Because you swim with your shoes on, it makes swimming really, really tough without some help.

Run 3 miles hard to a lake and then jump in and swim across as you are, and do this over and over. Swimming with shoes and socks is actually not completely terrible, but since you are doing it over and over again and need to be able to run hard in between, the pull buoy saves your legs.

There are teams who do such events without pull buoy and paddles, and some only use pull buoys and no paddles, but most teams use both. Tethers are also allowed but not required.

It becomes a big tactical decision for teams. How much faster am I in transition if I use neither device?

I did Casco Bay with a partner with whom I had only swam once. We ditched the tether, because we couldn’t keep it out of the trailing guy’s way. Neither of us trained with hand paddles, so we never tried to use those. The pull buoy worked well. We each held it to our outer thigh with bungee cord when running, and rotated it between the legs when swimming.

Elite swimrunners will be proficient with the paddles and tether, but you don’t really need it.

It’s a young sport and the techniques and gear probably will continue to evolve.

I heard they will be adding a bike segment soon. Everybody will get e-bikes because biking is hard.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

Thanks, makes sense...

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"one eye doubles my eyesight, so things don't look half bad" John Hiatt

Based on that commentary, you ought to ride a standard "Eddy Merckx" style bike in a triathlon to keep it real.

I recommend highly to folks to actually try a SwimRun before making wise comments about it.

Ha. I've done the S.O.S. Tri... twice. That's a swim-run across mountain top lakes woven between 15 miles of trail running, *after* biking up a mountain. My opinion is very valid. Good try though.

These races will get flack for the hand paddles until they drop them. Might as well get used to it.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

easy solution for you. paddles are not mandatory in swimrun. don't wear 'em.

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

I’m not sure what is “zen” about being a swimrun troll, and then justifying your comment with a humble brag. Lighten up.

Your opinion is valid if you are racing all your triathlons on a standard steel framed road bike with box rimmed wheels.

haha, good one. And a baggy kit.
Tim

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Blog: https://swimbikerunrinserepeat.wordpress.com

So in reading up on the S.O.S. Triathlon (which you clearly use as validation), it states that a pull buoy is allowed. Why is that?

Also, are there really just 3 swim segments totaling 2.1 miles? Maybe the "mountain top lakes" make the swimming super-tough. Like uphill, or something.

SwimRun races in Europe have 6km to 10km of swimming with shoes, and 35 to 65km of running. But as I said before, it is easy for folks to bohoo something they have never done.

Chris Hauth and Rich Roll are pretty accomplished triathletes and they finished 2:46:40 behind the winners at the OTILLO WC who finished in sub 8 hours.

In the early days athletes did the OTILLO one like triathletes, wearing a backpack with shoes and socks during the swim and then the wetsuit and goggles in the backpack while running. But that is just not very efficient

Ive never heard ÖTILLÖ swimrun get flack for paddles. As long as everyone is racing under the same rules does it matter? If somebody wants to make it more difficult for the sake of it being more difficult I'm sure the organizers would have no issue if people wanted to do the race with a 20 pound weight tied around their waist.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

Why are people so sensitive about their chosen race/sport?

Swim/run is cool, don't really care if they use paddles and pull buoys, swimming in shoes is difficult. I can see why they use them, makes sense.

SOS is cool, totally different vibe than a traditional tri (probably a whole lot like a nice swim/run event). I've also done SOS twice and while it's like a swim/run, it really isn't a swim/run. But why should it be? It's actually considered a tri. The rules I have say flotation devices (i.e. pull buoy) can only be used to transport shoes.

And as Herbert said, i'll let someone boohoo how "easy" SOS is after they've run up Godzilla 5 hours into the race and in the 17th mile of running

Breathe people, breathe LOL

Thank you

Gladly! We need more swimrun races in the U.S. first though!!!

I looked at the swimrun calendar and (while I don't know if its' complete) there's what, maybe 5 races in the US if that? I've been looking at my local area to see if there's an appropriate venue but ironically even though I am on the coast, there really isn't anything in the greater L.A. area. I have done swim run training for SOS but it's consisted of swimming at one location and running different routes from there.

SOS is badass -- you'll never hear me say anything negative about that challenge. It's truly one of the original endurance challenges around.

We've reported on both SOS as well as ÖTILLÖ here on Slowtwitch for many many years for obvious reasons - they have character and finishing one requires putting on your big boy pants and coming ready for an adventure!

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

These are not all, but the ones that came to mind

California SwimRun 03/25/2018

SwimRun Lake James (NC) - 04/07/2018

SwimRun Georgia - 04/08/2018

SwimRun USA Casco Bay (ME) 08/12/2018

Amphibious Challenge (Quebec, Canada) 09/08/2018

SwimRun Lake Superior (MI) 09/08/2018

SwimRun Virginia - 10/20/2018

SwimRun NC Hanging Rock - 10/28/2018

I did the inaugural Canaqua sports SwimRun Challenge in Sudbury Ontario this summer. It was excellent fun with fresh clean water, beautiful trail runs and an abundance of fresh blueberries on the run course. It will be held again in July for those interested. I'm excited that I got into SOS for next year and plan to do the Sudbury swimrun as a training event.

Did that race require you to race as part of a 2-person team? The whole team concept is a real problem to me b/c I literally know no people in my area who would be compatible partners.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

You need to run similarly (ideally) and have the same goals. It sounds much more difficult than it is.

Cait Snow and Emma-Kate Lidbury did our race as a team. Cait is a faster runner and Emma-Kate a faster swimmer.

It seems to me that they should both swim and run similarly; why do you emphasize the run over the swim???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."