Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

Welcome to episode 356 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

With ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin coming up and a big crew of Wildies heading to Texas, we reach back into the vault for the tenth installment of our Throwback Mixtape series. This one originally ran as episode 276 in April 2025. It's our conversation with Helen Ostet, co-founder of WILD Swimrun and one of the kindest people in the sport. Before we roll the tape, we talk about our history with WILD going back to episode 10, the Wildies on this year's ÖTILLÖ World Championship podium, The Wild Ones podcast from Viv and Sarah, and our seventh straight ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin.

Helen shares what WILD is all about. It's a low threshold into swimrun for women and kids, with loaner gear so nobody has to buy anything to try it, and a reminder that swimrun can be a fun activity in your own backyard as much as a tough race. We talk about getting more women into the long races, the race weekend WILD builds around Utö with a course preview, gear testing, and a team dinner, and the WILD collab paddle from our friends at Frank Paddles.

Helen also takes us inside a WILD camp. They run Thursday to Sunday and include a gear day, transition training tethered behind a World Championship podium finisher, and a Saturday A-to-B adventure along the Mallorca coast. We trade stories about partner communication and pull buoys left on backs at the first swim.

Then Helen opens up about her own journey, from a smoker who had never been active, to volunteering at races, to three shoulder surgeries and the road back to swimrun. Her take: finishing the experience course can be your world championship, depending on where you are on your journey. Fika, swim, run, friends. We're making the t-shirt. In the original episode we also kicked off our fundraiser to send a new woman to a WILD camp.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 355 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The mailbag is back! We get questions in our DMs, in our inbox, and in person at races, and when the same ones keep coming up, it's time for another round of our Swimrun 101 series. We answer these with 30-plus swimruns under our belts since 2018, and our advice is always the same: start where we recommend, then find your own way from there.

First up is metrics. Chip walks through his simple race-day watch setup (total time and distance, lap time and distance, plus a 20-minute fueling timer), and we explain why we skip Garmin's swimrun mode and log races as a run with the lap button instead. We also talk about using HRV and sleep data as weekly trends rather than daily verdicts, why we lean more on perceived effort as we get older, and how friend of the show Mario Fraioli cuts through the noise: forget stride oscillation, can you hold pace when it matters?

Next we update our shoe advice. Start with the trail shoes you already own, run the bucket test, and skip drilling holes. We also talk about the Kebab League crew racing in marathon super shoes, bust the blister myth, and share the socks we race in from CEP and Swiftwick. Then we answer the pull buoy question (yes, use one) and explain why even strong swimmers benefit when they're swimming in shoes.

Super intern Dave from Dave's List asks about the mental side of racing solo versus as a team, and we share what changed for each of us when we raced without a partner. Chip also shows off his latest paddle hieroglyphics method using Gorilla Tape and a silver Sharpie. For more on that, go back to episode 106.

We finish with the races we're most excited about: Swimrun Lake James returning in 2027 and the brand new Bellingham Swimrun Festival from race director Brent Molsberry, a three-day event with the first kids swimrun in the US, an eliminator race, a dusk swimrun, and more. Next up for us is ÖTILLÖ USA Austin, our seventh year in a row. Keep sending your questions, and check out the Knowledge Base on our website for more Swimrun 101 answers.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 354 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We sit down for another fika with Coach Liz, a swimrun coach who works with swimrunners and returned to the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship this year with her partner Jacob. We shared a good stretch of the course with them in Sweden, so we start with a race report from their second time racing it, including a faster finish than last time and what it took to get there with a toddler at home.

Liz walks us through how she and Jacob trained for the same race by sitting down at the start of the week, trading second shifts, and splitting the long sessions between Saturday and Sunday. Then we talk about coming back to training after pregnancy: building up slowly, making strength training a priority, the signs that tell you to back off, and the 24-hour rule she uses with her athletes. She also shares how 20 to 30 miles of running a week, plus a five-mile run, StairMaster and strength session, carried her through ÖTILLÖ.

