Swimrun Lake 2023 Race Recap w/Team Water Buffaloes

Welcome to episode 173 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we don our alternate personas of “The FOMOBUSTERS” as we recap this past week’s Swimrun Lake James. We’re almost positive that if you weren’t at the race, that your FOMO level was off the charts and we are here to help! Joining us to recap the event are Matt Skavnak and Pat Lowam, A.K.A., Team The Water Buffaloes. It was their first time racing Lake James and we’ll re-living all the sights and sounds of this classic Swimrun.

But first…

Training Update

The training continues. We’ll be engaging in extracurricular feats of endurance the next few weeks but other than that, you can find us at the pool and on the trails.

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to everyone that raced Swimrun Lake James. We love this race and everything that it does for the sport. If we want the sport to grow here in the U.S. we have to support the races that are leading the charge and we need to keep showing up. So thank you for showing up! 

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

Don’t let fear put your dreams to sleep. – Stevie Wonder

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Rob Dick. He’s a local Marin County man who is also ½ of Team Gin and Tonic and he crushed the Belgian Waffle Ride this past weekend. Don’t know what that is? Well, it’s only one of the coolest gravel bike races around and a worthy feat of endurance. Strong work Rob!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

Starting in the bummer department, Swimrunman’s Grands Lac De Laffrey will not take place in 2023. We will miss that diabolical vertical Km at the end of the long course!

In happier news, Swimrunman’s Gorges Du Verdon is taking place this weekend. This event offers three distance options, including an “Ultra” ÖTILLÖ Merit Race distance. (Tier 3 so only ranking points are available.) This will be the first race of the year for a lot of folks and we can’t wait to see the photos and videos on the internets.

In product news, the forever popular (and forever out of stock) Ark Sports Kangaroo tops are back…sort of. If you want to score this amazing piece of kit (and one that we would highly, highly recommend), head on over to Arksports.com to preorder your top. The site states that they expect to get them back in stock in May and will be mailed straight away after that. 

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

We are experiencing major FOMO to be missing this year’s Swimrun Lake James so we thought we would host a virtual post-race party/meetup to get everyone’s race report on how the day went. Join us on Zoom on Sunday May 7th at 6pm ET for a casual virtual meetup to chat about all things Swimrun.

Swimrun Lake James Race Recap w/Team Water Buffaloes

It was great to chat with Matt and Pat. They’ve been Patrons on Patreon for a while now and it was super fun to talk shop with them. In this race recap, we cover the whole experience of Swimrun Lake James, quell FOMO, and talk about what the future holds for two buddies trying to get to ÖTILLÖ. This was a super fun conversation and it got us super stoked for the season!

Make sure to check out their blog at https://thewaterbuffaloes.blogspot.com/. Also, Blogspot is still a thing!

Enjoy!

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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 Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, 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