Episode Details

Welcome to episode 113 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this special episode, we are sharing our course preview for Swimrun Lake James. This race has been on our bucket list for a while and we are super stoked to be racing it this year. We are joined in the episode by race director Kristen Jeno, Purple Patch coach/race director John Stevens, and Mr. Swimrun himself Marcus Barton. So get your notepads out and enjoy listening to our breakdown of this super fun race.

Deep in the Heart of North Carolina

Swimrun Lake James takes place at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Lake James State Park in North Carolina and offers long and short course race distances that are full of rolling terrain and beautiful/chilly lake waters.

Getting to Lake James is pretty straight forward with several airports in the general area including Charlotte and Asheville. The race begins and ends at Fonta Flora Whippoorwill Farm just outside of the park entrance. Don’t let the name fool you, the race begins and ends at a local brewery called, Fonta Flora. 

Course Overview(s)

The Long Course clocks in at about 4 miles of swimming and 15 miles of running. The course will have 14 run sections and 13 swim sections. The swim sections range from 20yds to 1600yds in a unique and picturesque lake setting. The run sections range from 25 meters to 7.5 miles. 

The Short Course is about 2.7 miles of swimming and 10 miles of running. The course will have 8 run sections and 7 swim sections. The swim sections range from 20yds to 1300yds in a unique and picturesque lake setting. The run sections range from 25 meters to 5.5 miles. 

The runs are made up of fire service trail roads, single track trails, paved roads, and off the beaten path wooded sections. The swims are in a lake and there could be some chop if it’s windy out. Water temps range from the mid 50s-low 60s fahrenheit.

We asked race director Kristen Jeno for a course walkthrough when we interviewed her back in episode 65 of the show and it was so good that we are sharing that again for everyone to listen to. We also have an annotated leg-by-leg breakdown that folks can reference as they listen.

Note that Kristen is walking everyone through the Long Course but the Short Course pretty much follows the same route until the end of the long run Leg 5 and then head’s back to the start line from there.

Leg-by-leg Breakdown

Long Course

Run 1: Whippoorwill Farm - OV Trail (.97 miles)

• This section turns into a single track pretty quickly from the start to be towards the front if you don’t want to get stuck in the bottleneck

Swim 1: (800yds)

• A big swim right out of the gate

Run 2: Paddy’s Creek Trail (.30 miles)

Swim 2: (50yds)

Run 3: Paddy’s Creek Trail - Beach area (.08 miles)

• Super short run so better to not do a full transition, maybe just get the pull buoy out the way and run to Swim 3 with the rest of your kit on

Swim 3: (700yds)

Run 4: OV Trail - Unmarked Service Road (.55 miles)

Swim 4: (300yds)

Run 5: Paddy’s Creek Trail - Homestead Trail - Lower Tindo Loop Trail - Unmarked Service Road (7.70 miles)

• This is the longest run leg of the day by far
• Teams should have a nutrition plan and pacing strategy dialed in 
• The aid station on this leg is the first time cutoff. Teams need to reach the Homestead Trail intersection aid station by 10:00am
• Th