Each James Bond movie features a scene the place 007 steps into Q’s lab and glimpses the long run—prototype devices, inconceivable concepts, and spycraft tech that feels one step forward of the world. Listening to Nicholas Roman talk about swimrun, you get the sense he’s constructed one thing comparable on the slick, rocky shores of the Stockholm archipelago: his personal R&D lab for human-powered exploration, hydrodynamics, and the evolution of a still-young sport.
Swimrun, for the uninitiated, is a paired endurance race throughout island chains, the place groups alternate between open-water swimming and path working with out stopping to alter gear. Companions keep collectively the complete time, towing, pacing, and problem-solving their manner throughout a course that blends wild nature with tactical decision-making. It’s half journey race, half endurance sport, and half communion with chilly water and rock.
Roman, the CEO and Founding father of EX Swimrun, got here to the game as an area. He has spent each summer season of his life—greater than 5 many years—on Runmarö, an island in Stockholm’s archipelago surrounded by a whole bunch of neighboring islands inside swimming distance. But it wasn’t till 2015, when a good friend satisfied him to attempt a race, that the game really clicked.
“You’d assume I knew what swimrun was earlier than 2015, contemplating it was based on the islands there,” he says. “You possibly can’t not love swimrun in the event you stay at Runmarö as a result of I’ve 600 islands inside a 20-minute swim from my home. Since then, I’ve been hooked.”
Earlier than that, Roman’s athletic identification was formed in the US. He grew up in Philadelphia between the ages of seven and fifteen, enjoying crew sports activities like soccer and lacrosse. Working, he admits, was one thing to be endured, not loved—“a punishment,” as he places it. Swimrun reframed motion for him. It turned the punishment in his eyes right into a ardour for transferring fluidly by way of a panorama.
Swimrun, for Roman, is really an train in immersion.
“At first and the tip of the season, it’s crystal clear, so that you don’t even want goggles,” he says. “We even drink the water. I drink the Baltic Sea after I’m out swimming.”
From Windsurfing Fits to Carbon Paddles
Roman’s first race was carried out in a windsurfing wetsuit from the Eighties, a relic of a distinct period of watersports.
“Windsurfing fits from the 80s had stiff shoulders as a result of, in the event you’re pumping the sail, you wish to maintain your arms down. So swimming in that was actually troublesome. It was so exhausting on the shoulders.”
At this time, the gear panorama seems nothing prefer it did then. He now races in a specialised front-zip swimrun swimsuit with a running-specific decrease half, a pool buoy thrice the scale of what he first used, carbon fiber paddles, and path trainers. Sure, that is proper. You swim in footwear.
“The gear is completely totally different,” he says. “You don’t should have the newest swimsuit, however the distinction is superb whenever you begin working.”
For Roman, tools is about decreasing friction between you and the surroundings as you move by way of nature, and his thoughts is flooded with concepts on easy methods to refine the expertise to its quintessence.
“For those who take a look at quick boats and quick airplanes, they’re all the time actually pointy,” he says. “And in the event you take a look at huge barges, they’re rounded. Our heads are rounded, so we’re swimming like barges, the place we might be swimming like fighter jets.”
His answer? A swim cap with a hydrodynamic cone insert—“some type of styrofoam or one thing inside that offers me a sharp head.” Half joking, half critical, he imagines future begin strains stuffed with cone-headed athletes.
Hearken to Nicholas Roman talk about his most revolutionary concepts for the game on this episode of The Out of doors Journal Podcast.
In swimrun, the pull buoy continues to be one of many sport’s most defining items of substances, and its evolution mirrors the evolution of the game itself—from a generic instrument swapped from one other sport to a finely-tuned, specialised hydrodynamic support.
With regards to buoyancy, Roman’s thoughts races with concepts. Within the early days of the game, swimrunners adopted the identical foam blocks swimmers squeeze between their thighs in a lap pool. Athletes tied them to their legs with bungee wire and dragged them like awkward sea anchors over rocks and trails. It labored, however not with out the price of frustration. The buoys would snag on timber and disrupt working strides.
As the game grew, purpose-built swimrun buoys appeared in the marketplace. They bought bigger (extra flotation to offset the additional drag of footwear) and extra hydrodynamic (teardrop shapes as a substitute of bricks). However they had been nonetheless leg-mounted, and on technical trails, they might turn into genuinely hazardous.
The newest innovation got here when athletes began attaching the buoy to the waist as a substitute of the leg. This shortened transition time and allowed athletes to slice by way of single-track forest trails with out snagging.
All of the whereas, Roman is busy in his lab, concocting the pool-buoy killer.
“I wish to have a swimsuit with air inside it so that you don’t want a pool buoy. You simply press whenever you go within the water, it fills with slightly air, and it retains you floating like a buoy.”
“I don’t assume we’ve seen the final innovation in relation to swimrun gear.”
Why Triathletes Are Discovering Their Method to the Islands
Swimrun has steadily turn into a refuge for former triathletes and street runners burned out on inflexible programs and stopwatch obsessions. Roman sees it clearly.
Triathlon, he says, is linear. Prescribed. A single observe of enchancment outlined virtually completely by time. Swimrun, against this, provides freedom: route selection, the shared expertise of a companion, and the ever-changing variables of each water and terrain.
It’s much less about competitors and extra about collaboration—together with your teammate and with the surroundings. Much less about perfection, extra about play.
Transitions, Physique Paint, and the Soul of the Sport
Ask Roman in regards to the strangest gear concepts he’s seen, and he laughs. The early days had been stuffed with experimentation: flippers, backpacks, snorkels, hacked wetsuits.
