For the amount of money these races cost to enter (and travel to), it was really disappointing that the swim cutoff time wasn’t adjusted to account for the insane flood tide current effects on people’s times - plenty of us who were slow to finish still felt good and would have been able to make the bike cutoff easily. Also, based on the number of folks pulled out of the water and how overloaded the lifeguards were, it did seem borderline irresponsible the way the swim was setup in the channel of a rising tide. There is a very downer vibe throughout the town this morning. I imagine there are going to be lots of angry/frustrated refund request emails after the way today went for so many.

Ya, I would agree that they should adjust the swim cut-off time to reflect the much harder swim course, and really they should increase the bike cut-off and the total race cut-off times as well.

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

It's triathlon. People choose not to train their swim enough. The cutoffs are already overly generous. I know plenty of weaker swimmers who still made it out in mid 50's to just over an hour. Too many people think they can just survive the swim and complete the day and I love it when days like today occur to wake people up. Seems like every venue Ironman is announcing is now down current so I am all for more challenging courses. Superfrog is dead. Tahoe is dead. Silverman is dead. Now we have races like Maine, Oregon, and Chatt...

+1000

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

100% agree.

I agree as well, even though I was one of the swimmers who DNFed. Sure, 250 or 300 of us didn’t finish, but also 1700 did, so that’s on me and my swim fitness.

It was dangerous in the fact there were not enough boats and lifeguards to get everyone out, it was cold!

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Just want to applaud you for posting this as not enough people are willing to be so candid. Kudos to you for being honest.
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Hahaha it does still sting, but it’s just facts. I need to be better.
When I DNFed Ironman CDA in 2021 when it was like …107 degrees. I was DYING. Record number of DNFs that day too, but my takeaway was that still, 75-80% still finished and we all raced the same race. My DNF was on me, and these are the instances where I’ve learned the most for myself.

I feel for those athletes out there today. It was tough. So many first timers I could see the panic and despair in the water. Hopefully they keep at it and come back. Sometimes when you hit rock bottom do you appreciate how it truly feels to win.

+1000, many people would have blamed something else.

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

the winner has done 26' in other races, did 42'at this race. I guess the best thing would be is if anyone wants to do oregon 70.3 they should be required to do this race first.

I totally hear you on liking the hard stuff and that people who aren’t good swimmers shouldn’t just think they can skate by on the swim, but today was crazy. Many of the people in these races don’t have the time or money to be pro-am triathletes and are trying to push themselves and take advantage of the camaraderie that training with friends or coworkers and then racing together gives them, and Ironman advertises to and capitalizes on that. So if they are going to market to that segment, they should protect them better than this:

https://x.com/.../1792311686696984850