Put the lunch bag over your mouth, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. Now hand the bag to H20fun. When you both have stopped the hyperventilating, you'll both feel better. If participants choose not to participate next year due to the wetsuit "situation" this year, there will be plenty of other triathletes lined up to take those spots...triathletes who don't need their wetsuit to do double duty as a life preserver. BTW, I am a LOUSY swimmer, and it was great to have non-wetsuit swim today.

The RD did everyone a favor as far as I'm concerned. I think people at Memphis in May this year learned what happens when you combine above 78 temps with wetsuits and then hot humid weather on the run.... It is a recipe for heatstroke and other bad things. The fact that the RD actually had the guts to pull the plug on wetsuits make me vote to do this race next year, and not the other way around. Congrats Eagleman RDs.

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totally agree. Despite swimming 12 mins longer than normal I personally felt much better coming out of the water than normal when I've been cooking in my wetsuit. (oh, and I am one of those triathlete pull buoy crack heads in the pool who needs a crutch and left my speedskin at home since I never imagined it wouldn't be wetsuit legal). Bravo to the rd!

Side note: the potty lines were insane after 90% of the athlete heard the rule call and instantly dropped a load!

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Can RD's just randomly change rules whenever they feel like it? If so, then cool. If not and the rules say people can wear wetsuits up to 82 then the RD's have to be prepared for 100% of the field to use them if it is 79 degrees. There are no excuses for not having a plan. Obviously SOOO many things that go into putting on a race of this magnitude. However, this is one detail that can not get overlooked given the current clientel.

FWIW, I raced today at another event and didn't even wear a top because the water/air temps were too warm let alone wear a wetsuit like some other folks were doing and by ST standards I shouldn't even be near water. Unfortunately, the rules said they could so to each his own.

I did the race 2 years ago when the temps were a bit above what they were today ... I had an awful swim in my wetsuit as I couldn't seem to navigate worth a damn and kept getting caught up in traffic from earlier waves ...

... that said, I absolutely cooked in my wetsuit and couldn't take in nutrition on the bike without getting sick. I had to go to water for the first 2 hours of the bike and just melted down on the run, suffering from the 108 heat index and a lack of calories. While I love wearing a wetsuit for a swim, I can't imagine wearing a full suit in water temps of 80 degrees or more.

I was at Eagleman and was near the head USAT referee when someone questioned her about being able to wear wetsuits and not be eligilbe for age group awards. I believe it was her call to not allow any wetsuits and not the RD. Her reasoning was that they would have no idea which athletes wore wetsuits and/or didn't wear wetsuits in the final results.

I was really surprised that they could not find water that was 77.9. I bet alot of athletes were freaked out that they were not able to wear there wetsuit. Seems a bit safer to have the AG athletes in wetsuits also.

Mike

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do a regression analysis of race swim temperatures and I'll bet you'll find an inordinate amout of races at 77.5 degrees. This race director does indeed have balls. He runs a great race and was firm in his decision making. Good on him.

What plan are you referring to? The water temperature was 82 degrees or more. No wetsuits period. What's the problem with that? How can you be "ready" for certain water temps?

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don't you think it's actually refreshing that they didn't "find" water that was below whatever limit?

End result: learn to swim.

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When in doubt...go without...RD did the smart thing! wish I'd been there...heck I hate wetsuits unless the water really is cold. It's all about the run in the 70.3 and ups anyways

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One of our other local race directors, piranha sports uses this same rule. Over 78 no wetsuits period.

However, they have it stated on their website and send a reminder email to those registered if the water temp looks close.

So it looks like the race directors are asking for these deviations ahead of time from usat, just that some may not be publishing it.

These responses are amazing. This rule is okay, that is not. An RD can do this on race day, an RD cannot. But no, the RD did not make the decision, the USAT official did. What a cop out.

I have told USAT a number of times that saying a race is USAT certified can be a joke, just like it looks like this race might be. Meaning, when I do a sport, and there is a set of rules, I expect these rules to be used at this event.
Now, per USAT sanction requirements, one of many process they state they must have in place when they sign the contract is if the water if between 78-82, they have a process in place to change the swim portion of the race so folks CAN swim with a wetsuit, just not get awards. So, if a RD does not have this ready to go, what other corners has the RD cut? And NO WAY would an official say break the USAT rules.

Now, I guess it might be possible that a race could have gotten a written wavier for ignoring this rule, but I would be surprised.

