With the season having come to an end in the UK, here’s a round up of Söuthsea Swimrun’s racing activities from 2024. Hopefully this might inspire a few of you to join in for your first swimruns next year. Just look how beautiful this sport of ours is.
The year kicked off in May with Anthony, Mark and I heading over to Sweden to join the EX Swimrun team. This was a lovely, friendly event held over two days and based around Edsviken in Sollentuna, which is easily accessible from central Stockholm. There were a couple of distances to choose from; Mark took on the 14 km and Anthony and I the 24km. For 2025, they’ve also introduced an even more accessible 5km taster version, which will hopefully encourage more people to try the sport. In 2024 there were also supersprint races that showcased the pros. These were held on the Saturday and were well worth watching as world-class swimrun athletes hurtled past in a series of exciting knock-out races. The regular races on Sunday culminated in an adveturous cliff jump (see Anthony walking on air below), just to liven things up further. *alternative routes are available for the faint hearted 😉
A few weeks later, Adrian and I then popped along to the first running of what is basically our local event in Studland, hosted by iSwimrun. Again, there were multiple distances to choose from and some glorious coastal scenery. This event was chock-full of the great and good of UK swimrun, plus lots of folk trying it out for the first time as there were three different distances to choose from. Note we already have a few members signed up for 2025, so you won’t be alone if you are thinking about giving it a go.
In July, having missed out on doing the traditional course last year due to the weather not playing along, I ventured down to Cornwall again to join the Mad Hatters at Hokey Cokey Roseland. This year they’d added a half distance event too, but I would take on the 36 km version, and after a mild sense of humour failure in the longest swim, landed second on the ladies podium. This course is gorgeous and tough, but incredibly fulfilling. One lady had come all the way from Germany just to experience it after seeing pictures on the internet!
Loving an adventure somewhere i’ve never been before, on the last weekend in August I joined Scilly60’s first running of the Isles of Scilly Swimrun. Another epic adventure, the full course (shorter distances are again available throughout the long weekend) takes you on an archipelago adventure around eight of the islands. This was absolutely epic; when else do you get the opportunity to explore somewhere this beautiful by land and sea with such incredible support? Again I shimmied into second on the solo ladies podium.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride…
A mere week later, I met up with Anthony, Adrian, Louise, and Lulu in Fowey for another Mad Hatters event, this time for The Gribben, another spectacular bit of coastline and wonderful sea swimming. Sadly, it wouldn’t be Anthony and Adrian’s day as Anthony took a tumble that bared his patella to the world (or at least the medics), but Lulu and I had a lovely day out and through no fault of our own (the ladies in front lost a member to injury) finally took the top step of the podium.
Finally, our newest swimrun buddy, Christina, took on her first swimrun at Gritty Rascals’ swimrun in Coniston and loved it. Always good to see a swimrun convert. She’s already signed up with her daughter for 2025 And rumour has it, more of her family are also champing at the bit to give it a go!
Now, obviously, this isn’t an exhaustive list of UK events, but we’re gradually getting out there and trying them out (other companies and races are available in Wales (Love Swimrun, We Swimrun, Gritty Rascals), the SE (As Keen as Mustard), and even Jersey, for example). So, if you’re new to the sport, or just need some more inspiration to start getting involved, do get in touch. And remember, Söuthsea Swimrun members get discounted entries to some of these races too.