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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So his "history" shows that he is one of the faster distance swimmers in his age group, at less than ideal conditions. As Tom pointed out, Andy had the perfect storm for this race:
1) Great practices for the past year
2) Healthy up to and through the event
3) Deliberately peaked for this particular race
4) Ideal race - straight lines, racers from previous heats to "sling-shot" from
5) Blue70 doesn't hurt either
If it sounds like I am defending him, it's because I know the guy. From practice, he is an endurance machine (when not injured). As a person, winning the race doesn't mean enough that he would think about cheating. His interest would be to see what he could do, what he is capable of when at 100%.
There have been a number of accusations/theories regarding what happened on race day with little hard evidence to substantiate claims made on either side. While the race director reaffirmed that the time in question was correct I ask him to consider the following additional evidence. This, I believe, provides further support to the accusations of cutting the course short: The swimmer in question started in wave 3 which took place 10 minutes after the first wave. After looking at the results, I have concluded that at the very least he would have had to pass 189 5k swimmers from heats 1 & 2 in order to clock in a time of 56:21 (1:06:21 adjusted). This figure is simply obtained by adjusting for the staggered starts and producing a list of finishing order. I haven’t taken in account how many others swimmers (i.e. 2.5K) he or the top ten leaders from heat 1 may have passed along the way but I have to believe that he passed considerably more swimmers… One has to question how someone could pass that many swimmers while clocking such an incredible time. No one could say that he had an advantage by having more drafting or so-called “sling-shot?” opportunities while having to navigate and pass that many slower swimmers- it’s an absurd argument to say the least! The cluster of strong swimmers in the lead pack had the greatest advantage; benefiting from the longest stretch of unobstructed water, straightest line, and the benefit of having swimmers that they could “actually” draft off. If I had the time and the advantage of having the results in a spreadsheet to perform a few calculations I’m certain that it would be easier to prove that these results are ridiculous.
So his "history" shows that he is one of the faster distance swimmers in his age group, at less than ideal conditions. As Tom pointed out, Andy had the perfect storm for this race:
1) Great practices for the past year
2) Healthy up to and through the event
3) Deliberately peaked for this particular race
4) Ideal race - straight lines, racers from previous heats to "sling-shot" from
5) Blue70 doesn't hurt either
If it sounds like I am defending him, it's because I know the guy. From practice, he is an endurance machine (when not injured). As a person, winning the race doesn't mean enough that he would think about cheating. His interest would be to see what he could do, what he is capable of when at 100%.
There have been a number of accusations/theories regarding what happened on race day with little hard evidence to substantiate claims made on either side. While the race director reaffirmed that the time in question was correct I ask him to consider the following additional evidence. This, I believe, provides further support to the accusations of cutting the course short: The swimmer in question started in wave 3 which took place 10 minutes after the first wave. After looking at the results, I have concluded that at the very least he would have had to pass 189 5k swimmers from heats 1 & 2 in order to clock in a time of 56:21 (1:06:21 adjusted). This figure is simply obtained by adjusting for the staggered starts and producing a list of finishing order. I haven’t taken in account how many others swimmers (i.e. 2.5K) he or the top ten leaders from heat 1 may have passed along the way but I have to believe that he passed considerably more swimmers… One has to question how someone could pass that many swimmers while clocking such an incredible time. No one could say that he had an advantage by having more drafting or so-called “sling-shot?” opportunities while having to navigate and pass that many slower swimmers- it’s an absurd argument to say the least! The cluster of strong swimmers in the lead pack had the greatest advantage; benefiting from the longest stretch of unobstructed water, straightest line, and the benefit of having swimmers that they could “actually” draft off. If I had the time and the advantage of having the results in a spreadsheet to perform a few calculations I’m certain that it would be easier to prove that these results are ridiculous.
