By Richard Mitchell and Mogsy Ford
Updated September 2024
Swimrun Advice is the biggest and best website for people new to the exhilarating sport of Swimrun. We were even recommended by the British newspaper 'The Guardian' in March 2024 - read the article at the Guardian website here. The article is about the best European activity breaks with a spirit of adventure; Because swimrun is an exciting new sport, we got the recommendation, specifically for training camps 2024.
Are you getting into this new sport for the first time? We know what it's like! It sounds a bit strange at first, running in your wetsuit and swimming in your shoes, with no transitions for changing gear. But this inspiring adventure sport is growing very quickly in popularity.
If you are wondering what it is all about, you should go to our page on What Is Swimrun first. It explains what's involved, and how it came into existence.
For inspiration, or if you want to search for an event, check our NEW race calendars for events in 2024:
and Swimrun calendar USA/Rest of the World 2024
You can also Search for Races listed by Country Here. Just click on that link to go to our race page where events are listed by country!
If you are an event organiser, please feel free to contact us with your dates! This year - 2024 - looks very exciting!
If you're keen to start as soon as possible, you should definitely look at our detailed page about your first event. This is our cheat sheet for how to get the most out of your first event – all the essentials distilled into one page.
As experienced marathon runners and triathletes, we decided to try the new endurance sport of Swimrun. But good, knowledgeable advice can be hard to find, so we've set up this website to introduce people to this thrilling world of swimming and running from island to island - running in your wetsuit and swimming in your running shoes!
So far, we have competed in four events -
In 2024 we will be doing a few more!
As the inventors of the sport, the company Ötillö from Sweden deserve a special mention. You can read about the company HERE.
In the photo below, we are on the left, with Ötillö Race Director Mats
Skott on the right of the picture. This image was taken at the prize-giving after
completing the sprint distance event at Engadin, Switzerland. But don't be too impressed – we hadn't won our group, but we DID come 2nd in the raffle for some gear!
The most important page on this site is probably Race Day Advice. It's chock-full of information on pre-race preparation, and tips and tricks for during the event too. Some are borrowed from our marathon running experience, and others are hard-earned gems from our Swimrun races in very different environments. Click on the race advice link to see what you can learn.
At first, we found ourselves wondering what gear we would need, what to wear and where to find events for this new sport. Check out our swim run equipment page to find out exactly what gear you will need! We even have a page dedicated to socks reviewing some of the best on the market.
One piece of equipment that every swimrunner needs is goggles. We review the most popular swim goggles, and have a special page about custom-fit goggles for people who have problems finding goggles that don't leak or exert too much pressure. These are made by American company THEMAGIC 5.
Our biggest page is probably our reviews of suitable watches - take a look at our affordable GPS watch reviews to find out what you should be looking for!
Choosing a suitable wetsuit is one of the biggest challenges – Mogsy even had to have a suit custom-made to her own measurements, to get a fit that would be comfortable for up to 8 hours of wear! You can read about our own suits.
In warm weather or hot climates, you can wear a triathlon suit instead of a wetsuit. This has a couple of interesting advantages, as we describe in our page on hot weather swimrun gear.
You can also check our buy-and-sell kit page to look for a bargain, if you're looking to buy or sell equipment, including wetsuits, watches etc.
We have carried out a review of the best dedicated wetsuits to help newcomers see what's available. Swedish company ARK have announced their incredible new suit which looks like a big leap forward in wetsuit design and construction – at a price. Check it out at our Wetsuit Reviews page.
Mogsy's favourite wetsuit is the Colting Women's suit pictured below - click here for more information and the best price!
We have found that there is a small but significant risk of picking up a trauma during training and racing, especially in salt water events. Discover what might go wrong at our page on Swim and Run Injuries. And be sure to read all the way to the bottom to find out about the most dangerous risk!
Swimrun events were originally for teams of 2 persons, but in recent years it has been possible to compete as a solo racer. In September 2020, Michal Jablonski completed a sprint distance event of 12km as a solo racer, but he took his dog Venus with him! Read more about this story!
This new sport is growing in popularity around the world, and we have pages with details of organisers who hold a series of races. For example;
USA: Odyssey Series (Now Ötillö swimrun USA)
USA: IGNITE Series (now RIP IT EVENTS)
Canada: Mudskipper Challenge
Europe/USA: Otillo World Series
Canary Islands, Spain: Canary Islands
Portugal, including Madeira; Portugal Series
Australia: Swimrun Australia
Italy: The Swimrun Italy series
But you can also check our event calendars for Europe 2024 as well as for the USA/Rest of World 2024, OR you can search by country here!
Are you an organiser who holds one or more events? Contact us and we can add you to our list of organisers, and feature your races in a dedicated web page for your organisation.
But now let's get back to the basics!
You'll need to find out about all the issues involved in Swim Run before you can become competitive in races.
Look at the drop-down menu above to see the various areas we are covering, from
We estimated that the Isles of Scilly Swimrun would take us from 7 to 8 hours to complete, and so we incorporated a marathon into our training plan, to build up our endurance. The event was in Milan, Italy. We finished at a comfortable pace, bearing in mind that we were treating this as another training session. Check out our Milan race report.
We think that training for a full marathon or a half-marathon is
excellent endurance work before a long-distance SwimRun event (say, over 30km). You can read about
other marathons we have personally completed.
It's also good to look for dedicated swimming events or series, to focus on swimming for a period. We entered the Barbados Open Water Festival in November 2019, which involved 5 swims over 5 days. Read about the event - and our training.
For our most recent BIG race, in the Isles of Scilly, UK, we kept a training log. You can read about how we planned and carried out our training at our Training Page.
Of course, don't forget to read 'About Us' to find out who's writing this site - anyone can put up a website, but it's good to know that the authors of this site are genuine SwimRunners!
This website is very active, and we are updating it continuously, especially the race calendars for Europe and USA/Canada/Rest Of the World.
So do bookmark this page or add it to your RSS feed, and come back soon!
The Vivobarefoot Hydra ESC - a very popular trail show for Swimrun!
CLICK HERE for further details and the BEST PRICE!
SwimRun-Advice.com is supported by the following Swimrun companies;