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?
Another possible explanation:
Even the race description discusses moving the course further to the East this year so that it was less easy to slingshot down the seawall. Given my really poor navigation for my last two races, I ended up much closer to the seawall than most other swimmers after turn 2 (of course, I was also almost swimming behind the lifeguard boats after turn 1). During that leg, I seemed to be passing a lot of swimmers when I was on the outside, and I'm not that fast. Perhaps a couple of folks used this strategy to their advantage (as opposed to my using it by default).
FTR, my time was 2 minutes faster than last year. I'd like to think it had to do with training, being 10 pounds lighter, and a better swimmer, but who knows. I was also over a minute slower than someone I had bested by a minute in a 2.4 mile swim not 3 weeks before.
Another possible explanation:
Even the race description discusses moving the course further to the East this year so that it was less easy to slingshot down the seawall. Given my really poor navigation for my last two races, I ended up much closer to the seawall than most other swimmers after turn 2 (of course, I was also almost swimming behind the lifeguard boats after turn 1). During that leg, I seemed to be passing a lot of swimmers when I was on the outside, and I'm not that fast. Perhaps a couple of folks used this strategy to their advantage (as opposed to my using it by default).
FTR, my time was 2 minutes faster than last year. I'd like to think it had to do with training, being 10 pounds lighter, and a better swimmer, but who knows. I was also over a minute slower than someone I had bested by a minute in a 2.4 mile swim not 3 weeks before.
