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

This week’s show should really have been episode number 2 for reasons that we’ll explain later but we are thrilled to have Amber Ferreira and Aryn Marsh of Team Better Tethered Together on the show. This is our last interview that we will be releasing that we recorded while we were in Catalina for Ötillö. More forthcoming.

Our top story this week again, and pretty much the top story in the world is still COVID-19. As the World continues to deal with the pandemic and more shelter at home orders are made, here in the Bay Area they have now closed most parks to vehicular traffic and outright closed others because people can’t take to heart the concept of social distancing. We encourage everyone to stay safe and keep listening to the scientists and doctors advice about what to do.

We wanted to send a shoutout to Dave Dammer this week for posting the IG photo with his Ark Keel Pull Buoy on his head and tagging us. We know it’s silly but these are tough times, might as well try to get some laughs in! Keep the posts coming!

We’ve gotten a little more press courtesy of Nancy Heslin for Ötillö Swimrun Magazine. You can check out that story here if you want to learn a little bit more our origin story.

Our collab shirt fundraiser for the WILD Youth Initiative created by WILD Swimrun is selling well! As a reminder, all proceeds from this apparel will go towards providing scholarships to help girls attend the WILD Swimrun camps. Have enough shirts (and/or pillows)? You can head over to lowtideboyz.com to donate to the WILD Youth Initiative on our homepage.

Now for this week’s show. Amber and Aryn of team Better Tethered Together met up with us in Catalina for a pre-race interview. They have been big fans of the show and it was great to have them on. It was a pretty vivid interview so we wanted to issue this warning: THERE IS TALK ABOUT POOP ON THIS EPISODE. It’s all in the context of racing Swimrun but we still wanted to warn anyone that might get the willies when hearing about that topic. We encourage people to fast forward a bit once it comes up if you’re not into it. That being said, this interview is a great story about one of the things that we love about the sport, the partner aspect. We chat about their race experience, how they see the sport of swimrun in the U.S., and their hopes for the future of the sport. We hope that you enjoy the interview.

Amber is a pro-triathlete that has raced triathlon professionally for eleven years, is an Ironman champion and has raced 70 Ironman events. Aryn is an elite swimmer that met Amber In New Hampshire and started swimming together soon after that. They knew right away that they wanted to train together and agreed to become a swimrun team. Aryn first learned about Odyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay and raced the sprint race solo in 2018. They first raced together at Casco Bay in 2019.

Their first race together was quite a story. They were leading the women’s race for three hours when their friendship and partnership as teammates was put to the test…the poop test, if you will. You’ll have to listen to the show to get the details but it’s a pretty amazing story of quick thinking, perseverance and the fighting spirit. It’s also about a lot of poop! They still managed to finish in third place.

Despite the adversity that they faced at Casco Bay, they made it their goal to try to qualify for the Ötillö World Championship. They came to Catalina to try to podium and get their slot. (Spoiler alert: they qualified!) 

You can follow their journey to the World Championship at Better Tethered Together, Amber Ferreira and Aryn Marsh.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, 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. 

Click Here to Register for the Jesse Thomas Wildflower Giveaway!

In 2011, Jesse Thomas was a new pro triathlete. He was so new, in fact, that when he decided to race the Wildflower Triathlon at the last minute that year, there were no real pro spots left, so he ended up with bib number 87, the first number behind the female pro bibs.

Picture this: He was on a borrowed bike and, fellow pro triathlete, Matt Lieto, let him borrow an aero helmet. Jesse slept in a closet the night before the race and he even stopped at the drug store at the last minute to pick up a pair of cheap aviator sunglasses because he didn’t even have sunglasses to wear.

Literally, no one knew who he was; not even the race announcers who had to ask him his name as he crossed the finish line, much to everyone’s surprise, at the front of the stacked pro field.

In part one of this special two-part interview with long-time Coach Matt Dixon, Jesse walks us through that magical day, which was, indeed, his catalyst into triathlon stardom.

He was a true “newbie triathlete” competitor who won this legendary race which seemed downright unfathomable. It is, as they say in the interview, one of the most authentic moments in sport, a true Cinderella story, and there are many lessons of process, expectations, and performance to be absorbed throughout this conversation.

Some may call it a fluke, but what makes this story and coach/athlete relationship so special is that Jesse defended his title successfully for the next SIX consecutive years and now he’s back in 2018 (along with the return of the race) with a different lens on the sport, but, still, with big expectations and a true desire to win.

He can’t wait to bring it all back to where it started and we can’t wait for you to listen to this amusing, funny and inspirational account of the non-glamorous start to a pro triathlon career that has turned into one of the most successful.

In celebration of the return of the Wildflower Triathlon and Jesse’s return to the start line, we’ve teamed up with Roka and Picky Bars to givevaway prize packs valued at over $2000! Visit purplepatchfitness.com/wildflowergiveaway to register.

Wildflower Giveaway

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