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?
I don't know the course, but it seems that if you were going to cut a course by that much (a number of minutes), it would be pretty evident to the safety people and race officials. If nothing else, I would expect a safety boat to rush over and try to keep me from swimming to Canada by accident. Not to mention that many eyes are on the front pack of a race anyway, so someone just casually swimming over into the lead would certainly be noticed.
Actually in this race it might not be difficult. All the boats and lifeguards are on the outside of the course. You could cut inside and it would be doubtful any lifeguards would rush over becuase they'd have to cross through the course (and all the swimmers) to do so. I suspect the lifeguards task is to watch for struggling swimmers, not to serve as race officials. Also, Andy didn't finish with the front pack. He finished at 9:06 and the leaders in the first wave finished just before 9:00.
There was also a change in the course marking this year. In past year there were only triangular buoys marking the vertices of the triangular course. This year there were also round buoys placed around the middle of each leg. It would certainly be possible to be confused by these round buoys and turn early.
And, no, I'm not suggesting this is what Andy did, I'm just refuting the possibility that cutting the course would be difficult to pull off. Using Occam's razor I think the most likely scenario is that Andy Seibt swam the regulation course faster than anyone else did.
I don't know the course, but it seems that if you were going to cut a course by that much (a number of minutes), it would be pretty evident to the safety people and race officials. If nothing else, I would expect a safety boat to rush over and try to keep me from swimming to Canada by accident. Not to mention that many eyes are on the front pack of a race anyway, so someone just casually swimming over into the lead would certainly be noticed.
Actually in this race it might not be difficult. All the boats and lifeguards are on the outside of the course. You could cut inside and it would be doubtful any lifeguards would rush over becuase they'd have to cross through the course (and all the swimmers) to do so. I suspect the lifeguards task is to watch for struggling swimmers, not to serve as race officials. Also, Andy didn't finish with the front pack. He finished at 9:06 and the leaders in the first wave finished just before 9:00.
There was also a change in the course marking this year. In past year there were only triangular buoys marking the vertices of the triangular course. This year there were also round buoys placed around the middle of each leg. It would certainly be possible to be confused by these round buoys and turn early.
And, no, I'm not suggesting this is what Andy did, I'm just refuting the possibility that cutting the course would be difficult to pull off. Using Occam's razor I think the most likely scenario is that Andy Seibt swam the regulation course faster than anyone else did.
