Updated 10/20/20 with Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Course Preview: Addendum

Welcome to episode thirty-eight of the Löw Tide Böyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a super-comprehensive course preview for you this week. We’re doing a deep dive to give you as much information as possible for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin happening on November 8, 2020. This is our second attempt at this type of show and we tweaked the format a little bit to take into account that this will be the first year for this event.

These episodes are pretty labor intensive and we definitely could not have done this without the help from Lars Finanger and the rest of the crew from Ödyssey Swimrun, Lauren and Matt Hurley from the Black Sheep Endurance Project, and Bronwen and Greg from team Boston Wet Sox. A huge thank you for sharing all their insight for this show.

Let’s get right to it!

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright…. (Getting to Austin and What to Do)

Swimrun has arrived in Texas! For anyone who’s not familiar with the great state of Texas, it’s a pretty massive state with a lot of variety in terms of terrain and climates. Swimrun Austin takes place in Pace Bend Park in Spicewood, Texas. This Park is within the city limits of Austin and is about an hour drive (40ish miles away/1hr drive) from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Here’s a handy link for directions via Google Maps.

Hotels, rental cars, and food are plentiful. If you’ve never spent time in Austin, we think that you’ll enjoy the vibe and the food is amazing although it skews towards non-vegetarians, I.e., Texas BBQ is legendary and totally worth checking out places like Salt Lick and Iron Works for BBQ and Moonshine Grill for southern comfort food (they have vegetarian options here.) You also can’t go wrong with any of the restaurants on Rainey St. near downtown Austin. PRO TIP: save the BBQ for after the race.

Yee-haw! (Intro to Swimrun Austin)

The Austin Hill Country, where the race is located, is well known for trail running and water sports so it’s a natural place to combine those two activities for a Swimrun race. We chatted with Ödyssey Race Director Lars Finanger about how he found Pace Bend Park and why he thought that it would be a great place to host a Swimrun.

Lars gave us a lot of info about Pace Bend Park and explained why this location is perfectly suited for Swimrunning. The courses don’t favor runners or swimmers and have a good mix of both making it a great race for everyone. 

Ride’em Cowboy! (Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Short and Long Course Breakdowns)

Swimrun Austin offers two distance options: short course (total distance 8.96 miles; total run 7.04 miles; total swim 3396 yards/1.92 miles) and long course (total distance 16.42 miles; total run 13.04 miles; total swim 6036 yards/3.38 miles). Both courses offer solo and team divisions. You can check out the detailed map for both courses here.

The air temperature on race day can be unpredictable. While the average air temp. for early November is 70 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the weather almanac, the weather on November 8 last year was 50 degrees. The water temps are pretty much unknown and could be anywhere 60-80 degrees.

Lars shared with us a leg by leg breakdown of both the short and long courses and we have added as many details as we could to our leg summaries below. In short, the theme for Swimrun Austin is race “heads up” and follow the pink ribbons and flags.

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Short Course Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 - 1.28 miles (Slightly hilly run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 3 - 2.49 miles (Flat/rocky run; Cliff jump option into Swim 3)

Swim 3 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 4 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

 

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Long Course Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 -  1.28 miles (“Lite” hills run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 3 - 2.12 miles (A little hard to plot out but it looks pretty flat)

Swim 3 - 1145 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 4 - 3.33 miles (Slightly less flat but still pretty flat run; this run is exposed and could be very hot)

Swim 4 - 536 yards (Swimming against the current)

Run 5 - .56 miles (Flat run; this is a “teamwork-heavy” section; cliff jump option into Swim 5)

Swim 5 - 955 yards (Swimming against the current)

Run 6 - 2.49 miles (Flat/Rocky run; cliff jump option into Swim 6)

Swim 6 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 7 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Time for Supper! (Nutrition on the course)

The short course has 3 energy stations. The long course has 5 energy stations. It’s important to note that several of the aid stations are before swim entrances so planning your nutrition and hydration accordingly. The aid stations will have gels, electrolytes, and other snacks for participants. Both courses are cup-less so remember to bring a collapsible flask or cup with you.

As far as we know, there will not be any Texas BBQ at the aid stations.

Giddy Up! (Training for Swimrun Austin)

We chatted with Lauren and Matt Hurley from the Black Sheep Endurance Project to get their advice for training for the terrain in Pace Bend Park. They emphasized making sure that the swim fitness was dialed in before the event to make the race experience more enjoyable. They shared some key swim workouts to do that emphasize doing main sets after fatigue has set in.

