Löw Tide Böyz Ötillö Catalina Race Report

Welcome to episode eight of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s show is all about Ötillö Catalina that happened this past weekend (Feb. 29-Mar. 1).

We have something special this week and have two parts to this episode. The first part will be the Low Tide Boyz report and the second part will be the race report from a Swedish Team, Team ARKsouls Addnature, that finished in second place female division.

So here we go! We had an amazing and busy weekend scheduled at Catalina. We were almost journalists. We recorded 4 great interviews that we will be releasing in the coming weeks. We met some great people, made new friends, connected faces to names and just had an amazing time. It’s hard to overstate how surreal it was to get so much positive feedback for the podcast and memes. It all started on the ferry ride to Catalina from Long Beach and really didn’t stop until we left. We tried to mention all the people that we connected with while we were there but we’re sure that we missed a bunch of folks. Overall, it was an amazing weekend and we can’t wait to back next year.

Episode 8: The Löw Tide Böyz Ötillö Catalina Race Report

We thought it would be helpful for folks that are thinking about doing the race next year to give a play by play of the World Series distance (31k or running and 7.7k of swimming) race. The course was very difficult and pretty much everything that you’d want in a swimrun race and nothing that you could find in a triathlon.

Leg 1: Two Harbors to Isthmus Harbor Beach (2.3 miles or 3.7 kilometers)

This leg was a pretty hilly run right off of the bat.

Leg 2: Isthmus Harbor Beach to Big Fisherman Cove (1640 yards or 1500 meters)

Nothing too tough about this. It definitely felt nice to get in the water after cooking on the run with the wetsuits on.

Leg 3: Big Fisherman Cove to Ballast Point Beach (2.9m or 4.8k)

This run was pretty straight forward. A little bit of a climb from the boat ramp but then it got very runnable.

Leg 4: Ballast Point Beach to Catalina Harbor Boat Ramp (440y or 400m)

This was the shortest swim of the day.

Leg 5: Boat Ramp to Parsons Landing (5.3m or 9.5k)

This was the hardest/longest run of the day. We dropped the suits as soon as we got out of the water knowing that we had a big climb ahead…which we pretty much just hiked/death marched up. (Shout out to the Swimrun Monks and Team Baywatch for the head’s up on this section) It was very steep for the first 2 miles. There was an aid station at the top of the climb (an aid station coming out of the water would have been nice.) Once we got to the top of the climb, we were pretty exposed and it got a bit chilly with the wind but it was nice to be able to run and then had a screaming downhill to get to the next swim at Parson’s Landing.

Leg 6: Parsons Landing Bay (765y or 700m)

This was the hardest swim of the day. It was very exposed and there were 4-5’ waves going in and out. This was a leg were the true spirit of swimrun really shined. We quickly made a plan of attack, agreed on who would do what and went on to execute. The whole process probably took 30 seconds but it exemplified a lot of what we love about the sport, namely, seeing an obstacle, communicating on how to tackle it and then going out and doing it. Did we mention that this swim was hard?

Leg 7: Parsons to Emerald Bay (1.1m or 1.9k)

This run was pretty chill and just what we needed after the washing machine-style swim that we just finished. This was about the half way point of the race with some very long swims coming up.

Leg 8: Emerald Bay to Howland’s Landing (1400y or 1300m)

This swim was pretty straight forward but the water temperature was dropping a bit.

Leg 9: Howland’s to Big Geiger Cove (1.3m or 2.2k)

This run was pretty uneventful. Just climbing out of the beach to a trail and then keep heading south towards the finish area. We ran this one easy since the biggest swim of the day was up next.

Leg 10: Big Geiger Cove to Lion’s Head Cove (1750y or 1600m)

This swim wasn’t very technical but it was long. It was also our fastest swim of the day.

Leg 11: Lion’s to Fourth of July Cove (2.2m or 3.6k)

We ran this swim pretty quickly, mostly to warm up but also because we were feeling pretty good. We passed several teams on this run. We saw our friend Christofer Sundberg from Ark Sports on the run so that also gave us a lift.

Leg 12: Fourth of July Cove to Isthmus Harbor Beach (875Y or 800m)

This swim was fine but it was a little hard to sight. Luckily there was a watercraft that pointed us in the right direction.

Leg 13: Isthmus Harbor Beach to Big Fishermen Cove (3m or 4.9k)

This was the last run of the day and we definitely knew that we had the race in the bag. We also saw our first wild animal of the day: a squirrel! (Read: we saw zero bison!)

Leg 14: Big Fishermen to Isthmus Harbor Beach (1530y or 1400m)

We were both pretty toasted by this last swim and we just grinded it out to the beach. Chipper really carried the load to get us to the beach.

Leg 15: Beach to finish line (.2 miles)

Crossing the finish line was a sweet as any race we’ve completed together.

Overall, it was a great experience and we will be back! We worked well together and supported each other well and achieved the goal. Hats off to Ötillö for putting on an amazing event. One of our friends Marcus Barton made a video of the race that you can see here to get a great sense of the vibes of the day. You can check out the official event photos on Flickr.

The Low Tide Boyz will be back next year!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Low Tide Boyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com