Top 5 Swimrun Tips From Marcus Barton

Swimrun is much more enjoyable if you take the time to practice and hone in on a few race strategies. Swimrunner, Marcus Barton has consistently been one of the top swimrunners from the USA, Marcus and his teammate Kawika Tarayao are currently ranked the third best team in the world (TSR Rankings). Here are his top tips for nailing your swimrun race with a few bonus training tips thrown in for good measure!

1. Don’t faff on your transitions

Transition early and do it on the move. Don’t waste time standing at the water’s edge. You should be ready to get into the water before you get to the water.  

2. Speed it up at fuel stations

Same thing goes for fuel stations. Do as much of your fueling on the move as possible.

3. Save playing around with new gear for a training session

Don’t test new gear on race day.  Race with what you know and have practiced with.

4. Swimun as a pair

Teamwork makes the dream work.  Help each other.  Cab down. Keeping track of nutrition. Getting out of the water.  Whatever.  If you don’t have a partner, get one.  Racing solo isn’t near as much fun. 

5. Enjoy yourself

Have fun.  It should always be about having fun.

Bonus tips for training:

1. Practice your transitions.  You can lose a lot of time in transition. Practice. Practice. Practice.

2. Run technical trail.  When you think you run enough technical trail, do it more.  Many of the courses are technical.

3. Always run the hard, difficult line on technical trail in training. Why would you want to make it easy?  You want to get better at technical, right?