We also answer a listener question about using an off-the-shelf triathlon plan for swimrun. We talk through knowing your available hours, being honest about your fitness level, laying the plan over your work and family calendar, and knowing the intention of every session. When time is short, Liz explains what works with 35 to 45 minute swims and 20 to 30 minute strength sessions, and why the shorter ÖTILLÖ distances make a great way in.

Liz spent the summer testing AI coaching with her TrainingPeaks files, so we get her take on what it got right, where the workouts missed, and why honesty matters with any coach. Her roster is nearly full with a few slots open for next year, and you can find her on Instagram.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 353 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have another race report for you, and this one is a first. Chris just did his first ever solo swimrun at Swimrun Cape Cod, and we sit down a day and a half after he gets home to talk about it. Chris has never been shy about giving solo categories a hard time, so we get into whether that still holds.

Swimrun Cape Cod is in its fourth edition and only its second running, and this year adds a long course. Then a storm rolls through, the park pulls the permits on three ponds, and the 30K turns into about 15 miles of kettle ponds, single track, and way more climbing than you would expect on the Cape.

Chris walks us through his gear, one last run on the old pull buoy, and a new fueling plan with CARBS gels and extra caffeine. Then we go leg by leg, from the first ponds to the bluff over the Atlantic that had everyone wishing for a phone, to the back-to-back swims and a fall on the last run. The swimrun gods asked for a blood sacrifice, and Chris paid up.

He finishes in 2:51 for fourth place in the solo men's division, and we get his verdict on solo versus team racing. We also talk about a big weekend for swimrun in the US, with ÖTILLÖ Colorado the same weekend and the Kancho Boyz coming out of retirement to win the sprint distance. Next up for us is ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin in early November.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 352 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The 2026 One Water Race is done, and we have been wanting to talk about it since the live stream ended. We obsess over this race, have zero interest in racing it, and love watching it unfold. Joining us is Chris Wright of Team USA France, who raced the inaugural edition in 2022 and finished this year on his third start, touching the Landsort lighthouse at 2:30 in the morning with the whole One Water crew still cheering.

Chris takes us through the year behind it. He explains how he decided to go back, why swimming with paddles filled his training, and how his team kept the same plan but executed it better. We talk about the 30-second debrief with the boat captain at each island, staying about four and a half hours behind the leaders to beat the eight-hour cutoff, and the 8.5K Danziger Gat swim, three hours in three to four foot waves with a single feed at the 90 minute mark.

We also get into the stuff you wonder about from your couch. Chris shares what 70 hours awake sounds like, how three wetsuits help and hurt, why swimming-induced pulmonary edema worries every team, and how a fueling plan of ramen, chips and about 100 fun size Snickers kept the engine running. He describes the 4 PM start, the A/B checkpoint decisions, the community Thomas builds on Råholma, and the burger and beer waiting at the finish.

Before the interview, we run through race week in the States: Swimrun Cape Cod, ÖTILLÖ Colorado in Fort Collins with the Concho Boys back on the sprint course, and ÖTILLÖ Austin in early November. After the interview, Chris tells us what is next, from Orcas and Bellingham to a little unfinished business at ÖTILLÖ.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 351 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we pull another gem from the vault for our Throwback Mixtape series, rolling back to Ep 240, "Taking on Big Challenges w/Susie Moonan," recorded about a year ago on the eve of her One Water Race, one of the longest and toughest swimrun-style adventure races in the world. Coming off ÖTILLÖ this conversation felt like the right one to bring back, whether ÖTILLÖ is your someday goal or you are staring down your own big challenge right now.

Susie is a performance coach with Envol Coaching, a longtime swimrunner, and someone we have had on the show three times now. She recently finished ÖTILLÖ in fourth place in the mixed division and is currently prepping for an English Channel crossing, so she knows a thing or two about taking on huge goals. In this episode she walks us through what it was like getting the call to join Team Four for the One Water Race, the wave of doubt that followed saying yes, and how she worked through it using acceptance and by breaking the race and the preparation down into manageable pieces.

