ÖTILLÖ SwimRun event in Engadin, Switzerland
Inevitably Tuffs will understand that British Triathlon is our governing body, but ÖTILLÖ is the official entity for swimrun. Initially created as a bet where two teams of two competed to pass three restaurants on islands with the losing team having to drink what the first team had ordered them. It became commercialised with the governing body of ÖTILLÖ formed – Otillo means Island to Island in Swedish. Mike Barrett has reported in to explain his and Dom Amey’s Swiss adventure:-
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Sorry people, it’s a long one, get a coffee or a beer, settle in and enjoy….
I set a goal for 2022 to compete in an ÖTILLÖ SwimRun event. For those getting to know me, I love a road trip (and a giggle) and, not wanting to do things by halves I asked Dom Amey to come along and be my team partner for an ÖTILLÖ SwimRun event in Engadin, Switzerland! Without any reluctance he agreed, and with that, I booked the flights, race tickets, accommodation, our trusty steed and mentioned one more thing, “you know the Tour De France is just the other side of the Alps stage 9”
Now, for those old enough to remember the Carlsberg adverts, if Carlsberg did, they’d be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLRxtXci5mI)… This trip, we think, Carlsberg were on it!!!! Because, “if Carlsberg did SwimRun Road Trips there’d probably be the best in the world and it’d be just like this…”
To conclude the Carlsberg effect! I pushed a tweet out to the Chris Radio show. And if Carlsberg did SwimRun then there’s make the Chris Evans breakfast show talk about me and the SwimRun event! And they did.
Pick Dom up, no traffic to the airport
Drop car right outside airport
Premium security avoiding the big queue
Go to club lounge for coffee and breakfast
Gently walk down with hand baggage only to gate
Speedy board straight on
Land in Italy to lovely heat
Collect our car, beloved steed hassle free
Quick stop in Italy to eat a Panini in Italy and drink an Italian beer
Drive to ÖTILLÖ Village in Engadin, Switzerland and stopping to checkout the scenery
Drive up to St Moritz hotel and get free beer and chips
Get into room (with a stunning view)
Take photos of stunning scenery
Massive breakfast offerings and enjoy the best coffee ever
Eat Swiss cheese in Switzerland
Watch Ferrari and old sports cars park outside your hotel to wave you off
Drive to race, park right next to start
Get a bag full of goodies
Have the most enjoyable race ever
Finish race in 9th
Eat free food
Back in the car and drive to next hotel in line with watching the tour
Arrive at hotel and get a free upgrade
Go out for dinner and have the restaurant owner check everything is good
Then have the restaurant owner give you a free glass of brandy!
Back to room sleep
Get up drive to TDF
Park in a random field right near the start
Walk around TDF Agile and ogle at bikes, cars and gear
Take a walk down a side road and then watch the race ride right pass your faces without lots of crowds
Walk back to the car via a cheeky beer stop to watch a bit of the race on tv
We will delay your flight to allow you time to stop for more food in Italy
Enjoy a restaurant with veranda and waterfall views and be in the sunshine and eat mozzarella and tomatoes in Italy
Then back to the car, drive to the airport, effortlessly drop your car off and seamlessly walk though security, carry on walking straight to the gate, speedy board just starts, so walk straight on to the plane.
If Carlsberg did SwimRun Road Trips there’d probably be the best in the world
A nod to our trusty steed
RACE DAY
We watched each of our rivals enter the village, chiselled and looking fit with all the gear. Huge hand paddles and SwimRun specific pull buoys and specific wetsuits with special food pouches! Made by brands that we don’t hear of in the UK. With that in mind, here we are Dom and I, armed with our Littlehampton pool pull buoys and a cut inner tube around our waist, (which holds the pull buoy in place while running, other more you know what you’re doing cords can be purchased) and Dom’s special race day bag.
Dom’s SPECIAL RACE DAY BAG
As we sat people watching Dom reaches into his bag .. His highly specialised kit bag… ONLY available in the UK, his carefully selected and colour coordinated orange plastic Sainsburys bag!!!
