Good luck with that. In Pittsburgh, the sewer system overflows into the river after "too" much rainfall. The triathlon went on with this issue for the past couple of years with some individuals later developing "issues" relating to acute illness. A massive upgrading of the sewer system is on-going but who knows when it will be fully completed.

In the practice swim, you swim upstream from the swim exit first. You'll really get to feel the current there. Last year it felt like I was barely moving on the way out, and I was back to where I started in no time after I turned around. The current was stronger than I expected, and I was a bit nervous about doing it on race day.

At the swim start on race day, I just tried to stay behind some people and catch a draft. The current didn't seem that bad because most of the upstream part is sheltered. I stayed pretty far to the left on the way out. Far enough that I almost ran into a paddle board. Not sure if that was smart or not, but it seemed like the shortest distance and I knew I wouldn't have to swim over people at the turnaround.

Heading downstream, the majority of people seemed to stay pretty far right. Maybe they thought the current was faster in the middle of the river. I don't know. I stayed pretty far left again and swam by myself most of the time. A draft would have been nice, but I chose not to add distance to swim out to more people. Plus, it was nice to have my own rhythm and not worry about contact.

I ended up swimming a 1:05, which is fast for me. I'd probably swim the same line again if i were to race it again.