ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series 2017 recap.
The ÖtillÖ Swimrun World Series races are over for 2017. The plan to have a consistent swimrun season, starting with ÖtillÖ Hvar and racing all the ÖtillÖ series didn’t work out. But at the end, it is all about the way we manage to adapt to the changes we front and 2018 already looks promising.
In April, for the first race in Croatia, Team Envol did a solid performance finishing 4th overall at 45″ to the podium. My super partner and friend, Julian Dent, had to revise his plans regarding training and racing for the year and I had to find another partner.
It is always a tricky situation, when you need a new partner mid-season. It is hard to keep up the motivation, and to keep training consistently when you are not sure if you will be able to stand on the starting line.
Mid-July, after missing ÖtillÖ Utö, Scilly and Engadin, I received a phone call from Guillaume Heneman, from Start Training. He was ready to commit, and came training with me for three days on the ÖtillÖ course. That willingness to come training over here, and commit to an ambitious goal made me realize that it was a perfect match for the World Championships.
The 4th of September, on the mythic race, we managed to race well. Unfortunately, we were dropped from the front pack during the first swim. But we kept a positive attitude, and were happy that we kept fighting until the finish line to reach the best result as possible. We ended 6th, and gained lots of motivation for the future.
It was a short notice decision to take the start of ÖtillÖ 1000 Lakes.The purpose was to get more experience together on a totally different course. The competition was tight and the pace was extremely fast during 4.5h. The long swim sections were not at our advantage. We finally ended on the podium at a promising 2nd place. The season did not go as plan, but keeping the attitude up gave ourselves good outlooks for the future.
Now it is time to focus on other things, rest from hard training and plan well 2018.
Thanks to Vivobarefoot, Lululemon, Nu Complements, Polar Coat, Swimrun Explore.
About Nicolas Remires
Nicolas Remires is a French endurance sports coach based in Stockholm, specialised in triathlon and swimrun. Nicolas coaches athletes of all levels, for races from sprint triathlon to ironman distance, 5km to ultra marathon, open water swimming, swimrun and cycling.
His swimrun achievements include: 4th and 3rd ÖtillÖ World Championships (2016-2015), 1st Utö Swimrun (2015), 1st Borås Swimrun (2015-2016), 2nd Ångalöppet (2014, 2015).
