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250km swimrun in 60hrs non-stop in tethered teams of three.
What is great is the immersive live coverage and real time GPS tracking.
It’s clearly a niche competition / race, but hey - I admire them. The team aspect brings a lot of joy and enduring just a moment longer.
But, who’s actually leading at the moment? T6 seems to be the only team that reached checkpoint 5, but they don’t have the longest distance… hmm?
I’m assuming that’s because wayfinding is part of the game. Maybe Team2 made a wrong turn, etc.
Yup seems orienteering on land and in water is required skillset too
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Just watched a little of the immersive coverage. This is exactly what Ironman needs. I think part of the excitement of even the old Iron War is it really felt like you were right there with Dave and Mark as an army of locals followed along behind them in their pickups. It’s like the camera was right there with Julie falling and flailing around in that race as well.
We’ve lost something with professional sports view a lot of the broadcasts take. I watched a minute of this One Water Race or whatever it’s called and I was immediately immersed into the over the shoulder view and hearing the athletes talk and look around as their doing it. Coverage of Ironman would be so much better if the athletes were mic’d and the third wall was broken regularly.
I thought it was awesome at St George (I believe) where they put a camera in Paula’s face and asked her questions as she was getting her shoes on in T2. She was taken back, some of the crusty viewers were annoyed and telling the camera to back off. No way. We should be talking to them (via mic) on the bike and interviewing them live in the middle of the run.
The interviews might lean a bit adversarial from time to time, but if it becomes part of the process, the athletes will adapt.
And in a different direction, if you’ve ever done a triathlon side by side with a buddy, you’ll know how much more fun it is. Is there any reason why triathlon can’t be a team sport of two? Not only makes for a great experience, but it’s guaranteed to cause all those Ironmen to look around and find another partner.
Thanks for pointing that one out. I had no idea it was going on; the coverage is indeed amazing. That’s my kind of Reality TV.
Seems like such a great event… if only I was a better swimmer!
Friend of mine organises Rockman in Norway. It is probably the second most famous Swimrun alongside Otillo. Much harder than Otillo, but a bit shorter. The normal route is circa 42km total. This year was the 10th anniversary so they returned to the original route, 51km with 3500 height metres on Norwegian mountains, some very technical running including the famous Pulpit Rock, Florli stairs (4444 wooden stairs up) and then Kjerag (the boulder stuck in a mountain cleft 1000m over the fjord).
A lot of the guys who do well in Otillo raced and completion times for Rockman were 2-3 hours behind what they would do at Otillo.
Anyone interested in Swimrun should come to Norway next year for Rockman, we’ll look after you 
Your families can join as spectators on a fjord cruise seeing all the instagram stuff
We’ve lost something with professional sports view a lot of the broadcasts take. I watched a minute of this One Water Race or whatever it’s called and I was immediately immersed into the over the shoulder view and hearing the athletes talk and look around as their doing it. Coverage of Ironman would be so much better if the athletes were mic’d and the third wall was broken regularly.
I thought it was awesome at St George (I believe) where they put a camera in Paula’s face and asked her questions as she was getting her shoes on in T2. She was taken back, some of the crusty viewers were annoyed and telling the camera to back off. No way. We should be talking to them (via mic) on the bike and interviewing them live in the middle of the run.
The interviews might lean a bit adversarial from time to time, but if it becomes part of the process, the athletes will adapt.
When you’re racing for potentially tens of thousands of dollars and you’re trying to concentrate/survive while being exhausted I think the last thing you’d want is a camera shoved in your face and someone asking you a bunch of questions. It’d be like bob the dude who hangs round the water cool at work coming to your desk while you’re finishing up the final touches of a make or break presentation and just trying to shoot the shit with you. There’s a time and place for both, and that time or place is not for either of those scenarios.
If anyone follows cricket closely they have 1-2 players mic’d up for The Big Bash competition in Australia. They obviously discuss this beforehand with the players and probably have set times when they can and can’t talk in their ear. But this competition is also made to be more of a spectacle so it’s a little less serious at times. I think the Collins cup would’ve been the perfect place to do this sort of thing.
If you need hints, tips, travel advce, anything then just reach out. I would either race or be part of the race organisation so can hopefully answer any queries!
Yup seems orienteering on land and in water is required skillset too
I tried to do the SwimRun that was held in Boston (was a one time event) without realizing orienteering was part of the event. Got to the first swim and was like ‘where are the buoys?!’. I had a bad day.
Yup seems orienteering on land and in water is required skillset too
I tried to do the SwimRun that was held in Boston (was a one time event) without realizing orienteering was part of the event. Got to the first swim and was like ‘where are the buoys?!’. I had a bad day.
This race is very different. There usually aren’t buoys in swimrun - flags on the swim exits you aim for. But, there is a ‘course’ with route markings and such.
This is a ‘choose your route’ course with checkpoints and you have to figure out your team’s route between them as you go (you aren’t given the checkpoint locations before the race). Do you take the longer route with more running, shorter route with more swimming? Ah, this island has no roads or trails and will be all bushwhacking. Etc.
