ÖTILLÖ! Meeting Nature Writ Large

“This is our day. Now let’s make the best of it versus comparing ourselves to others or our expectations.”
Chris Hauth


Today I am joined by my friend, coach and teammate Chris Hauth for a special edition of Coach’s Corner – a spin on my typical podcast format — to recap our breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime adventure competing in the Ötillö Swimrun World Championships in Sweden.
A sub-9 hour Ironman, Chris (@AIMPCoach) is a former professional triathlete, two-time Olympic Swimmer and one of the world’s most respected endurance coaches. In 2006, Chris won the Ironman Coeur D’Alene and went on to be the first American amateur & 4th overall American at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.
When he’s not training and racing, Chris runs AIMP Coaching, mentoring a wide spectrum of athletes ranging from elite professionals — including Ironman and Western States top finishers, Ultraman winners and Olympic Trials qualifiers — to first time half-marathoners. Under Chris’ tutelage since 2008, he deftly guided me through three Ultraman World Championships, EPIC5. and now Ötillö.

This past Monday, Chris and I joined 300 athletes from 24 countries to race Ötillö as a two-man team, traversing 26 islands spread across the outer-reaches of the Swedish archipelago on foot and by sea. All told, 40 miles of running and 6 miles of swimming.
It was a truly extraordinary experience. Punishing. Humbling. Brutal, beautiful and beyond extreme.
Along the way we met gale force winds. Sideways rain. Bone-chilling Baltic waters. And six-foot swells. We were on our hands and knees, scaling vertical granite slippery as ice. We trudged through bogs in knee-deep mud. Loose rocks left us flat on our backs. We bushwhacked terrain so difficult, so impossibly technical, it all feels now like an impossible dream.
Today we share the incredible story.
I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.
Peace + Plants,







P.S. – For more on the adventure, please read Adam Skolnick’s piece for the New York Times, A Brutal Competition, Island to Island, in Sweden. I am deeply honored  to be featured. But I didn’t get here by myself. It has been a long, challenging road. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported me and my work over the years. I am truly humbled.
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Photographs courtesy of Tomasz Jakubowski
charity: water
I want to personally thank everyone who responded to my podcast with Scott Harrison and donated to charity: water by joining The Spring. As of the date of this writing, the RRP community has collectively raised enough revenue to build 4 wells annually! Amazing. Inspired by your generosity, my company has decided to sponsor one well per year – so that makes 5 wells for 2017. But why not make it 10? For just $20-$40 in monthly donations (100% of which go directly to clean water projects),