That swim was brutal. They announced today they pulled around 60 people out of the water and the waves were 2-4 feet. I couldn't see the bouys most of the swim and had to look for the kayakers holding their paddles up. I agree the safety crew was awesome, they were everywhere on the course and did a great job of keeping an eye on everyone.

I had a little panic moment myself but right around then there were some screams for help from behind me and I just continued on.

jaretj

It was really amazing. I was body surfing during the warm-ups (no exaggeration). While preparing to start, we convinced ourselves that it would get calmer as we got away from shore. It did not. I was very grateful that I am a right-side breather as we swim parallel to shore. After swimming 1.2mi, can't imagine doing the full IM swim.

I didn't race last year, but I know they moved the swim to the opposite side of the point, because of the water conditions... can't imagine how bad that must have been!

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John Hartpence, Athlete & Coach
tripence@gmail.com, @coachpence

I too was convinced it would calm down after the start buoy and that we would have the current with us for most of the swim. Felt really bad for everyone I told that too on the beach.

It was the toughest swim I've ever done. I stopped trying to swim hard and just swam stopping to sight every 10 strokes because I was only able to see anything every 10 times I sighted while I was swimming.

Stood up on the each and looked back at the water in disbelief for a few moments.

Is it normally like that or were those unusual conditions?

That swim was rockin! I swear I laughed two or three times at the absurdity of it at some points. Seemed like it would calm down right up until a buoy, then I'd get slammed in the face two or three in a row, then it'd calm down again.

It was a way slow swim for me, but seemed that way across the board.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

I did it in 2011 and 2012, and it wasn't that bad in either year.

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Chris Harris

Was calm at 7am the day before for the sprint race.

surprised they did not move it to the inner bay as they did last year 2013.... 2012 was really calm...

I did the full (my first IM distance). I can tell you that starting off with that swim was not the most confidence inspiring experience for a rookie. With the way the buoys were set for the full, you got the "with current" for only one of the six .4 legs. Lots of people seasick, some throwing up in the water. I went 1:35 after planning around 1:15. And 1:35 was in the top half of my age group. The water was also warmish (72/73) so it got pretty hot working against the waves. Nasty.

http://rev3live.com/page/3/


What am I missing? This is what the bay looked like last year.

I did the half yesterday, also I did Challenge AC, and Cozumel (2012 where they pulled 300+ out of the water). So if you see my name in any race, be ready for a bad swim... just sayin.

The swim was bad but I felt like we were moving somewhat, if you timed your stroke right. If you've done any surfing in your past life, then you should've been ok... I did feel like I spent a lot more energy to move though and swallowed too much of that water. I was about 5min slower ~35min.

Compare to the other bad swims I've done, I would put Rev3 after Cozumel and Challenge and would say Cozumel endless pool swim still win over Challenge and Rev3. Nothing like swimming and staying in place and try to move 2.4 miles.

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I would like to thank the tough ass swim for evening the playing field for me with all the MUCH better swimmers out there. I'll take all the help I can get.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

I am looking into doing this event and taking the family here for next year. I understand it will be a Challenge event.

any recomendations?

I volunteered and worked the swim exit (at the mat exiting beach).
I saw some people that looked like they had looked into the eyes of the beast.
Awesome effort folks... glad I didn't swim yesterday.
Hard to tell from a pic, but...

https://www.facebook.com/...980164194&type=1[/url]

It's one of those places that staying at the host hotel is actually a benefit. Walking out your back door to swim start is awesome. As far as prepping for the event, think ocean swim, not lake swim.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

The day before when conditions were calmer:


The first/last four/five miles of the bike course feature many bumps and poor pavement with the need to keep scanning for the next hazard. In 2011, the lake was table flat for the event.

in 2011 the water was smooth, but crazy amount of mud on beach; last year the waves looked like we were at the ocean and we were thankful they moved.

It was my first full distance, so I do not know any better. The minute I started to swim I realized that all my swimming lessons and hours in the pool were for nothing :) I could not do a thing I learned. I could hardly spot a buoy because the waves were so high. Once I reached the yellow buoy, I could not see where is the next one?! The red buoys were not visible, they were too dark. The only part I enjoyed was the final swim line along the orange buoys :) the waves helped at that point. Planned my swim 1:10, but did it at 1:34. I was unhappy with my swimming time until I learned about dozen swim DNFs who were pulled out of the water. I don't know if it was the rough swim that effected my bike, but I did most of the bike leg in pain. But this is another story. Nevertheless, I have finished the full distance and was not the last one.
Now I wonder how would I do with a good swim.

My training partner did the full. He said it didn't feel right on the bike until around 50 miles in.

I'm normally a 32-33 min HIM swimmer and I swam a 37. With that experience I think I could swim in just about anything now.

Still I was really impressed with the safety crew, that girl holding onto the first (or second) swim buoy scanning through all of the swimmers watching for trouble was really serious. When she heard someone call for help she took off and got to him in no time.

jaretj

Potomuchto: Pretty sure your swimming lessons and hours in the pool were not for nothing. Maybe you couldn't put tons of technique to work but you finished the swim and finished your race. The people that didn't put the time in in the pool (or OWS) were less likely to make it through. I know that I felt like I was swimming too much in training according to my plan/coach, but now I'm glad I did. Wouldn't have made it through that second leg into the waves without all those 4000 yard workouts.