We dig into her crisis plan for the inevitable dark moments in a race like this, the emotions versus actions framework she leans on, and how she trains her mind for the kind of sleep deprivation that comes with racing for 50 plus hours straight. She also shares why leaning on thoughts of her family, something that used to give her energy, stopped working after 24 hours, and what she replaced it with instead. We talk through the team she raced with, Robert, Fredrik, and Marika Wagner, and how they built the kind of psychological safety that lets everyone speak up when they are struggling.

Whether you are training for your first swimrun or your tenth big challenge, Susie's approach to preparing your head as much as your body is worth coming back to.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 350 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

You just wrapped your A-race for the season. Maybe it was ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship, maybe it was your local A-race, and now you are standing there wondering what to do with yourself. We get this question a lot, and after our own trip to the World Champs, we figured it was time to lay out exactly what we do once the race is over.

This is another edition of our ad hoc Swimrun 201 series, where we get into the more advanced corners of the sport. Consider it an elective. It is not going to make or break your training, but it will help you close the loop on your season the right way.

We cover our top five tips for the post-race window. First, the 48-hour rule: give yourself a set window, anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, to celebrate a great race or process a rough one before you move on. Second, show real gratitude to the people who made your race possible, your coach, your partner, your family, your circle. Third, give yourself an honest assessment of how the race actually went across swimming, running, transitions, nutrition, and gear, without judgment and without self-deprecation. Fourth, turn that assessment into a short list of things to work on rather than trying to fix everything at once, and know which fixes are quick wins and which are long-term projects. Fifth, sign up for your next race, once your 48 hours are up.

We also talk about our race at the World Champs, why building swim confidence changes how big water days feel, and what is on deck for us next with Swimrun Cape Cod, ÖTILLÖ Colorado, and ÖTILLÖ Austin.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 349 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The 20th edition of ÖTILLÖ, the Swimrun World Championship, is in the books, and this one lives up to every bit of hype. A headwind held on for the entire day, conditions that longtime competitors and former world champions called the hardest they had ever seen, similar in difficulty to the famous 2017 edition but with the wind working against instead of with the field. We walk through the proper pig swim, a hip flexor lockup that left Chipper stuck in the water, our fueling missteps, a low point on the run through Ornö and the conversation that got us through it, and cramping that hit Chipper on the approach to Ornö.

Before the race, we visited our sponsor Precision Fuel & Hydration at their UK headquarters, toured their performance lab, and got new data on our own sweat rates before making our way to Stockholm for our annual fika and Sweden's first ever social swimrun, held to celebrate the race's 20th anniversary. We also share the wetsuit troubles that hit us right before the start.

We cross the finish line in 11 hours and 5 minutes, our third time completing this race, and share some of the biggest stories from the day, including a medical emergency on course and standout finishes from Hugo Tormento and Adriel Young and Team Wild Vermamas, the first all-American women's team to podium at the World Championship.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on

Welcome to episode 348 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The final countdown. Zero months and only days away from the 20th edition of the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship. This is the last stop in our countdown series before we head to Sweden. We check in with hows the body, hows the mind and the hay already in the barn, and we share how we have been leaning on old race reports and course breakdowns to settle the nerves.

Then we welcome back our friend Dominik Leu, ÖTILLÖ race director, for our annual race prediction show. Dominik gives us the full picture of the 20th anniversary weekend, starting with Saturday's Social Swimrun and fika in Stockholm, an open, no pressure loop built around the wildcard program that brought back so many past racers for this milestone year. He also breaks down what it took to bring a full live production to TV4 for the first time, with drone and runner coverage on the lead teams across all three categories and a free stream available worldwide.

From there we get into the good stuff, a full category by category breakdown of who is lining up for the women's, mixed, and men's races. Dominik walks through the new pairings, the returning champions, and the storylines worth watching once the gun goes off on Monday.

