Ötillo Swimrun World Championship done! The sheer brutality of it exceeded my expectations, by a lot. It is up there with the hardest character building sports undertakings I have ever done. I’d say the last hour will remain in my memory all my life. It didn’t break me, but it had the potential to!

In late 2014, my friend Bruce and me pushed the envelop of our swimming endurance with a 5-day 80k swim of Lantau island, the largest island in Hong Kong (Lantau Island 80k Swim)

After this crazy undertaking, we were looking for a new challenge to do, something different. Another friend of mine, also named Olivier, co-organized with me the first Swimrun in Hong Kong (First Swimrun in Hong Kong) and I participated to the first Swimrun in Thailand with triathlon coach Jürgen Zäck (First Swimrun in Thailand).

I just did the Paris Marathon 2022 on no run training. Plagued by injuries almost since I signed up, I could see the deadline approaching with no hope of improvement, so I decided to run it as an experiment. I’m a triathlon and health coach as a living and I consider every sport experience as an opportunity to learn about body and mind. This blog is meant to share what I learnt in the process. It probably wouldn’t work for everybody, but some clues might help others nonetheless.

27, 28, 29… oh wait, this is happening too fast!

30… I slide in…

A rush of adrenaline invades my body.

31, 32, I push off the wall, and… blank for a few seconds. I am in so much pain that my mind switches off, I have no recollection of my first few seconds in 5 degrees water.

Since the announcement of the acquisition of Ironman brand by the Wanda group in…

A lot of triathletes and runners in Asia train and race in the heat and/or humidity …

At a time when the new family of Garmin watches have raised the bar further than…

November 28, 2016, Bangkok, RBSC swim meet. A 9-year old girl is getting ready…

I don’t know why. If I knew, I would probably stop. Maybe I am just doing it to be able…

“SwimRun, huh? Yeah, I know what it is, it’s also known as Aquathlon, right?” -Wrong!

The origin of new races are not always clear, as memories fade and people move…

This could be paradise, paradise, paradise”… That’s the music -from Coldplay- they are playing right…

Observers watching racers usually only see the tip of the iceberg: they are in…

This is what everybody says around us this morning, but it is not the way I see it.

Overall, with all what we went through for 3 days, I can reasonably say…

Yesterday afternoon was all about recovery, and we ate and napped all that we could, to be able to clock…

When we planned this tour of Lantau, in everybody’s mind, Day 2 would be the trickiest and most dangerous…

This was one of these days when we really did not know how it would finish.

This is my first blog ever. I thought that for the 75k-5 day swim challenge I am about…