Did the Pacific Open Water Challenge in Long Beach yesterday. Haven't been training long long yet, so opted for the 1 mile swim. They were still setting up the buoys as the RD was describing the course. "Are those big round ones the buoys?" "No, the triangular yellow ones....... waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the beach." I've done a bunch of Half ironmans, Alcatraz, 2 mile pier to piers, that wasn't no mile we were looking at.
Ah well, no big deal, since everyone has to swim the same distance. I know OWS are often off, but almost double? Someone in an official looking shirt said she heard it was 1.7, and i also heard someone apparently had a garmin measuring 1,7, but since there was no buoy between the start buoy and about .75 of a mile, sighting was all over the place, so who knows. Looking at my usual 100 yard pace, it was somewhere between 1.5 and 1.7 miles.
I didn't time the swim, and didn't look at the clock when I got out, so other than "gee, this seems a little long," it didn't bother me much (and doesn't now). Looks like the guards lined the buoys up with guard towers, just the wrong ones. Lucky for the 5K swimmers they moved them way in, lined up with the next closer set of towers. Otherwise they were looking at a good 4-5 mile swim.
Winning time was THIRTY minutes for the "mile." Friend was 12 minutes off last year's time. I was happy, won 40-44 AG with a ridiculous 37!
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1.7 versus 1 miles seems like a lot but I always expect a lot of variability in race distances...
I don't mean to minimize your experience but I really find uncertainty to be one of the joys of open water swimming.
yeah but a 70% margin of error? that'd be like signing up for a half-marathon and then running 22 miles when all was said and done... wow, what a surprise at the finish line that would be...
understanding that there are conditions (wind, swell, etc.) that affect your swim are one thing... those are the uncertainties i enjoy in open water, and frankly what makes open water exciting for me... but you at least hope the distance is somewhere in the ballpark to let you compare your performance to past races...
i'm not sure how it all affected the 1/2 mile course, but looking at the results (and comparing last year's results) it must have... i did the aquathon, and i was pretty shocked to see my time coming out of the water heading to transition...
overall i think the pacific open water event was a great event... i loved the k9 splash and dash (that little yorkie was fast, but i think he got some help with the swim!)... i will definitely do it again next year, i might even try to enter multiple events like the guy that did the 1/2 mile followed by the 5k... i just hope they pay a little more attention to marking out the swim distance so i don't end up doing a 10k! :-)
1.7 versus 1 miles seems like a lot but I always expect a lot of variability in race distances...
I don't mean to minimize your experience but I really find uncertainty to be one of the joys of open water swimming.
yeah but a 70% margin of error? that'd be like signing up for a half-marathon and then running 22 miles when all was said and done... wow, what a surprise at the finish line that would be...
understanding that there are conditions (wind, swell, etc.) that affect your swim are one thing... those are the uncertainties i enjoy in open water, and frankly what makes open water exciting for me... but you at least hope the distance is somewhere in the ballpark to let you compare your performance to past races...
i'm not sure how it all affected the 1/2 mile course, but looking at the results (and comparing last year's results) it must have... i did the aquathon, and i was pretty shocked to see my time coming out of the water heading to transition...
overall i think the pacific open water event was a great event... i loved the k9 splash and dash (that little yorkie was fast, but i think he got some help with the swim!)... i will definitely do it again next year, i might even try to enter multiple events like the guy that did the 1/2 mile followed by the 5k... i just hope they pay a little more attention to marking out the swim distance so i don't end up doing a 10k! :-)
