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 actually think it would be very difficult to cut the course without someone noticing. It's a giant triangle and to cut the course would require someone swimming right across one of the corners which would be obvious to the lifeguard boats. A brightly colored cap suddenly in the middle where there are no swimmers would draw attention. The only way I can think to cheat the course would be to only swim one circuit very slowly. Let the race leaders very obviously wearing red or green caps pass you and make sure you finish less than five minutes behind the red caps.
On starting in the right wave, I didn't notice any white caps in the red wave in which I started. However, I did notice 7-8 red caps starting in the green cap wave (the first wave). What was that all about?
That said, I don't think this happened either. I think the man swam a great race. This is entirely possible. While not on the 5K scale, I can personally speak to having race results deviate significantly from my previous recent results. In high school, I once pulled a 100 fly time to place in the top 3 in the district meet when I'd never before swum anything that would have placed in the top 12.
As for cheating the Manhattan Marathon I'm thinking a quick jog down 38th might do the trick.
I actually think it would be very difficult to cut the course without someone noticing. It's a giant triangle and to cut the course would require someone swimming right across one of the corners which would be obvious to the lifeguard boats. A brightly colored cap suddenly in the middle where there are no swimmers would draw attention. The only way I can think to cheat the course would be to only swim one circuit very slowly. Let the race leaders very obviously wearing red or green caps pass you and make sure you finish less than five minutes behind the red caps.
On starting in the right wave, I didn't notice any white caps in the red wave in which I started. However, I did notice 7-8 red caps starting in the green cap wave (the first wave). What was that all about?
That said, I don't think this happened either. I think the man swam a great race. This is entirely possible. While not on the 5K scale, I can personally speak to having race results deviate significantly from my previous recent results. In high school, I once pulled a 100 fly time to place in the top 3 in the district meet when I'd never before swum anything that would have placed in the top 12.
As for cheating the Manhattan Marathon I'm thinking a quick jog down 38th might do the trick.