We also asked Bronwen and Greg of team Boston Wet Sox how they are training for the Austin Long Course distance. They shared with us how they are ramping up for the race and mentioned that they plan to do a couple of race simulations of 3.5-4 hours to make sure that they are dialed in for the race.

Both Lauren and Matt and the Boston Wet Sox emphasized having a plan for the cliff jump sections. To sum it up, teams should have already figured out how they are going to negotiate the jumps (if they even decide to do them). Definitely do not jump with the tether attached. Jump feet first. Think about what you are going to do with your gear to make sure that it doesn’t go flying off.

Finally, our friends at Envol Coaching have also put together a 6-week training plan (for a fee) for folks that want a plan from the super-experienced Nicolas Remirez for both the short course and long course distances.

We think that participants have plenty of resources for training even though this Is a first-year event.

Ride off into the sunset (Final Thoughts)

Well, there you have it! 

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in a nutshell. We hope to see a bunch of familiar and new faces in Texas and look forward to closing out 2020 with some racing. If you were on the fence on signing up but we’ve managed to convince you…use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ when you register to save 25% on your registration fee.

We’re always trying to improve the show and we’d love to hear your feedback so let us know what you think. We wanted to give a final thanks once again to Lars and the Ödyssey Swimrun crew, Lauren and Matt Hurley of Black Sheep Endurance Project, and Bronwen and Greg of the Boston Wet Sox for their help in getting this course preview together.

Update 10/20/20

Given that this is a first-year race, there are a lot of gaps in our review. Fortuitously, Ödyssey put together a course recon training day at Pace Bend Park this past weekend and one of our Strava Club members, Adrian Cameron, was on the scene and brought back some great intel that he shared with the club. The intel was so great that we thought that we should produce a quick addendum to the Course Preview episode and get Adrian on to share his insight with everybody.

So without further ado, we welcome Adrian to the show and get right to it!

Ride’em Cowboy AGAIN! (Updates to our Short and Long Course Leg Breakdowns)

As a refresher, Swimrun Austin offers two distance options: short course (total distance 8.96 miles; total run 7.04 miles; total swim 3396 yards/1.92 miles) and long course (total distance 16.42 miles; total run 13.04 miles; total swim 6036 yards/3.38 miles). Both courses offer solo and team divisions. You can check out the detailed map for both courses here.

The Ödyssey course recon training day didn’t cover the entire course but there were a lot of additions that we were able to make to our leg by leg breakdown of the course.

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Short Course Annotated Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 - 1.28 miles (Slightly hilly run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current; wind might be an issue)

Run 3 - 2.49 miles (Flat/rocky run; Cliff jump option into Swim 3)

Swim 3 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 4 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Long Course Annotated Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 -  1.28 miles (“Lite” hills run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current; wind might be an issue)

Run 3 - 2.12 miles (Narrow trails, rocky, and hard-packed; first half is mostly uphill; Sandy at points in the second half the run; finishing with a very steep run down a boat ramp to Swim 3) 

Swim 3 - 1145 yards (Swimming against the current; Current mild or non-existent if water levels remain low; stick close to the cliffs to keep the swim as short as possible; very steep water exit so make sure your hands are paddle-free upon exit)

Run 4 - 3.33 miles (Slightly less flat but still pretty flat run; this run is exposed and could be very hot; very steep start but then levels off; pretty narrow trail so it will be mostly single file; the end of run has another super steep boat ramp to get to the swim leg)

Swim 4 - 536 yards (Swimming against the current; Current mild or non-existent if water levels remain low; wind might be an issue; swim start has about 6 inches of muck for about 20’ out; make sure your shoes are on tightly so you don’t get a “flat tire”)

Run 5 - .56 miles (Flat run; this is a “teamwork-heavy” section; the swim exit for this run is very steep; you will need your hands free for this technical section; there are bathrooms along the road of this run; cliff jump option into Swim 5; the highest jumping-off point is around 20’ but athletes can scale down some ledges to make a smaller jump)

Swim 5 - 955 yards (Swimming against the current; Current mild or non-existent if water levels remain low; wind might be an issue)

Run 6 - 2.49 miles (Flat/Rocky run; cliff jump option into Swim 6)

Swim 6 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 7 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Final Thoughts

It’s important to note that the water temperature was 78 degrees Fahrenheit (the air temperature was 62 degrees) during the course training day. You can check the water temps for yourself here. Folks should plan accordingly for that. Other than that, paying attention during the trial runs will help prevent collisions and tripping on roots, rocks, and the like. 

We want to thank Adrian again for taking the time to give us his field report. He’s going to do great on race day…and so will all of you!

That’s it for this week’s bonus show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.