Race report Engadin Swimrun 2014

Dear racers, friends and family!

With a few days of perspective on Engadin Swimrun we can for sure say that it was true. It was no picnic and no walk in the park!

Engadin Swimrun proved to be a challenging course with many newcomers to Swimrun. For the first time in Swimrun history the majority of the starting teams were not from Sweden. In fact only 24% of the teams were swedish, the rest were from a total of 17 nations. We sincerely welcome you to the Swimrun family and hope that you understand that everyone put on a stellar performance, finishers and non-finishers.

The day started with perfect weather, after almost a week of rain and cold temperatures it was fantastic to wake up to blue skies and no wind. We had an on-time start and the race took off. fast until the first uphill and then slow as no one wanted to pull up front which created a snake- like queue that crawled up the mountain. It went slow up that first hill to the first swim at Lej Cavloc. From then it seems as if the speed picked up with Team Head Swimming (Björn Englund SWE & Paul Krochak CAN) the current World Champions showing the way with quick feet and strong swims. These guys had never been in the Alps before.. Interesting to see what will happen next year when some strong mountain runners will show up for start.

The field of teams worked their way down the valley towards Silvaplana and the first cut-off before going all the way to St Moritz before turning back to the finish in Silvaplana. Almost 70% of the teams managed the first cut-off which was placed after all bigger mountain runs but before two of the longest swims. Of these teams a few chose to pull out and/or did not make it in time for the second cut-off at Lez Staz. In the end 58% of the teams that started the race also finished the race. This is as we had predicted before-hand. The cut-offs are placed along the course for safety reasons only, to make sure that the racers that manage to get to the cut-offs also manage to finish the races. The longer time you are out on the course the tougher it gets with cold water temperatures and with the dehydration rate created by running in your wetsuit. It was from an Organizers perspective beautiful to see that so many understood the concept of Swimrun and where you make sure that your partner and fellow racers are doing ok on the course.

Racing-wise Head Swimming proved why they are the World Champions, Carro & Lelle who won the mixed category and in fourth place overall showed why they are considered as some of the best endurance atheletes in Sweden and Hanna Slotte/ Natialia Muller who won the Womens category proved that a No limits attitude, big smiles and years of top class cross country skiing can come a long way! New teams have now qualified for ÖTILLÖ and we had some new faces in the upper ranks of the race. All in all it was a great day for us, to bring the new sport of Swimrun outside of Sweden and get such great performance from everyone.

When it comes to the scenery of the race and one of our main objectives (to get awesome footage) with setting the first race in Engadin we can only say that Switzerland, Engadin and Silvaplana delivered! I look at the photos and short films and just smile at how beautiful it is.

We will update you via the facebook page about the progress of our TV production. You can find all results on the website and we will update the info about when and how the entry proccess for Engadin Swimrun 2015 will be done.

We sincerely hope to see you all at one of our races in Sweden, Switzerland or elsewhere in the future. A huge thanks to all racers, all staff, all sponsors and all media for making this epic Engadin Swimrun 2014 a huge and safe success. A special thanks to Menduri Kasper and Aita Rubi of Silvaplana Tourism for making it happen.

Best regards & respect,

Michael & Mats