We’ve lost something with professional sports view a lot of the broadcasts take. I watched a minute of this One Water Race or whatever it’s called and I was immediately immersed into the over the shoulder view and hearing the athletes talk and look around as their doing it. Coverage of Ironman would be so much better if the athletes were mic’d and the third wall was broken regularly.
I thought it was awesome at St George (I believe) where they put a camera in Paula’s face and asked her questions as she was getting her shoes on in T2. She was taken back, some of the crusty viewers were annoyed and telling the camera to back off. No way. We should be talking to them (via mic) on the bike and interviewing them live in the middle of the run.
The interviews might lean a bit adversarial from time to time, but if it becomes part of the process, the athletes will adapt.
When you’re racing for potentially tens of thousands of dollars and you’re trying to concentrate/survive while being exhausted I think the last thing you’d want is a camera shoved in your face and someone asking you a bunch of questions. It’d be like bob the dude who hangs round the water cool at work coming to your desk while you’re finishing up the final touches of a make or break presentation and just trying to shoot the shit with you. There’s a time and place for both, and that time or place is not for either of those scenarios.
If anyone follows cricket closely they have 1-2 players mic’d up for The Big Bash competition in Australia. They obviously discuss this beforehand with the players and probably have set times when they can and can’t talk in their ear. But this competition is also made to be more of a spectacle so it’s a little less serious at times. I think the Collins cup would’ve been the perfect place to do this sort of thing.
And yet these swim runners have a camera following around while they are lost and deliberating etc. Thinking and communicating under pressure is something to be encouraged. If you want to race for the purity of the Sport, I suggest being an amateur. If you want to get paid big money I suggest the pros take some reasonable actions to make themselves more interesting while they are competing. This doesn’t mean doing wheelies on the bike. But being open to having an occasional dialogue is not unreasonable.
Soldiers in stressful situations where many lives are on the line can be micd up to communicate. I think it’s not too unreasonable that “when money is on the line” and they are working hard they can talk a little about their thoughts etc
We’ve lost something with professional sports view a lot of the broadcasts take. I watched a minute of this One Water Race or whatever it’s called and I was immediately immersed into the over the shoulder view and hearing the athletes talk and look around as their doing it. Coverage of Ironman would be so much better if the athletes were mic’d and the third wall was broken regularly.
I thought it was awesome at St George (I believe) where they put a camera in Paula’s face and asked her questions as she was getting her shoes on in T2. She was taken back, some of the crusty viewers were annoyed and telling the camera to back off. No way. We should be talking to them (via mic) on the bike and interviewing them live in the middle of the run.
The interviews might lean a bit adversarial from time to time, but if it becomes part of the process, the athletes will adapt.
When you’re racing for potentially tens of thousands of dollars and you’re trying to concentrate/survive while being exhausted I think the last thing you’d want is a camera shoved in your face and someone asking you a bunch of questions. It’d be like bob the dude who hangs round the water cool at work coming to your desk while you’re finishing up the final touches of a make or break presentation and just trying to shoot the shit with you. There’s a time and place for both, and that time or place is not for either of those scenarios.
If anyone follows cricket closely they have 1-2 players mic’d up for The Big Bash competition in Australia. They obviously discuss this beforehand with the players and probably have set times when they can and can’t talk in their ear. But this competition is also made to be more of a spectacle so it’s a little less serious at times. I think the Collins cup would’ve been the perfect place to do this sort of thing.
And yet these swim runners have a camera following around while they are lost and deliberating etc. Thinking and communicating under pressure is something to be encouraged. If you want to race for the purity of the Sport, I suggest being an amateur. If you want to get paid big money I suggest the pros take some reasonable actions to make themselves more interesting while they are competing. This doesn’t mean doing wheelies on the bike. But being open to having an occasional dialogue is not unreasonable.
Soldiers in stressful situations where many lives are on the line can be micd up to communicate. I think it’s not too unreasonable that “when money is on the line” and they are working hard they can talk a little about their thoughts etc
It’s not up to the pros to be more interesting while competing. Their entire job is to swim, bike, and run to win the race(s) they’re competing in. Now if Ironman/PTO et al want their exposure to increase and to try gain popularity then that’s up to them. Maybe they could throw in a few bonuses/incentives to athletes willing to do mid-race interviews or perhaps make it compulsory if they want to compete in the Pro Series/T100.
Again, a pro athlete is not a soldier, it’s not their job to try and communicate no matter the situation (unlike someone in the military). This is a solo sport with the aim of winning a race, not some do or die situation where your communication could save lives.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d be interested in this sort of thing. Although, I’m not sure how interesting the interviews would be:
Lionel, you’re 5 minutes down after the swim, how can you win this race?
Lucy, you had a great swim as usual and you’ve got a good gap going into T2, what’s the plan on the run?
X, looks like you’ve got the shits on the run, how you feeling?
3 finishing teams this year including a new team. Very impressive. The coverage and tracking are amazing for an event like this. It’s hard to describe how rugged, remote, and challenging this terrain is.
The production is done by ASO. Same company which does Tour De France and Rallye Dakar. Really impressive.
https://onewaterrace.com/one-water-race-bl-media-property/
I did my first swimrun this year. Adriel Young, member of the winning team, zoomed by me on some technical terrain. I still don’t understand how one can go so fast on a trail like this.