ÖTILLÖ is it a Race or is it an Adventure? Maybe it's both. I have never done an event like it. But i loved it!
I loved the simplicity of the event. First it's a pairs team event that is just one big loop formed up of many swim and run sections of varying distances. Totally about 10km of swimming and 32km of running. As there are no transitions, you have to take everything with you therefore kit selection is critical to the event. The common set up seems to be paddles, pull buoy and shoes. So the idea is you don't kick but you make up for it with the big paddles. I've never got on with paddles - my spindly twig arms have never had the torque to handle them (maybe it's something I need to pay more attention to). I tried a few in training, but always felt like my arms were stalling, like trying to start a car in 2nd gear. So have ended up getting smaller and smaller ones, until I ended up with the tiny little finger ones just a little bigger than my hands. These felt good in training but what i overlooked in the build up to the race was the detrimental effect of trainers on my swimming. I'm a kick heavy swimmer (I once kicked 100m in 1min 25sec).
We all started in Hvar town centre where we had a short run before jumping off the dock into the cool harbour waters and it didn't take long before i was getting it handed to me (we didn't even start near the front!). Rich was doing back stroke waiting for me probably thinking something was wrong. I couldn't believe the level of swimming. I now know what it must feel like to be Lucy Gossage! ;)
Rich Sales was my Ötillö partner and he is a better swimmer than me, so the game plan going in was he would lead the swims and I would sit on his feet. This didn't seem too silly an idea when we did our practice swims in the pool. However after the very first short swim in the race we were quickly looking for plan B!
Once the first swim (250m) was out the way we started to move our way through the field on the first run. Only for us (me) to go dramatically backwards in the 2nd swim (1700m). I was working hard but just going nowhere without my kick engine. We almost started plan B mid way through this swim. Plan B was to deploy the tow line!
The tow line is a common bit of kit in SwimRun but using it for the first time mid race meant we had to learn quickly. We deployed it for the 3rd swim, the big one! The hardest bit of which was trying to inflate the safety buoy and rig the tow line up whilst running through the rocky, root lined goat trails.
Amazingly the towline worked a treat for the big swim (3km) so much so that we kept it on for all the future swims and a bulk of the runs. It enabled Rich to swim hard and finally we started to overtake teams in the water, plus i could repay some of the hard work he put in by picking up my slack when we got to some of the runs. From now on in the water I felt like a bluefin tuna that had been hooked and taken for a ride. Every swim i just stared at a green line and tried to keep my hands from crossing over.
I loved the simplicity of the event. First it's a pairs team event that is just one big loop formed up of many swim and run sections of varying distances. Totally about 10km of swimming and 32km of running. As there are no transitions, you have to take everything with you therefore kit selection is critical to the event. The common set up seems to be paddles, pull buoy and shoes. So the idea is you don't kick but you make up for it with the big paddles. I've never got on with paddles - my spindly twig arms have never had the torque to handle them (maybe it's something I need to pay more attention to). I tried a few in training, but always felt like my arms were stalling, like trying to start a car in 2nd gear. So have ended up getting smaller and smaller ones, until I ended up with the tiny little finger ones just a little bigger than my hands. These felt good in training but what i overlooked in the build up to the race was the detrimental effect of trainers on my swimming. I'm a kick heavy swimmer (I once kicked 100m in 1min 25sec).
We all started in Hvar town centre where we had a short run before jumping off the dock into the cool harbour waters and it didn't take long before i was getting it handed to me (we didn't even start near the front!). Rich was doing back stroke waiting for me probably thinking something was wrong. I couldn't believe the level of swimming. I now know what it must feel like to be Lucy Gossage! ;)
Rich Sales was my Ötillö partner and he is a better swimmer than me, so the game plan going in was he would lead the swims and I would sit on his feet. This didn't seem too silly an idea when we did our practice swims in the pool. However after the very first short swim in the race we were quickly looking for plan B!
Once the first swim (250m) was out the way we started to move our way through the field on the first run. Only for us (me) to go dramatically backwards in the 2nd swim (1700m). I was working hard but just going nowhere without my kick engine. We almost started plan B mid way through this swim. Plan B was to deploy the tow line!
The tow line is a common bit of kit in SwimRun but using it for the first time mid race meant we had to learn quickly. We deployed it for the 3rd swim, the big one! The hardest bit of which was trying to inflate the safety buoy and rig the tow line up whilst running through the rocky, root lined goat trails.
Amazingly the towline worked a treat for the big swim (3km) so much so that we kept it on for all the future swims and a bulk of the runs. It enabled Rich to swim hard and finally we started to overtake teams in the water, plus i could repay some of the hard work he put in by picking up my slack when we got to some of the runs. From now on in the water I felt like a bluefin tuna that had been hooked and taken for a ride. Every swim i just stared at a green line and tried to keep my hands from crossing over.
After the 3km swim it felt like we had broken the back of the swimming and it was run heavy from then on. I say 'Run', the spectacular countryside trails were mostly narrow and technical and well off the beaten track. In places hiking in wetsuits would be a more accurate description of what we were doing.
This is well demonstrated by 'Hells Island' (picture below)! It was time to cash in all those years spent as a kid scrambling over rocks in Cornwall. Fall over here and it was going to hurt. The brain had to work hard to pick a line through the sharp ragged rocks.
What an event. It had sun, sea, hills and rocky trails. We had quite an adventure and lessons to be learned for next time, yes i want another go!
Well done to the other Cambridge teams (Bill and Chrissie for showing us newbies the ropes) (Helen & Rob on opening their Otillo account) & Matt & Tom (The Birmingham Beavers "lets go beavers, lets go beavers"). Also to Paul Forster who stepped up to the big race forming a compilation team the day before the event.
Well done to the other Cambridge teams (Bill and Chrissie for showing us newbies the ropes) (Helen & Rob on opening their Otillo account) & Matt & Tom (The Birmingham Beavers "lets go beavers, lets go beavers"). Also to Paul Forster who stepped up to the big race forming a compilation team the day before the event.