Swimrun Stories, Part 1
ÖTILLÖ Malta was the race where I learned that the hardest part of swimrun has nothing to do with fitness. Most race reports are written by people who are fast. This one isn’t. It’s written for the runner who looks at a swimrun and thinks: the running part I can manage, but the swimming? In shoes? In the open sea?
If that’s you, keep reading. Because the biggest lesson I took home from Malta has to do with balance.
What swimrun actually is
Swimrun is simple to explain and hard to do. You run, you swim, you run again, over and over, without ever changing your kit. You swim in your running shoes, and you run in your wetsuit. Most athletes carry a pull buoy and hand paddles, because legs in shoes don’t kick very well.
ÖTILLÖ, the Swedish organisation that started it all, takes the format to some of the most beautiful places in the world. Malta is one of them: rocky coastline, warm sun and water so clear it almost looks unreal.
ÖTILLÖ Malta: water you can see through
The sea off Malta is so clear you can see every rock below you. That’s not always a comfort. Because what you also see is your own legs, in running shoes, slowly sinking towards them.
Every runner who starts swimming knows this feeling. You push off, your hips drop, your legs drag behind you like an anchor. So you kick harder. And the harder you kick, the more tired you get, and the lower your legs sink.
In a pool, you can get away with it for a few lengths. In the sea, with shoes on your feet and the next run waiting on the rocks, you can’t.
Balance before power
This is exactly what the book From Runner to Efficient Swimmer: Master the Crawl is about. Runners are used to solving problems with effort. Run harder, train more, push through. In the water, that approach works against you.
The fix isn’t more kick. It’s balance. Press your chest gently into the water, keep your head low and in line with your spine, and let your hips rise. When your body is level, your legs stop being an anchor. Suddenly the pull buoy is a help, not a rescue.
At ÖTILLÖ Malta, every swim leg was a reminder: the moment I lifted my head too high or started fighting the water, my legs sank. The moment I relaxed and found my balance again, I moved forward with half the effort.
Three balance drills for runners
- Press the buoy. Float face down and gently press your chest into the water. Feel your hips come up. That pressure point is your balance.
- Head down, eyes down. Look at the bottom, not ahead. A lifted head is the fastest way to sink your legs.
- Swim slower than you think. A calm, long stroke keeps you level. Rushing breaks your position.
The runs in between
And then you climb out onto the rocks, water running out of your shoes, and start running again. Your legs feel strange, your heart rate jumps, and the sun is already drying your wetsuit.
The same rule that helped me on the Stelvio and Mont Ventoux applies here: keep your heart rate low on the runs, and you’ll have something left for the next swim. Swimrun punishes anyone who treats each leg as a sprint.
What I took away from ÖTILLÖ Malta
- In open water, balance matters more than power.
- If your legs sink, don’t kick harder. Fix your body position.
- Keep the heart rate low on the runs, so you can stay calm in the water.
- You don’t have to be a great swimmer to do a swimrun. You have to be an efficient one.
Here’s what a race report doesn’t show. The balance in the sea off Malta didn’t come from a drill read the week before. It came from years of getting it wrong first, and from finally learning it in the right order. Balance looks simple on paper: head down, chest in, hips up. But your runner’s body has spent years learning the opposite: stay upright, look ahead, push. That pattern sits deep below conscious thought, and in the open sea, with shoes on your feet and your heart rate up, it takes over. No article changes that. What changes it is building the foundation properly: rehearsing the positions on dry land, then feeling them in the water in short, calm attempts, one cue at a time, until your subconscious accepts a new normal. That’s the proven process the book From Runner to Efficient Swimmer: Master the Crawl is built on, and balance is where it starts. Get the foundation right, and everything else, from breathing to swimming in the sea, has something solid to stand on.
Next in the series: the cold alpine lakes of the Engadin, and why calm breathing is your best defence against cold water.
Take it easy, and God bless.
— Heiko