This episode is brought to you by Precision Fuel and Hydration, who we will be spending time with on site in Sweden. Head to their website for free education and athlete profiles to dial in your race day nutrition.

We are as ready as we are going to be. Time to go race a world championship.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 347 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We're throwing it back all the way to 2022 for our ninth installment of the Löw Tide Böyz Throwback Mixtape. This one comes from our second annual Partners Month, and re-listening to it gave us all the warm and fuzzies all over again.

Chrissy and Bill Lankford, known to the community as Team Mr and Mrs B, join us to talk about swimrun as both life partners and race partners. They found the sport through the Toadman World Series, a set of local races near their home in Cambridge, then worked their way through the Isle of Scilly and Rockman before deciding to take on the ÖTILLÖ World Championship, a huge jump in distance and duration from what they had raced before.

We get into how they trained with almost no access to real swimrun terrain, how they communicate and lean on each other when a race gets hard, the mantras that carry them through the tough stretches, and the hip flexor injury Bill raced through after a rough transition. We also talk gear, wetsuits, transitions, and their ongoing effort to bring more people into the sport.

Bill and Chrissy have since gone on to race multiple ÖTILLÖ World Championships, Rockman, and ÖTILLÖ Öland together. Real gems of humans, and a conversation worth revisiting.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 346 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we welcome Jen Schnell, a Bay Area swimrunner and designer who came into the sport from eight years of competitive triathlon. Jen first heard about swimrun on the Rich Roll Podcast, carved out space to try it, and got hooked right away with a solo race at Folsom. From there she raced Whistler solo, found her first partner in Kayla Kobelin at Austin, and this year has raced her way into the Ötillö Elite Program through the wild card process, competing at Orcas Island, Engadin, and Casco Bay with a different partner at every start.

We talk through how her coach restructured her training to add paddle strength and swim volume while pulling work out of her bike sessions, the mechanics of tethering and the swim slingshot move, and what she has learned about compatibility and shared goals from racing with a new partner each time out. Jen also shares what surprised her about the vibe at Engadin compared to racing in the States, including the staggered women's start and just how established the sport feels in Europe.

Jen is sitting out Ötillö this year to focus on the Elite Series final in Cannes, with her sights already set on Worlds in 2027. We also catch up on our own final prep before Sweden, our fika meetup plans, and the limited edition stickers we will have on hand.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 345 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We just got home from Portland, Maine after racing the 10th edition of ÖTILLÖ Casco Bay, our sixth time toeing the line at this race. This week we break down the whole day, leg by leg, the same way we always do after a big race, sitting down fresh with our honest take.

This was a hard Casco year. A high tide pushed our total swimming up to around 9,000 yards, close to the 10,000 yards we will cover at the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship, and the heat and humidity made the runs feel like a grind from the first mile. We walk through our gear and kit choices, the tactical call to split up swim leading duties between us, a course change on the final island that added distance to the last crossing, and how we handled fueling and hydration at every single aid station.

The back half of the race turned into one of the most competitive stretches we have had in a while. We spotted a men's team coming off Cushings and spent the final two islands closing the gap, staying on them through the redesigned final island swim before making the pass on the last swim and holding them off with a sprint up the stairs to the finish. We break down exactly how that played out and why closing that gap mattered more than we expected it would.

With four weeks left until the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship in Stockholm, we talk about what this race confirmed for us heading into the 20th anniversary of the event, plus a look ahead to our UK stopover and our Stockholm Fika meetup.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 344 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We are one month out from Ötillö, the 20th anniversary of the Swimrun World Championship, and it is starting to feel real. We open with our own check-in on where our bodies and heads are at heading into Casco Bay, which serves as our final dress rehearsal before Worlds, plus everything we have planned for our Löw Tide Böyz weekend in Portland, Maine including a morning fika, the Envol shakeout clinic, and our post race party.