Thanks, Sean! I feel better now :)
I think you are right, I did not do it before, but just now added all swimming and it came up that I did 96.5 miles on my 20 weeks plan. If I knew it before, I would add another 3.5 miles somehow to have a nice number 100 :)

Actually the finial swim leg was weird for me.

With the choppy waves, a wave would come up behind me, lift my legs up and put my head under water.

jaertj

It was areal beast for sure. I've been swimming 31-33 minutes on measured courses all summer and I swam 42 minutes on Sunday. About 2 minutes in I got kicked in the face--never saw the guy until the kick. I was swallowing water about every 5th wave on the first leg and just decided to back-off and stay under control and get to the beach. After the first turn, it wasn't that bad--just a rough swim. It put me in a hole competitively that I had to really work hard to try to overcome the rest of the race.....

42 is disappointing but I'll hang my hat on perseverance....

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Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.

I was spectating the race (my dad did half). Saw a few people crying at swim exit. Other than that - great race! I like the vibe of Rev3 much better than IM.

A buddy of mine did the full. Last year he swam a 1:15 in the bay and was looking for a 1:10 this year.

Until he saw the water:

He did his warm up and said it was bad and that he had gone quite a ways out. I tried to downplay it as much as possible to calm him down. He said he was just going to get through it and whatever his time was then so be it. He finished the swim in 1:43 and came out 120 of 224.

Now he was upset because of the swim and had a solid bike, finding out yesterday he had a broken spoke from Milan in and finished his bike in 5:18 good enough for 11 of 224 and 2nd in his age group.

He backed his bike up with a solid run and finished with a 3:40 marathon good enough for 9th overall and a time of 10:53. He was shooting for under 10 but the swim kicked his ass. He did say he felt better about this year than last because he had to come back from a really bad swim and made Top 10.

Congrats to all who were out there yesterday it looked like a rough one.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

I was in the same boat (no pun indended). I swim a 30 minute for the 1.2 mile and came out in 38 minutes on Sunday. Sighting was wild. The first .4, my catches wouldn't touch water until they were almost underneath me. I felt like a whale coming out of the water on those waves. And boy, were those some waves! Real rollers. It was a far cry from flat water lake or river racing!

Great time and glad I did it.

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It begins with the most simple belief, the one you must have in yourself. That must be translated into results by dedication. The knowledge that dedication, which feeds on belief, can make it so.

Holy cow I am glad someone started this post. I thought that I was just being a whiner about the difficulty. I was explaining it to people by saying it was like getting picked up and dropped on your face for 40 mins. But on the positive side, I am really glad that I made I did it. It really made the race memorable and made me realize that I am a pretty good swimmer. Bring on the next Challenge!

I have explained this swim to my running buddies the following way:

Imagine you have train for the marathon. But when you start, it appears that the running is actually hurdling for the same marathon distance. This is how I felt about the swim at Cedar Point.

It was a tough swim and I think I am one of the few who had a great time doing it. I am not a super fast swimmer or particularly strong swimmer, but enjoyed the challenge of timing my sighting to be on top of a wave or take a breath when I was in the low point of the wave. I got punched and kicked in the stomach. I landed on someone when going over a wave, I think they must have tried to go under the wave. I got dizzy and motion sick while swimming. I went out there knowing I was a strong enough swimmer that I won't drown and then just went with it.

The last 600m or so, coming back inland, you could feel the water rushing back out after each wave. Really good feeling that you were going nowhere after swimming 3200. Sighting was tricky whole way. Glad it was fun though, and not some swim down a lazy river.

I was in the women's changing tent when the first people came out of the water, and decided to stay in for all the swimmers to try to help motivate. The amount of tears, vomit, and "I can't do this" I saw was incredible. But what was most incredible was the strength it took everyone to continue on, even those who didn't complete the swim and continued on knowing they would end their day with a "DQ" after their name. Congrats to all the athletes who battled those conditions.

Anyone do CDA this year that can compare the two? Heard that was bad too. Very windy and a lot of chop

i usually go 1:10 and went 1:27 sunday, after that my dream of going sub 10 was over, not just because of the lost 17 minutes but how hard i had to work even to get through it, during the run i almost still felt like i was in the water, strange, satisfied with my 10:25 finish though, first time doing a non ironman branded "full distance", they did a great job, just as good as ironman

I thought it was pretty awesome too. I'm glad I went out for the early practice swim, because it would have really f'ed with my head if I hadn't. I kept telling myself on the way out to the first turn, "relax, this shit isn't half as bad as Racine last year." And it wasn't...2013 Racine 70.3 was a lot worse and the water was colder. Lol.

Unlike most of the other posters on here, I did feel like things got better after the first turn. Saw some cool shit too, like some chick backstroking the last .4 miles. Ha, that was awesome. Heard some people afterwards talking about puking in the water from being seasick. Holy shit, that will put a damper on your day.

Anyway, I ended up with a pretty darn good swim time for me. And these tough swims are always fun to look back on and say, "remember how hard that shit was?" Love it. This crazy stuff is why we do this, right?

that is good to know. i found cozumel very do-able that year and remember laughing at how absurd the water was.

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
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Did IMCDA - sure there was chop and it was a really windy day overall but I actually took time off of my swim 1:07 to 1:03.

I wouldnt say it was any less choppy than an Ironman Florida swim.

So which was quicker, CDA or Rev? Not entirely sure from your post.