This is the perfect time of year to combine your cross training with the sport you love the most. Swimming will benefit your strength, your breathwork and your endurance, so swimrun is a triple-whammy bonus for your all-round fitness

Words Fiona Bugler

Making a splash: a multisport that originated in Sweden, swimrun is a great way to increase and vary your training

Images Jean Marie Gueye for ÖTILLÖ ®

We love to run. And we love a challenge. Multi-sport – duathlon, aquathlon, triathlon and now swimrun – offers runners something different for both body and mind, and more and more women are finding the combination to be both fun and fufilling.

If you live near the coast or by a lake, you might have seen a swimrunner without realising it. Look closely and you’ll see she could be a swimmer: wearing a wetsuit, goggles, a swim hat and paddles …and maybe she’s got a pull bouy round her waist?

Like triathlon, swimrun started at grassroots. Over a few drinks, Swedish brothers Mat and Jesper Andersson and three other friends challenged each other to swim and run between local islands.

The next morning, they did the challenge and were totally hooked. Swimrun was born and the guys created ÖTILLÖ® (which means ‘island to island’ in Swedish). In 2006, they held the first official ÖTILLÖ® race, and now there are around 700 swimrun events held globally each year.

Swimrun is what it says on the box; you swim and you run, repeating and alternating laps of swimming and running as you go.

The great outdoors

A large part of swimrun is about connecting with and appreciating nature. The swimming part is in open water in your trainers with paddles and pullbouys to assist, and the running section goes across trails, while still holding swim paddles, pull bouy, goggles, swim hat, fuel and safety kit.

How long is a swimrun race?

Like triathlon, swimrun distances vary.

Broadly speaking, there are starter, medium and longer distance races, with total swim and run distances typically adding up to between 5K and 40K. There is also an Ultra version where you’ll do a combined distance of around 75K.