Then we sit down with Marcus Barton, one of the most experienced swimrunners in America with over 60 races to his name and a coach for Envol Coaching. Marcus is racing Ötillö himself this year while coaching a full group of athletes toward the same start line, and he gives us a coach's honest read on what the last 34 days should actually look like. We get into the elite program and how the point series works, why the fitness cake is mostly baked at this point in the season, and why panic training this close to race day almost always backfires.

Marcus walks us through building a nutrition plan with your partner, figuring out who leads the swims and who leads the technical running, and why your partner is your biggest variable heading into race day. We also dig into practicing transitions until they become muscle memory, training for small interruptions like cold hands or a dropped paddle, and his simple framework for what you should and should not be spending mental energy on this close to the race.

This episode is brought to you by Precision Fuel & Hydration. We have leaned on their products throughout our own training and racing, and we are heading to their UK headquarters before Worlds this year. Check out their website for free resources on dialing in your fueling and hydration.

Marcus closes with the best piece of advice he gives any athlete heading into Worlds: nobody gets through Ötillö completely according to plan, and the teams that do well are not the ones who avoid every problem, they are the ones who recognize problems early and solve them together.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 343 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we are back with our third race report of 2026, fresh off Folsom Swimrun long course, a race some version of the Löw Tide Böyz has done every single year for five years running. Spoiler alert, the dynasty continues with another overall team win, but with ÖTILLÖ Casco Bay two weeks away, we treated this one as a B race and a tune up.

The Novato swim community showed out in force. Sarah and Robin, who share a Masters pool with us, took the female team title, and our fellow Masters swimmer Seth posted the fastest overall time in the long course solo division. We talk about why consistent swim fitness, built in a Masters program, translates so directly to a stronger and more enjoyable swimrun.

We break down our gear calls for a race with triple digit air temps and cold, dam fed water, our Vigg wetsuit choices, our shoe picks, and the nutrition and hydration protocol we have been refining, including a new caffeine timing strategy that made a real difference.

From a strong opening swim in the lead to tidy transitions and a final overall team finish in around an hour and forty minutes, a few minutes faster than last year, we walk through all nine miles leg by leg, plus the community moments that make Folsom worth doing every year.

Next up is ÖTILLÖ Casco Bay, marking ten years since the race first hooked us back in 2018 and our fifth year toeing the line. We preview what is shaping up to be a packed weekend in Portland, Maine.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 342 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

With ÖTILLÖ Casco Bay celebrating its 10th anniversary in just a few weeks, we are digging back into the vault for this one. This is our race report from the 2021 edition, originally Episode 84 from August 2021, and re-listening to it took us right back to race morning on Peaks Island.

This was our second time racing Casco Bay after debuting there in 2018, and it came after a full training block with a coach for the first time. We talk about the shark sighting email that hit every athlete's inbox before the start, the flooded bog crossing on Peaks Island, and the moment we realized we could hang with the lead pack in the water for the first time in our swimrun careers.

We get into the tide strategy that turned a short swim into a sandbar crossing, the technical scramble across Vail Island with the Swimrun Monks and Beacon Blake, and the five mile push to Big Chebeague where we caught the Monks off guard. We finished in five hours and ten minutes, good for 10th place men's teams and 11th overall, a huge jump from our six hour and eighteen minute finish in 2018.

We also cover the very first Löw Tide Böyz post-race party at Lone Pine Brewery, where close to 30 people showed up to swap war stories, and the goggle karma moment that closed out our day on the best possible note.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined. Thanks for listening and see you out there! Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 341 of the **Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!**

Race season is picking up, with Folsom Swimrun just a couple weeks out, Casco Bay marking its 10th edition, and ÖTILLÖ, the Swimrun World Championship, coming up later this year. With so many new folks joining the sport, we wanted to put together the newest edition of our Swimrun 101 series, five tips to be race day ready, straight from over 25 swimruns worth of trial and error.

