Ok, so the more they email me, the more I get nervous about the water temp. Last year it was 69 which stung to get in, but it made for a nice swimming temp. By the end, though, my fingers and toes felt a little numb, but that could have been tired (??).
But this year, it could be up to 10 degrees colder?! What to do when the coolest water I can find here in Cincinnati is 80?
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Former Member
Hello from an occasional lurker...
FWIW, I swam at least a couple seconds faster per 100m in Big Shoulders than I'm capable of swimming 100 laps in a LCM pool. That could indicate the course was shorter than a true 5K. It might also indicate:
- I benefited significantly from the pacing and draft of somewhat faster swimmers near the front of the 1st wave;
- there was some net favorable current (possible in a triangular course);
- the blueseventy is just that awesome.
You just never know with open-water - there are too many variables. And in this case, the observable conditions (water temp, surface calm) were nearly perfect.
That said, I do think there's an advantage in Big Shoulders from starting with the first wave. We had clear water for more than half the race, and I definitely slowed down once we had to swim over/around slower swimmers. It was also much more difficult to stay on the feet of my pace group when we got mixed up with different waves.
So, the only advantage I can see for Andy starting in a later wave is that the leaders of the first wave were unaware of him, and thus might have swum at less than full effort (they were only trying to beat each other).
Hello from an occasional lurker...
FWIW, I swam at least a couple seconds faster per 100m in Big Shoulders than I'm capable of swimming 100 laps in a LCM pool. That could indicate the course was shorter than a true 5K. It might also indicate:
- I benefited significantly from the pacing and draft of somewhat faster swimmers near the front of the 1st wave;
- there was some net favorable current (possible in a triangular course);
- the blueseventy is just that awesome.
You just never know with open-water - there are too many variables. And in this case, the observable conditions (water temp, surface calm) were nearly perfect.
That said, I do think there's an advantage in Big Shoulders from starting with the first wave. We had clear water for more than half the race, and I definitely slowed down once we had to swim over/around slower swimmers. It was also much more difficult to stay on the feet of my pace group when we got mixed up with different waves.
So, the only advantage I can see for Andy starting in a later wave is that the leaders of the first wave were unaware of him, and thus might have swum at less than full effort (they were only trying to beat each other).