We chatted and wondered if there were any other brits here…
No sooner had the words come out, we watched four lads pass us all looking the part with one big distinctive advantage, they were highly out doing Dom’s kit bag with a Waitrose bag! Yep, four brits!!! Two of which went on to win our race by a considerable margin.
NOW THE RACE BIT
With lots of practice in the Chichester Lake with trainers on and a pull buoy. Lots of sock and barefoot woes and blisters and tiny stones for my poor feet to encounter. Lots of chat about being tethered and penalties for not being more than 10 meters apart. Race kit penalties and with whistles, bandages all purchased in readiness to be checked; the penalties never came, and the checks were never done.
Into the start pen we go, Bang, no really it was BANG! A proper gun to set us off was fired!
Run 1, A 600m run through the campsite and then into the unknown, just how cold was this water going to be…? (With Adrian appearing as the devil in my thought bubble (that’s mountain water it’ll be freezing)
But as with everything we do, it’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be, and it was fine! We all crept into the water thinking the worse but happily headed off for a 600m swim up to the river bank back to where we started from.
Into Run 2 :: Note, “All” competitors were staggering out like Bambi on ice, and, as I stood and waiting for Dom to: take his goggles off, put his glasses on, take his hat off, fix his pull buoy, tie his shoe lace … for a moment I thought I was with Adrian, when he didn’t go for a wee and take nearly 6 minutes!!!, I realised it was Dom after all… and we ran off down the side of the lake together for 2k and to the next entry point.
Swim 2 :: Gingerly we slid in over the rocks to head diagonally across the next lake for approximately 600m, wow what a lovely swim that was, we exit and have a short 500m trail run to the next rocky entry.
Swim 3 :: The previous swim was tough to beat but somehow, with the sun and the scenery this hit top marks, we swam straight across for about 600m before exiting and starting the long 8k run.
Run 4 :: As we started to climb on the run, it came apparent that Dom was struggling. The higher we climbed the worse it got, we stopped and walked, ran a little, walked and ran, we started to lay down markers to run to before we’d allow ourselves the walk, like walking felt like it was cheating but the sheer gradient was having an effect on Dom. Battling with breathing, the occasional thought of here comes the energy gel, we continued to overtake other racers, eventually we got to the top. 300m of climbing!!
Down we began, I’m leading out, but now Dom is right by my side and like a falling leaf, he gracefully passes me or maybe it was more like a giant pre-historic creature crossing the wilderness with a massive leg span, (anyone who has run a downhill section with Dom on a Saturday morning will know) he is already out of reach, forgotten is his sickness and shortness of breath. Dom is alive and coming down the mountain… I whistle to get his attention to slow him down, I can’t keep up… eventually it flattens (thank god) and we were back eyeing up the last and longest swim at 880m .
Swim 4 :: My god it’s choppy and, lesson number four hundred and eight! Always pick a sight on the bank high enough you can see beyond the waves!!! Doh!!!! Both Dom and I choose to take the longer curvier route! A colder swim and a lot more challenging in the chop but none the less it were fantastic, free spirited, wildness and exhilarating;
Run 5 :: with the swims behind us, we now got our skates on to pass two more teams in a sprint into the finish and we were done.
Fist bumps, chocolate, malt loaf, nuts and, a personal high five from the original SwimRun organiser and a wooden medal (really???)
As we lounged about in an ÖTILLÖ village we discovered we were already at about 2000m adding in our run took us above 2300m which kind of explained Dom’s breathing. (More snowboarding trips needed!)
In summary, an amazing back to nature race, amazing conditions and an amazing road trip. We will return next year, hopefully bringing more Tuffs on this epic road trip.
A little note to Dom, a great roomie and a great friend and an honour to race with you as my teammate. Lots of laughs and giggles and of course, beer! Until our next one! May Carl watch over you!
BLIMEY, if you’re not bored yet… and you’ve read this far… future road trips include
- Snowboarding Ski Trip (with a little altitude training)
- Tuff Tour Majorca 2023
- Tuff Olympic Day Out
- Dragon Boat Race (Organised by Graham Liddell
MIke
