Do some searches for “Otillo” and “SwimRun” and you will find a lot of content in past threads and articles. Herbert sponsors a race in NC and has written at length about the topic.

I did the Casco Bay SwimRun last year. As one of the first of its kind in the US, a lot was written here and elsewhere about it.

It’s not as hard or awkward as you might think to swim with shoes and a partner.

The guys doing Ignite SwinRun series both work for Rev3 and both have their own local events, very experienced.

Full disclosure, I work for REV3, and Ignite SwimRun Series.

People love the format and team concept. I heard one team who are very active racing triathlons say, how do we go back to triathlons after this, they loved it.

Check out Icebug shoes, or some people drill holes in the bottom to drain the water. Its really not very complicated.

Training is swim and run, and picking a partner that is comparable to your abilities since you have to stay together.

Try the Ignite series (all great venues!) Minnesota is my favorite. or other races, they are all top notch.

I am actually one of the 3 race directors of SwimRun NC, and that race is truly non profit. We race directors do not take a single penny from the race - we are volunteers like all others, but work very hard on this race out of passion. The sport of SwimRun is very addictive and our race will be the third edition on October 28, 2018. We currently have 70 teams fully registered and 3 more accepted but not yet paid and with a field limit of 111 teams we now only have 38 spots left.

Our race and the very cool SwimRun USA at Casco Bay are the only OTILLO Merit Races in the USA, but there are plenty other cool races around or starting up.

April 7 is SwimRun Lake James (near Asheville, GA)
April 8 is SwimRun Georgia in Cartersville, GA
July 1 is SwimRun TN in Knoxville

I think there is also one coming to Boston and another to Bellingham, Washington

Plus many more new ones coming every day

Awesome recommendation, thanks!
Glad it’s not as awkward as it sounds. Will look back at other threads.

Terrific! Thanks so much. I think I have s great partner in mind (& she’s trying to convince me)-ha!
The series looks great through Ignite & love both the VA & MD locations bc they are pretty close to me. MINN looks amazing too (but maybe a future year).
Hoping the total distances don’t feel like the full distance but just chunks over time.

Congrats, that’s great! While I have raced big name races before, I do really love supporting my local & also similar small non profit races as well. Glad others do too.

I did the Üto SwimRun with my husband in 2015 and it was by far the greatest racing experience we’ve had. Swimming in your running shoes really isn’t that bad, with the floatation from the wetsuit I hardly noticed. Same goes for running in wet shoes, you’ll be so focused on the race and challenging terrain, wet feet are probably not going to be a big concern.

Train running in your wetsuit. A lot. I didn’t do this enough and was pretty exhausted by 20km into the race.

No experience, but intrigued by the concept. It seems mostly or all teams, I wonder if there's something in the US for solo competitors, like the italians do, see here. Again, I'm intrigued but the team aspect is a bit of hurdle (not that I don't want to compete with a mate, but I'm not part of a training group, and the people I know swim but don't run much or viceversa, so it would be a hassle to find someone).

From my experience working two swimrun races, the team aspect is more enjoyable and the current format for all in the US (right now).

If you're interested and want to find a partner just go to any of the race facebook pages and put it out there your looking for a someone that matches or compliments you. Also, having someone fast running will push you, same as swimming and vice versa.

That's great! Did you buy a different wetsuit (like the ones they recommend) or your "regular" one? Good advice to run in it.

I did a swim run event in Italy last year and loved it. Didn't train for it specifically, just the usual 70.3 training.
I LOVED it. Totally new experIence, sense of adventure (as in doing something new), no expectations of performance (with bestbikesplit I can calculate my arrival time to within 60sec). Took it as a mod-hard training day rather than a raceday.
Didn't have a swim run specific wetsuit, went with a DeSoto vest + wetsuit shorts. Fine for a non competitive day of fun (about 4km of swimming and 18km of running); for competitive stuff, a specific swim run wetsuit is the way to go.
Enjoy it!!

Welcome to Slowtwitch! This site is a tremendous resource to find out swimrun best practices from athletes and races from all over the world. Jonas Colting, the only athlete to race every ÖTILLÖ, has been sharing his experiences from this beast of a race for years, back when it was more survival test then race. Fast forward 11 years and swimrun is now a sport and not a standalone event. It is growing quickly in Europe. Its going on year three now here in the US.

Herbert has been one of swimrun's most fervent unofficial ambassadors covering the biggest personalities and some of the best races around.

No doubt you'll be well served as Poon mentioned earlier, to search the forum for past threads on "swimrun" and "otillo". I'd also recommend going to the home page of the site and searching those same terms to pull up articles, interviews and features covered here to see some of the best practices that seem to have worked well for so many swimrunners so far.

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

Long debate. I have done swimrun for years, including 3 OtillO. the first 2 I did in tri suit cut, as everybody was doing it at the time as no specific swimrun wetsuit existed.S yes new specific wetsuits are better, mainly for thermoregulation, but you can race with a triathlon wetsuit.
I co-founded both "World of Swimrun . com" and "Swimrun France .fr". We have tested a lot of the equipment, you can check on our website. Have fun !!

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Francois-Xavier Li @FrancoisLi
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw
http://www.swimrunfrance.fr
http://www.worldofswimrun.com

I wore a regular 2Xu suit but next time I would buy a SwimRun specifc suit because it zips in the front. We lost a lot of time because my husband had to help me unzip my suit during each run because it was too tight.

Go for it. I’m doing my first one in Bay of Islands here in NZ this coming April. I am really excited about it...8km swimming and 25km running. As other have said, Herbert has a lot of good advice to offer.

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Great, thanks! The more I’m hearing, the suit is needed. And Ignite, the race mgmt team in charge of the ones I’m interested in, just posted last night a teaser that there’s an announcement coming soon regarding the wetsuits. Hmmmmm maybe a partnership with a discount?

You are going to be happy next week.....

Oh hoping so! Santa, you paying attention?