Swimrun 101: The Tether

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

This week’s show will hopefully leave you saying Snyggt! (“Nice!” in Swedish)

In this show we are demystifying one of the most mystifying aspects of Swimrun to non-Swimrunners and Swimrunners alike: The Tether! We are going to break it all down for you and by the end, hopefully convince you why you will want to race with a tether at your next Swimrun event. Welcome to Swimrun 101: The Tether!

But First…

Training Update

We had a good Casco Bay race simulation practice over the weekend and we’re definitely starting to feel the itch to race in a few weeks. In the meantime, we’ll keep swimming and running and swimming and running and so on.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon: Hugh B. As ever, we really appreciate folks supporting the show and helping us keep the lights on at Studio G. You’re awesome Hugh!

Feats of Endurance

It was really tough to pick a winner this week but we had to give the award to Tom Avontour from The Netherlands. Tom raced the Trail des 6 cols 45k race in France over the weekend and given that he lives in a practically pancake flat country, a race that had over 11,000ft of climbing is no easy feat. Major kudos Tom!

Make sure to check out our Strava Club and follow fellow Swimrunners from around the world as they train for races and life.

This Week In Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

It’s been a good week for Swimrun news!

ÖTILLÖ Engadin took place over the weekend and it looked as epic as ever. Congrats to everyone that raced and a special shoutout to Desirée Andersson and her partner Victor Dahl for winning the World Series event Mixed Division AND finishing 3rd overall! A bonus shoutout to Oscar Olsson and his partner for Adriel Young for finishing 2nd overall and then doing a bunch of interviews with livesporttv.se after the race! This race is second on our bucket list (just being ÖTILLÖ Utö) and we were experiencing major FOMO. Hopefully next year.... 

Swimrun Madrid by HEAD happened over the weekend in Peyalos de la Presa Spain. They had over 300 Swimrunners in attendance (according to their website) racing either their Sprint (10km) or Half (19km) distances. Both courses looked like a lot of fun!

Over in the UK, Breca Coniston and Mad Hatter Sports’s Hokey Cokey Roseland Swimrun took place and both events looked like a success! Shoutouts to friends of the podcast Iain Shaw and Sarah King who raced Coniston and Bill and Christina Lankford who won the mixed division at Roseland. Strong work all around.

In more UK news, our friends at As Keen As Mustard Events are back at their back to back event hosting escapades with the Manvers Lake Swimrun that happened last weekend and the Long Eaton Swimrun coming up this weekend in Nottingham. We expect to see some clever Robin Hood-themed team names for that one!

Here in the U.S., Swimrun season is about to get kicked into overdrive with five Ödyssey Swimrun events starting with Casco Bay on August 8th (use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on registration for any 2021 Ödyssey event), Swimrun NC on November 7th, and fittingly closing out the year with ÖTILLÖ Catalina on November 20th.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

If you’re going to be in Portland, Maine on Aug. 8th, make sure to come join us at our inaugural LTBz post-race after-party, co-hosted by Ödyssey Swimrun at Lone Pine Brewery. We’ll be there from 5:30ish until they close at 8 pm. Mark it on your calendars!

SWIMRUN 101: THE TETHER

We’ve been getting a lot of feedback asking us for a Tether episode so for this edition of Swimrun 101 series we are going to break down the What? Why? And How? of the Swimrun Tether and make our case as to why you should be going to your local paracord/shock cord and carabiner supplier and DIY’ing one of these for your next Swimrun.

You can also check out our article in Triathlete Magazine about the tether and our video on Youtube.

What is it?

The tether, or tow line, is essentially a 3m (or roughly 10ft) cord that Swimrun teams use to stay in contact with each other in the water and on land during a Swimrun. Swimrun event rules typically state that teams must stay within 10 ft of each other at all times for safety. 

The genesis for the tether, according to previous guest of the show and legendary swimrunner Jonas Colting, was to keep teams safe and in contact during the original ÖTILLÖ race, which in the early years took teams 18+ hours to finish. While they aren’t mandatory at every race, as you will hear later, it’s a definite advantage to use one.

Why is it a thing?

There are some tactical advantages for using a tether. Mainly, it allows teams to stay in contact during swim legs and stay in each other’s draft. The advantages of drafting in the water are pretty well understood. In longer swimrun events, recovering behind the lead swimmer can keep everyone fresh, which can pay off later in the race. Teams can draft with different strategies. 

Teams will typically stay tethered during run legs and we would definitely recommend this. The tether provides real-time haptic feedback that lets you know exactly how your partner is doing pace-wise. If a team member is not having a good day, it’s not uncommon for a runner to tow their partner up a steep climb. The tether can keep a team moving forward until they recover or hit the next aid station. Rather than thinking of it as your teammate giving you a push of motivation, they are actually giving you a pull of motivation. 

When you are using a tether, we would also recommend keeping it on all the time unless the terrain makes that dangerous (cliff jumps) or annoying (lots of shrubbery for it to get caught on.) Clipping, unclipping, wrapping the cord up after a 200m swim, pulling it out and trying to rehook it to your partner will eat up a lot of time. This all comes down to practice and developing the technique to wield the tether effectively.

How to build a tether and how to use it?

The majority of teams DIY their tethers and we recommend using quick release carabiners to attach at both ends for um...quick release. (You can buy them pre-made but they are usually way overpriced and, more importantly, where’s the fun in that?!) The length can vary depending on comfort level, but typically you want it just long enough so that you stay on your partner’s feet in the water. (PRO TIP: if the tether is too long during a race, make a knot on the line during the next run leg.) Teams then attach each end to their wetsuit (some suits have integrated loops for attaching one), to the cord of your pull buoy waist loop (if you’re using that type of pull buoy mount), or to a waist utility belt a la Batman. Chris uses a “tactical military grade” nylon belt that has a loop built into the belt that sells for around $13.00 on Amazon. Companies like Orca and ARK Sports also make these belts.

To make your tether, we recommend using either a thick, bright-colored 1/4” paracord/shockcord or ½-¾” nylon webbing material and attach carabiners on either side. We recommend a highly visible color that can be easily seen in murky lakes and crystal clear ocean waters. You don’t need anything special in terms of carabiners, something that’s light and basic (but not easily snapped) will do the trick. 

As with anything Swimrun, you should experiment in training to see what works best for you. It definitely takes some getting used to swim and run with a tether...and dinner plate-sized hand paddles...and a giant pull buoy. Basically though, the partner being towed wants to keep the tether in their midline so that they can swim freely without getting all caught up in the tether.

In summary, we really can’t recommend the tether enough! It was a game changer for us when we finally stopped taking the tether off during runs and think that it will be the same for other teams as well.

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 review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at [email protected] with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

-  Chip and Chris