Being race ready starts well before you get to the start line. Our first tip is studying the course and terrain ahead of time, pulling up the maps, understanding the legs, and knowing what kind of day you are signing up for so you are not cramming the night before. From there we walk through the day before the race, covering travel logistics, staying off your feet, dialing in a nutrition strategy, and using that time to connect with your race partner about goals and expectations.

We also get into checking your kit early instead of at ten o'clock the night before, thinking through your fueling plan piece by piece, and building a morning of routine that takes the guesswork out of race day, from what you eat to when you get your coffee in. From there we cover the final minutes before the gun goes off, including warmup timing, when to take your last gel, and how to get your headspace right so you can run your own race instead of getting caught up in everyone else's.

We close with a bonus tip, embrace the swimrun community. Show up to the shakeouts, the clinics, the post race parties, and talk to people. It is one of the smallest, friendliest communities in endurance sports, and connecting with it is one of the easiest ways to show up prepared.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 340 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We are two months out from the 20th edition of ÖTILLÖ, the Swimrun World Championship, and this month's Countdown to ÖTILLÖ check-in is all about communication. Before we get into it we run through how the body and mind are holding up, including our tune up races at Folsom Swimrun and the tenth anniversary of Ötillö Casco Bay, and we share some news about a stop we're making at Precision Fuel and Hydration headquarters in the UK on our way to Sweden.

We welcome back Dr. Yael Schonbrun, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Brown University and cohost of Psychologists Off the Clock. Yael was last on the show in 2023 and she's back to talk about her new book, Why Don't You Understand Me?, which digs into why we so often think we understand each other better than we actually do, and it turns out we make an appearance in it.

We talk through the overconfidence glitch that makes us assume we understand people, the difference between perspective taking and perspective getting, and we come clean about the confirmation bias that got us disqualified at Bellingham Swimrun this year. Yael gives real advice for setting communication ground rules with a swimrun partner, working through mismatched goals, and why validating each other before trying to solve a problem changes the whole conversation.

We also get into values goals versus outcome goals, positive regard, and how the same tools that keep us on course in a race can help with the harder conversations off it, including the ones we'd rather avoid at the Thanksgiving table.

This episode is brought to you by Precision Fuel and Hydration, who we have been working with since 2020. If you have questions about fueling or hydration, check out their site for free education content or book a call with one of their coaches.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 339 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We just got back from Bellingham, Washington with the full race report from
our third edition of Swimrun Bellingham at Lake Padden Park. This was race
two of the 2026 season on the road to ÖTILLÖ, and true to a six-year
tradition, we are sitting down to break it all down.

Chris came into this one carrying some extra weight after losing his father
just a few weeks before the race, and there is something to be said for
what it means to show up for each other in moments like that. Race 26
together. These local races matter not for the result but for exactly this
kind of thing, and getting out on course at Lake Padden is its own reward.
Brent and Quest Races put on a beautiful event again, and the venue is as
good as swimrun gets.

On the race itself: Chris decided to lead most of the swims for the first
time, which opened up some interesting territory heading toward ÖTILLÖ and
alternating swim leads later in the season. We cover the gear setup (Ark
Vigg wetsuits, Adidas Terrex shoes, arm sleeves, Frank Paddles LTBz
Edition), the Precision Fuel & Hydration fueling breakdown from race day,
and the small navigation adventure near the end that turned into a bonus
loop and, honestly, a turning point for how we finished.

The last run came in at sub-eight-minute miles two-plus hours in. We
crossed in around 2:25 as the first place men's long course team (one of
one, but somebody has to be there) and first overall team on the day. Also,
shout-out to the guy in the black beanie who told us we looked badass on
the trail. We needed that.

Next up is Folsom Swimrun, one of the only swimruns in California and one
we have been doing since it started. Come out and join us at Black Miners
Bar. And if you are hearing about Swimrun Bellingham for the first time, go
put it on next year's calendar. The Pacific Northwest is building something
real.

Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz,
be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave
us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to
discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple
Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube. Check out our website for
Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much
more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on
Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us,
send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can
support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!
Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 338 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we are climbing back into the swimrun hot tub for a throwback mixtape, and we are pulling out a fan favorite. We are rolling the original gear talk on the Ark Vigg and Vigg Air, the suit Chris has loved since his first swimrun in 2020 and has not stopped talking about since.

This one comes straight from the vault, originally Episode 188 from August 10, 2023. The crew starts with gear updates, Ark prototype goggles, new flip-flops, and Stasher bags as a solution for organizing electrolyte tabs, before getting into the full Vigg breakdown.

We get into what makes the Vigg and Vigg Air work, the Yamamoto limestone neoprene, the glide skin coating, and the seal on the sleeveless Vigg Air that designer Daniel Sand and his team in Sweden spent so much time dialing in. We talk through who this suit fits best, why it makes more sense as a second suit than a first, the back venting, the pocket setup, and where the fit and sizing can get tricky depending on body type.

Chris also reads an original poem he wrote about the Vigg, because eight months without talking about this suit was apparently too long to go without writing one. Final ratings, a Casco Bay tangent, and plenty of love for a suit that has earned its place in the quiver. Enjoy!

~~~

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined. Thanks for listening and see you out there!

Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 337 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast! We're going across the pond this week, and not to Sweden for once. We met Bart Vandervaal on the ferry to Sandhamn at ÖTILLÖ last year and immediately started asking about his shoes. Nine months later, Bart and his co-race director Henk de Bock are on the show to tell us about the Dutch swimrun scene and the first ever Dutch Swimrun Championship.

Bart and Henk have been organizing Het Rondje Eilanden, a 6.5-kilometer island circuit race in Vinkeveen just south of Amsterdam, for 15 years. The race predates the word swimrun in the Netherlands, and for years athletes did it in Speedos and surf shoes with no wetsuits, no pull buoys, and no idea there was a global sport building around the same idea. This year, to celebrate the race's 15th edition, they're running the championship as three consecutive loops of the course, 19 kilometers total, in pairs, with 750 participants across all distance categories. The race is on Saturday, July 18th. The classic single loop (6.5K) is filling up fast, but the Dutch Championships distance (3 loops, 19K) still has spots. You can find registration and race info at hetrondjeeilanden.nl.

We dig into how the Dutch swimrun community organized itself from the ground up through WhatsApp groups and international race travel, what makes Vinkeveen's clear water and 12-island layout such a natural fit for the sport, and what the race weekend actually looks like: camping on the island, hot tubs, live music, and a party culture that fits right in with the swimrun ethos. If you're a Dutch swimrunner or just curious about connecting with the community over there, the WhatsApp community lives at swimrun.group with channels organized by region and a main hub called the SwimRun Huiskamer, which translates to SwimRun Living Room. Signal groups are also linked there for the WhatsApp-averse.

Henk shares his own path to the ÖTILLÖ World Series this year, and Bart recounts what it was like to race ÖTILLÖ Stockholm for the first time last year on a foot injury, getting towed to the finish by his partner. Bart and his partner Sander Berk also chronicled the whole journey on their Substack, From Zero till Ötillö, at from0tillotillo.substack.com. The first 30 weekly training blogs have English translations, and the blog has since expanded with writers covering swimrun across the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, including race coverage from ÖTILLÖ events.

We also get into the broader Dutch swimrun landscape, including the Backyard Ultra Swimrun happening just north of Amsterdam on June 20th at Het Twiske. Athletes do a 5K loop every hour with short swims and runs mixed in, up to a 10-hour max. Find details and registration at swimrun.amsterdam. And if the Dutch race scene has you wanting to plan a European summer, check the show notes for all the links.

On our end, we're two weeks out from Quest Swimrun Bellingham at Lake Padden and heading into the thick of our training block. After Bellingham comes Folsom Swimrun, then the 10th anniversary of ÖTILLÖ Casco Bay, and then ÖTILLÖ World Series in September. The list is long. The stoke is real.