed to be from each other at all times.
  • 1 - our placement amongst GB mixed teams.
  • 2 - our finishing spot amongst all GB teams. (An all male team was 15 minutes ahead of us…)
  • 5 - our placement amongst mixed pairs overall
  • 27 - our finishing place overall.
  • 5000 - the amount, in £, we raised for The Hughes Sport Foundation & Scope. Thanks for your support! 

The race

Up at 05:30 for porridge, coffee and energy drink, we got all our kit on and boarded the bus to the start line. Thunderstorms were promised and it was already getting hot at an altitude of 1,900 meters. The start gun went at 08:00 and the race was on. We immediately went straight up a mountain, single file, passing goats. After an hour’s climb, the 9 degree C lake was looking very refreshing, so we duly dived in and began our first swim leg. 

Then for the next 6.5 hours we swam and ran our way through 9 separate run legs and 8 lakes.  The views were absolutely stunning, racing up and then back down through the valley, through forests and on and off trails.  At many points the up hills were so steep that all competitors were walking.  We found there are two walking paces; the slow, hands on knees, grimacing kind or a faster pace, with a determined look on one’s face. We chose the latter and were quickly gaining places.

We were happy with our kit choice; warm on the swims - though we needed to strip down the top half of the wetsuit for the runs - especially as the sun was out and it was now approaching 27 degrees C. There was no wind and no chance of a refreshing thunderstorm.

At about 3 hours in, we dived in for the long 1.4km swim and overtook many teams, so our endurance training had clearly paid off. It was easy to tell who our mixed team competitors were, as we all had green hats and green race bibs. And the double benefit of being fast swimmers was evident when we got out of the water, as we could immediately start a fast running pace, overtaking more racers in the process.

It was such a great race, for so many reasons. The beautiful race setting, the friendly spirit amongst the racers and the genuine toughness of the race itself. 13% of the teams dropped out mid race, with only 120 finishing.  Of the 4 mixed teams that beat us, all of them had at least 1 previous OtillO winner. 3 of them were professional teams.  And the whole event was won by a mixed team – showing the class in this category. In any other year we think we’d have been on the podium.

Our hydration and nutrition strategy

The correct nutrition strategy was really important to finishing the race.  We were racing for 7 – 8 hours, in 27 degree hot and sunny conditions, whilst in a wetsuit. Hydration was always going to be crucial.

We used PH 500 tabs whilst traveling to Engadin and then a PH 1000 drink the morning of the race. 

We could only take on official race products at energy stations, so we created our own specific nutrition race plan based on our weight and carbs per hour needed  – which we carried on our wetsuits, laminated to keep water proof and then stuck to it.

The race products were Winforce energy gels and carb drink, plus bananas and cold meats.  Due to the hot conditions we supplemented with SweatSalt capsules, which we took every hour or so.

As a result of our careful planning (and the fact that we’d experimented with all the products in training) we were very happy with our nutrition strategy, which really helped us gain places in the final stages of the race.

Onwards and upwards...

We’re immensely proud of our achievement; and strangely glad that the journey doesn’t end here. It’s only 5 weeks until we race in the archipelagos surrounding Stockholm – in a 75km race, which is going to take around 10-12 hours. It consists of 10km of swimming and then running over 26 different islands.   

So we need to learn a new “race craft” – to efficiently climb up and over rocks as we get in/out of the sea.  It’s not at altitude, but the waves are going to prove ‘interesting’. We think this could be more suited to our strengths – but hey, only time will tell...