I have been looking around at a lot of different distance open water swimming sites lately and then looking at the times. It seems to me that the times are way to fast. Then again I'm not an open water swimmer, though that will change this year. I'm still confused by the times and speed I seem to be seeing. Here are just a couple of examples:
Little Red Lighthouse swim, best time: 1:07 for a 7.8 mile swim!
Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, best time 5:45 for a 28 mile swim. Heck you have to finish in 10 hours.
And then from here: 47-year old Slovenian ...He also broke the world record for non-stop swimming when he covered 313 miles of the Danube in just 84 hours in 2001. That's an average of 3.7 miles an hour.
I can see that the tides and water flow would help, but still I have seen a lot of averages of 3-4+ miles an hour. Those would be close to 1500 WR times in a pool. How can people sustain such speeds for so long? What am I missing here because I'd like to be able to do those kinds of speed.
Former Member
unless there was significant current there is no way those times are correct. Are you sure they weren't kilometers instead of miles. The 28 mile swim in 5 hours and 45 minutes, yeah right. That will never be done by a human. Ever.
I should have included this: http://www.swimnyc.org/ where I got the info at. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of people who swim it, 14 or so in 02, but they were still under 10 hours. I also remember reading about a guy who claims to have swam across the Atlantic in 100 days or something crazy like that. I remember seeing he was doing 10 minute miles.
Believe it.
The Manhattan Marathon Swim is timed to get the maximum benefit from the tides and the flow of the East, Harlem, and Hudson rivers. Same with the 7.8 mile Little Red Lighthouse Swim (Hudson river only). I did both in 2002, the former as a relay team member. I did the last leg of the relay and seemed to be flying past the final seawall. My wife, on the walkway, had to hustle to keep up.
For the LRL swim, I *barely* was able to get out of the flow of the river and into the finish area. About 10% of the field was swept past the finish area and had to be pulled out as DNF's.
I've also been in races where it took 2 minutes of all-out sprinting to go 50 yards due to oncoming currents.
Many open water races are setup to work with the tides due to safety reasons or, as in the case of the NYC races, to make them even possible at all.
Man, are those races fun. Every winter it seems like June will NEVER arrive.
-LBJ
The 2nd time I swam Alcatraz back in 1998 with my then 12 year old son Matt, we got bumped over to the right side of the entrance into the lagoon in front of the National Maritime Museum. The outgoing tide was so strong we were almost unable to sprint the 10 yards back, to make it into the lagoon. From my experience the year before, I knew that if we did not line up exactly right...we would have never been able to swim against the tide to make it into the lagoon...Gosh, getting bumped to the right of the throat by other swimmers; we just missed the throat, which almost cost us a DNF.
Just a note to Lefty -
The Manhattan Island Foundation Events (Manhattan Island Swim, Little Red Lighthouse Swim, etc) - times are correct and they are in miles.
The 28.5 mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim can only be done on certain days of the year when all the currents in the many waterways surrounding the island are favorable. This year the race will be on July 3rd (I'm an alternate for a relay). Successful navigation through the rivers is key to success on this one and a good kayaker guide is worth his or her weight in gold.
Having swum some of the shorter Hudson River events (yeah, only 2.8 miles), I can vouch for there being a freight train current at times.
This is not to say that the swims with a fast current are that much easier; rather it just presents different challenges, as Tom pointed out. The biggest issue with a strong current is that many swimmers can and do miss the finish and are unable to overcome the current to swim back and have to be brought in by a "catcher" boat. This is besides the risk of being swept into the pilings of a pier or boat or other factors that you suddenly find yourself about to confront.
A couple of years ago in the 2.8 mile Great Hudson River swim, more than half the field had to be pulled after the current changed midway through the race.
The lesson here is this: learn about the body of water you plan to swim in and listen carefully to the race officials and those who swam the event in earlier years. With the MIF race, mandatory pre-race briefings are mandatory for a reason.
When evaluating the results of open water events (ocean and river races, anyway) like these, don't look at the times as much as the placings.
And one more point, regarding these amazingly fast times. If you look at the athletes who hold these records, they are world class distance and marathon swimmers. Shelley Taylor Smith who holds the Manhattan Island Swim record of 05:45:25, is arguably the best female marathon swimmer since Penny Dean.
Also when I swam the race in 1999, we had the best race conditions ever, but that shouldn’t detract from Tobie Smith’s 06:32:41. Tobie was an NCAA distance champion in the 1650, World University Games 1500 M champion, and a frequent member of the USA-Swimming National team.
For those who have never experienced the wonder of current assisted swimming, it is difficult to describe the incredible feeling you get while swimming past the UN, under the Brooklyn Bridge, and past Yankee Stadium, The Empire State Building, and the World Trade Centers at 2 to 3 times your normal race pace.
I signed up for one of the hudson river races and was looking at the times.
I thought Iwas pretty good at the time and looking atthe previous year's races I thought I would be DFL. I was nervous going in.
I finished in the top ten and realized that with a 2.5 knot tail current, you can put in some pretty good times.
