Caleb Nickerson
SHEENBORO Sept. 8-9, 2017
Over the weekend dozens of athletes made their way to Sheenboro to participate in an up and coming form of endurance competition: a swimrun.
A swimrun is a competition that originated in Sweden in the early 2000s that involves a cross-country style course with many transitions between swimming and running stages of the race. The Amphibious Challenge, as the local race is known, was started last year by TV host, endurance athlete and Sheenboro resident Simon Donato.

Competing in teams of two, racers had the option of either 15 or 40 km versions of the challenge on Saturday as well as a ten mile road race “for fun” on Friday.
Donato explained that he got the idea for the event after he traveled to Sweden to compete in the Swimrun World Championships in 2015. Known as the Ötillö – which means island to island – the race is one of the most grueling in the endurance sport world, featuring 10 km of swimming and 65 km of running across an archipelago in the Baltic Sea.
“I wanted to bring swimrun to Canada because there were no swimrun races here yet,” he said. “It’s a pretty new sport, especially in North America.”
Donato thought the rugged terrain of the Ottawa River and the Sheenboro area would be the perfect setting for a local race. After hosting a successful event last year, he made some changes to get his event on the international swimrun circuit, as well as some fun options to attract more participants.
“This year we went to a team format because we’re a qualifier for the Ötillö race now,” he explained, adding that attendance had doubled this year to 54 participants, some from as far away as Houston.
“The athletes get points to get into the Ötillö race. It’s incredibly tough to get into this race now, it’s so popular,” he continued.
During the race, each team of two is only allowed to separate by about 10 metres. Donato added that the race offers some other unique challenges.
“If you’re in a trail race you can put on a little backpack or a little hip pack, have your gels,” he said. “In a swimrun race, you’re in a wetsuit, so typically the athletes go very lean.”
Aid stations were set up along the course every few kilometres to help the athletes refuel. In addition, there were plenty of other safety precautions taken to ensure the race went off without a hitch.
“Organizing a swim race is a lot more of a logistical challenge than a road race or trail race,” Donato said. “Managing the water component takes a lot of planning. You need to have boats out there. We had police, we had fire service, EMS on shore. There were a number of boats in the water just monitoring between the islands and following the athletes as they swam along.”
Donato sourced a variety of prizes from local artisans and businesses. Already he is planning for next year’s event and hopes to continue growing and promoting the sport in North America.
Race winners:
Long course – Joshua Rayner and John Craft with a time of 4:42:30.
Short course, male – Timothee Dewaily and Dave Clinkgrd with a time of 2:18:20.
Short course, female – Frankie Hardwick and Michelle Clark with a time of 3:08:58.
Short course, mixed – Ignacio Castillo and Jessica Keeper with a time of 2:44:34.