“Once you take a look at the distinction between the very best and the second-best swimrunners, it’s the transitioning,” he says. “I’ve skilled a lot on transitions as a result of you may win a lot time there. If in case you have flippers on, it’s like working within the solely other way.”
One of the vital telling reminiscences from the early days of swimrun reads like a scene from Friday the thirteenth, with racers hacking away at their fits like the long-lasting, machete-branding villain.
“I keep in mind my first race—folks had been taking brand-new fits and slicing the legs and arms off proper there initially line.” (Are you able to hear the screams?)
Then there are the concepts that arrive after just a few beers.
“Sooner or later, why even have fits?” Roman muses. “They need to simply body-paint some type of heat-absorbing paint on you. You get right into a tent, it sprays you, it lasts six hours, then it disappears. It’s similar to an additional layer of pores and skin.”
Absurd? Perhaps. However beneath the humor is a critical philosophy: take away obstacles. Streamline. Let the physique transfer by way of nature as freely as potential.
¨We wish to put the Swim again in Swimrun. We attempt to design as many swims and transitions as potential, not just some lengthy swim sections. That’s what the game is for us. It’s island hopping.¨
Constructing a Race, Not a Enterprise Exit
Roman launched EX Swimrun in 2019. Since then, he has organized a number of race codecs—from puke-your-guts-out Supersprints to open-world Safari explorations to entry-level “Attempt Swimrun” occasions.
“For the time being in Sweden, we’re seeing the second technology of swimrunners coming by way of,” he says. “The pandemic hit the game exhausting, nevertheless it’s rising once more. And that’s quite a bit to do with organizers.”
What distinguishes EX from the biggest group within the sport, ÖTILLÖ, isn’t hostility however philosophy, an area mindset.
“Not head-to-head,” he explains. “We’ve got totally different pursuits. One aspect is extra business-driven, perhaps fascinated with exit methods. Us, the native organizers—we’re not attempting to promote an organization. We’re attempting to get extra folks concerned in swimrun.”
It’s an environment of collaboration amongst organizers relatively than competitors. Roman has been working with the Founding father of ÖTILLÖ, Michael Lemmel, and others for over a yr and a half to make Swimrun an official a part of the Swedish Triathlon Basis, which might enhance entry to funding, insurance coverage, and communication with youth packages.
Safari Racing and the Return of Exploration
Out of all of EX Swimruns’ improvements, Roman’s child is the Safari format: an open-world course the place groups navigate between checkpoints throughout islands, selecting their very own swim-to-run ratios, strains, and methods.
“My greatest ardour is the Safari occasion. It’s the way forward for swimrun in the event you ask me.”
On this format, the game turns into one thing nearer to its authentic soul: exploration. You possibly can swim straight throughout a channel or detour through land. You possibly can select to courageous the chilly water or warmth up over the rocks. You aren’t simply racing—you’re navigating.
“It’s the exploration/journey expertise of swimrun that we have to carry again,” he says. “It could’t all be about elite racing and earning money, or we lose the essence.”
Subsequent yr, the Safari will begin by boat on the fringe of Sweden’s latest marine nationwide park within the outer limits of the archipelago, with groups free to decide on their strains between 4 checkpoints on the fringe of the Baltic Sea.
“There’s nothing on the market… simply the ocean. We’re swimming on the fringe of the world.”
Sweden’s latest Nationwide Park, Nämdöskärgården, opened final September. The park spans about 25,300 hectares, with roughly 97 % water amongst its islands, skerries, and coastal land. It protects all kinds of marine and coastal ecosystems, together with seagrass beds, mussel banks, and hen habitats. The park performs a key function in safeguarding biodiversity within the Baltic Sea, addressing threats like eutrophication and habitat loss. Some islands inside the park preserve traces of their historic use, akin to remnants of fishing huts and far older settlements.
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A Fortress, a DJ, and a Neighborhood
For spectators and households, EX Swimrun might be as a lot a pageant as a race.
The Supersprint unfolds in entrance of a Seventeenth-century citadel at Enviornment Edsvik, which was previously a gathering place for Swedish nobles. Athletes run and swim a really brief however intense course (about 1 km working, 200 m swimming), in loops, which permits viewers to see virtually the complete race from one vantage level and cheer on the grueling uphill end.
“For a spectator, it’s the very best sport to look at,” Roman says. “You possibly can see all the pieces.”
There’s a DJ, good meals, Italian ice cream, espresso, and youngsters working round on the grass.
“I inform the DJ, in the event you can see folks dancing, you’re doing a very good job.”
It’s, in some ways, the antithesis of the lonely triathlon transition zone, designed with the utilitarian function to get out and in as rapidly as potential. It feels communal. Alive.
Designing a Race You Can’t Not Race
Maybe there’s no larger ambition within the racing world than to design a race you may’t assist however run your self.
Roman would not simply manage the course. He exams, refines—after which pins on a bib on race day.
In a sport born from chilly water, granite islands, and the easy query of “what if we simply maintain going,” Nicholas Roman embodies the stressed curiosity that retains swimrun evolving. Like Q in his lab, he’s all the time tinkering, the place innovation is measured in immersion, eradicating the friction between us and the archipelago.
Hearken to the total interview on The Outdoor Journal Podcast.
Comply with EX Swimrun and Nicholas Roman:
Instagram: @roman_nicholas, @exswimrun
Discover the proper race format and distance for you at EXSWIMRUN.SE
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