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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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.