Now, is piranha sport a USAT race? If so, do they have in writing from USAT that they have an exception to the rule? And if so, it MUST be published BEFORE the race and ideally before anyone signs up so they can decide if this is the type of race they want to do.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Thank you I couldn't have said it better myself. Wetsuits are supposed to help with water temperature, not be your crutch so you can limp through the swim.

I am usually a 30 minute swimmer (if I'm training) and a 35 min (if I'm not)

I expected to go about 35-36 min yesterday and ended up swimming 46 and change. My longest ever!

Tack on a minute for the lack of wetsuit, but it was mostly current. The last 800 meters to the finish took forever.

Then why do folks like yourself and others who state folks should learn how to swim, are not pushing WTC and USAT to use the ITU water cutoff temps? At the ITU levels, a lot of races would be no wetsuit swim.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Let's keep the argument about wetsuit rules somewhere else and the insults directed at weak swimmers to a minimum.

The question here is whether the Eagleman RD gave adequate warning about the absolutely-no-wetsuits policy. In my opinion they did not: in 3 of 4 links on the Eagleman page they quote the standard USAT rule; and they were apparently telling people on Saturday that wetsuits would be OK. Balance that against 1 link (to the Ironman rules) that does not explicitly say what happens over 78 degrees.

Three Garmins had it 300 meters long and the current added to the swim disaster.

Bob

Fixed it for you.

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I think that whether you agree or disagree that this race should be wetsuit illegal above 78 degrees is irrelevant. What's relevant is that there is a rule in place that says you could as long as it's below 84 and you are not seeking a podium. If it was the RD's intent to deviate from this USAT rule then that should have been published ahead of time ... and it wasn't. It wasn't written anywhere not talked about during the briefing.

What if the RD on race day said that no aero helments were allowed if the air temp is above 85 degrees? How would you feel? Your reaction would probably be ... "ok that's fine, but how come it's not printed anywhere on the website or the athlete's guide that says aero helmets are not allowed when the temp is above say 85 degrees?"

I do just fine swiming in a pool without a wetsuit. I'm fine in the open water with no wetsuit wether it's 77 or 67 degrees. I just have a problem with the deviation from the rule without communicating it to the athletes beforehand.

I don't believe once second that the rule for no wetsuit was a USAT official's call. The call may have came about because a USAT official may have asked the RD what his plan was to accommodate wetsuit wearing vs non-wetsuit wearers and the answer was "we have none." In that case, the USAT action was dictated by the RD's action. The USAT official didn't arbitrarily say no wetsuit over 78 period.

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Is that 300 meters long as measured while the swimmers zig-zagged, or 300 meters long after post-processing the tracks to measure start to turn to turn to finish?

in defense of Vigo (The RD) the announcers were giving more than adequate information on the WTC rules about NO wetsuits. I think they went over it at least four or five times in transition.

This was the first time EVER that EMan was non-wetsuit and caught a lot of people off guard.

Bob

Start to turn in straight lines. One of the folks had a top 35 swim overall, so I am assuming he's a pretty good swimmer. The issue was the drift of the turn buoys overnight. The course was laid out the day before and then not remeasured the next morning.

Bob

Unless WTC has specific rules changes written, which USAT would have approved, then ALL USAT standard rules are in effect. Meaning, there are NO wetsuit or water temp changes for WTC at all until Sept. So, why is it even a question that it looks like this race broke the rules? (With the data that has been posted to date) And in Sept, since so many seem to not care about the details of WTC rule changes, who knows what WTC rules for the water cutoff at 76 means. But who cares right, the RD can just make up what ever rules they want on race day. :o)

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Sorry, no excuse!! Any triathlon race that gets a sanction from USAT says they must have a plan, that any racer can ask to look at, for what happens if the water is over 78. No excuse just because it did not happen before.
How about if the swim had to be stopped for some reason, and the RD said, oh, I have no plans for if there is no swim so there is NO race, and you do not get your money back. I guess this would be okay too. Bottom line is we
pay a lot of money to RD's to be ready for many things that might happen. No swim is one. Water over 78 is another. Etc. Anything less means, well, we all might have difference opinions of expectations of RD's. But since I am putting my safety in their hands, I have high expectations.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I guess one needs to spend extra money to make sure the swim bouys do not move. :o) Let alone verify the morning of the race. Now, I do wish more races had the swim leg too long.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep