Ö till Ö: Birth of Swimrun
Words & Photographs by Johan Rundcrantz
Stockholm archipelago, 24,000 islands. Rough rocky coastline, erratic weather, and heavy winds, raw nature.
The unique feeling of the archipelago lays a magic roughness over its stony beach line and dark deep forests. The weather is unpredictable, changes fast and hard winds move over the islands with force. You come face to face with mother nature and you must respect it, trust it, and challenge yourself during a Ö till Ö swimrun.
On one of the more well-known islands, Utö, two Utö native brothers was discussing if it was possible to travel between island of Sandön and the small village Sandhamn to Utö in 2004. Not with a boat, but by running and swimming the 65 kilometers. The two brothers decided to try the route in 2004 and it took them 24 hours, sleeping in the woods and gathering water and food at local pubs on the different islands on their way to Utö.
The rumor of the two brothers was spread into the multi-sport world and after a while Mikael Lemmel and Mats Andersson who just arranged WC in multi-sport. They took the idea of swimming between the islands and running across them and created a unique race concept, and then invited people in teams of two to compete, and Ö till Ö was born. Together with the birth of Ö till Ö the sport of swimrun was also created.
In 2006 the first official race was arranged with a total of nine teams. Only two teams finished and it took them a total of 12 hours of running and swimming, still half the time of the brothers journey.
There’s something about swimrun, first that it’s a quite a new and small sport and the community around it is tight, friendly, and welcoming, but at the same time in growth. A collective in growth. For example, before the pandemic the founders were always hugging everyone finishing the race. For me, coming into the sport one year ago immediately I received a warm open welcome. This isn’t always the case, and sometimes can be hard to break into small communities with their ingrained routines, rules and rigid ideals of how a participant should be or act. Here everyone is welcome, men and women compete with the same basis and people that never done a swimrun race starts together with the world champions. Swimrun is still a sport in development and evolution, but I found everyone was really welcoming to me joining and co-creating the future of the sport.
I have always loved running but after endless miles on the roads I started craving change, and my mind, body and feet were drawn into the woods as I fell in love with trail running. The complete focus you need while running, dancing over rocks, roots or any other natural obstacles attracted me. When you’re looking up from the ground and realize you are miles into a dark forest, just you and nature, as one, it’s a primal experience. But like most of you, we are always in the search for new challenges, and for me taking trail running to the next level meant swimming to the next trail; enter swimrun. Here I can truly be in the nature, in dark and cold water, rocky coastlines and deep in the forest.
With swimrun you don’t only need to have the complete focus while trail running, you also need to jump into the unpredictable ocean and then up again to continue running. You need to look at the nature in a different way, changing the map. The ocean is changes quick with the tide, the cold, waves, and slippery rocks. As you can't predict nature, you can't change or force it, you need to trust both yourself and the ocean, a unique combination of engaged surrender, in ultimate presence. Obstacles need to become opportunities in nature, to move more seamlessly. A true deep dive into your soul and interconnection. Since 2004 Ö till Ö and swimrun has grown enormously, and now you can take part of a Ö till Ö race all around the world. But the true original race and location is still and will always be on Utö in Stockholm archipelago.
After last year’s race was cancelled due to the pandemic, I finally was standing on the starting line on Utö last week, about to start my first ever swimrun race, the Ö till Ö Sprint. As I don’t have a partner yet I can’t do the original race, as you need be partnered up in a team of two for safety reasons for the full course. The sprint version on Utö includes 11.1km of trails and 2.85km of ocean swimming across different sections with a total elevation of 48 meters. The longest swim section is 500m and run section 2.6km. I traveled out to Utö three days before the race to run the course ahead of time, but also get to know the landscape, water and weather. A big part of the race is to really plan the course and race in detail, get to know the surroundings and nature to better able to pace yourself and be a little bit familiar with the dynamic traverse on race day.
Looking back I feel my first race went well. For swimrun you can really give everything during the running sections to then rest your legs during the swim sections, as you are usually use a pull buoy and this is something I will utilize even more in my next races. I felt afterwards that I could have giving ever more in the running sections, but you can only learn these lessons with the experience of racing and the unique way the body and nervous system reacts under those special situations. This is my first love letter to the sport of swimrun, and I have so much respect for Ö till Ö race, my hope is that this story and adventure might inspire you to give swimrun a chance wherever you live, connecting to nature and yourself in this unique and powerful way.
Read about Johan’s experience in another Swedish endurance classic, see the feature about the Vasaloppet