I am hoping to do my first open water swim this summer, its a one mile swim. I was looking at the past results of the event online and I am confused by some of the times. The winning time was 15:30, that is moving pretty good. However there was a 67 year old man who finished it in just over 20 minutes (kudos to him). And 75% of the people who swam it did it under 25 minutes and this includes a lot of 50-60 year olds. Is it possible the course really isnt a mile? Or do I need to ramp up my training?
The worst I ever had was swimming a down and back where the current on the return leg was like walking on a moving sidewalk - the wrong way.
Right before I did my first river swim last year, I asked this board for advice. They said that mid-river was stronger current so try to go down stream towards the middle of the river and upstream near the shore.
Unfortunately the course was laid out in such a way that upstream was one third into the middle of the river and down stream was almost at the shore. If the motto in The Princess Bride is "fight to the pain" then the motto of that swim was "swim to the puke". I didn't, but I wanted to. The funny thing was that I still finished several minutes ahead of someone who would swim much faster than I in the Big Shoulders one month later.
The worst I ever had was swimming a down and back where the current on the return leg was like walking on a moving sidewalk - the wrong way.
Right before I did my first river swim last year, I asked this board for advice. They said that mid-river was stronger current so try to go down stream towards the middle of the river and upstream near the shore.
Unfortunately the course was laid out in such a way that upstream was one third into the middle of the river and down stream was almost at the shore. If the motto in The Princess Bride is "fight to the pain" then the motto of that swim was "swim to the puke". I didn't, but I wanted to. The funny thing was that I still finished several minutes ahead of someone who would swim much faster than I in the Big Shoulders one month later.
