agree. It’s a fast swim for sure. 1.5 in that swim wouldn’t be a problem in my opinion. Hope they can find an all downstream section whether it’s 1.2 or 1.5 just so they don’t have to worry as much about cancelling.

Why not have the swim out at Chickamauga Dam??? You could arrange the bike course such that it ended downtown, and then the usual run. Don't know if you were in Chatt in the 80s and 90s but the original Chatt triathlon did exactly this from around 1982 or '83 through about 2005 or so. The race was approx Oly distance. We swam 1500 m in the lake above the dam, ran up the hill in the rec area to hop on our bikes, rode out to Sequoyah NP and back (25-30 mi, depending on where they set up the turnaround, which varied across the years), then ran down Amnicola Hwy to finish downtown (about 6.2 mi). No current at all above the dam. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

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When all is said and done. More is usually said than done
Ba Ba Booey

There were heavy rains leading up to the week before the race and the volume from many miles upstream kept the current flowing pretty strong up to wednesday of race week. It started coming down thursday and friday, but was still running around 45,000-55,000 cfs. Sure they can manage it with the dam by opening or closing the gates. I saw that they had started closing down gates on saturday and saw it drop to 20,000cfs. Last I checked sunday morning it was down to 15,000 cfs, which is doable. What TVA cannot control is runoff from the tributaries feeding into the river. 2 years ago there was heavy rains the evening/night before the race and while TVA had the gates shut down, the runoff (surface water) was pushing the flow higher and they had to change the course. This year there was no rain leading up to the race, so my only guess is TVA couldn't lower the flow as much as the RD desired.

I would really be curious what the flow rate was on race day. It sounded like RD made decision after the pros struggled or at least weren't as fast against the current as he would have liked. I really like the river swim. I think swimming under 3 bridges is nice and is pretty cool for the spectators. So I hope they can get an entry point a bit further upstream to allow for an all with current swim.

So it's IMs fault that some percentage of the athlete's are unprepared and cannot swim well enough to complete the course?

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I would place the blame solely on the athletes. Letting them suffer for their own lack of preparation sounds like the kind of race (life) experience they need.

So it's IMs fault that some percentage of the athlete's are unprepared and cannot swim well enough to complete the course? //

Actually, yes it is. If you cancel or alter swims most years, then folks come to expect that. If you keep the swims hard, then folks will notice that too, and unprepared or just very slow swimmers will not even enter the event, moving onto something known to be easier. I think there are plenty of good enough swimmers to do the swim up and down river the way it was this year, but you have to show that your are serious about holding your swim first. And its not a safety issue, people will just realize that are not making any headway anymore, and they get to turn around and self rescue with the current, all at different times as to not overwhelm the volunteers...

So, I talked to the guys in charge of the swim and, after they explained to me why they shortened the swim; splits were too long for the pros (not sure male or female) but they thought the splits were too long, they mentioned there is a spot they're looking at so they don't have to worry about shortening the swim. They said it was about .2 miles longer than 1.2 miles so I'm guessing this is the spot. Their concern is that people would be mad because they would have to swim longer than 1.2 miles.

Their concern is that people would be mad because they would have to swim longer than 1.2 miles. //

Why would people be mad to swim 1.4 if they go 3 to 5 minutes faster than normal?? IT is not distance swam, it is time spent in the water. I did a 1. 3 mile swim in 10 minutes once, pretty sure I was pissed about the "long swim"... (-;

I said the same thing. Look I hate passing along he said she said type stuff, but what one poster said kinda confirmed what they were talking about. I'm be completely happy if they change the course. Kinda tired of one year swimming 24 minutes and another year swimming 16 minutes.

One person on my team swam 13 minutes (she swam at UT) and was initially disqualified because their system throws out outliers and that was definitely an outlier. lol