Lene Sandvoll Stern DID finish the race! She did it well and was rewarded with a spot on the podium. Warming her face is her team mate, Åsa Larsson who unfortunately couldn’t race with her this day (above image).
DNF – those three letters no athlete wants printed next to their name. Did Not Finish.
This Saturday there were a few Team Envol members that got to learn how it feels. The feeling when you know it’s over. When you make the call that this is not happening today. There won’t be a finish line.
The coldest day of the month
This Saturday it was the cold that claimed the most victims. The water is always quite … fresh in the Stockholm archipelago in May. This year we had a cold May, this weekend was probably the coldest weekend in May. 8 degrees in the air. 8 degrees in the water.
Cold water swims are bearable if the air is reasonable warm. You have time to warm up between the runs and the cold is just a temporary uncomfort. Most races have a few cases of “cold DNF” cases, when the fatigue sets in even 20 degrees water can be too cold. Ötillö Utö had more than a few this year.
An amazing race course
The new course of the Ötillö Utö race was however even better than previous years. The Ötillö organisers really shows the beauty of the island and how good swimrun can be to the participants. The professional staff and volunteers made sure everyone was safe and well taken care of even under these challenging conditions.
And there were people who claimed the cold didn’t really bother them. Sabina Rapelli being one of them!
Team Envol all over the place!
There were some big smiles mixed in with the blue lips. Tom Jenkinson and his partner Niklas Lindskog were rather surprised to be greeted as winners of the sprint distance! The mixed category podium was pretty blue with Desirée Andersson and Nicolas Remires at second and Sabina Rapelli and Alexis Charrier at third place. Victor Dahl and Guillaume Henneman got the overall and men silver medal.
Lene Sandvoll snatched the third place in the sprint solo category. Brave decision to go solo when her partner unfortunately fell ill and didn’t make it to the start line. Bartos Pastula shared the second place in solo with a new found friend.
We had elite swimmrunners that didn’t make it to the finish line. We had team members with low expectations that made it to the podium! Once again, swimrun is wild. You can prepare but you never know what Mother Nature will serve on the day.
Stronger together
There were quite a few solo racers that crossed the line as a team. This says something. When it gets rough out there we are better off with a team mate. Solo racers teamed up to help each other stay safe and motivated all the way to the finish line. This is swimrun.
