t daddy wrote:
I ran into this today. Wanted the ST clan to have a gander at it? Am I mistaken that the organizer wants to the racers to do the Channel swim solo? Cause that would 1. Dumb 2. Suicide. http://www.uberman1.com/ When they say "solo", I think they mean each swimmer provides his/her own support boat, or at least that is my understanding of standard practice for long solo OW swims. Not that i have any plans to sign up but, JOOC, i looked at the Web site. Anyone else notice the estimated times of completion??? They seem to be waaaaaay off as they've estimated the 21.2 mile swim at 3:36:36, which comes out to averaging around
35 sec/100 yd; i've seen some strong currents but wow that takes the cake. Acc to the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation Web site (
http://swimcatalina.com/...ul-swims/individuals) the record for the Channel swim, going from the island to the mainland ("CM" in the records chart) is 7:27, so i think the Uberman organizers are way, way off base with the 3:36 estimate:)
And then, on the bike, they estimate 49:18 for the 500 miles and 16,559 ft elevation gain, which comes out to about 10 mph. Sure, this is a very tough ride and you've already swum for likely 12 hrs or more, but surely one could at least average 12 mph.
On the run, another ludicrous estimate: 25:54 for 152.4 mi and 14,441 ft elevation gain, in atrociously hot conditions. This implies 10:12/mile which is clearly absurd; that pace would be hard even if you had not already done th S and B.
It is strange that the Web site says about 4 or 5 times that "this is not an organized or sanctioned event" but yet says "the field will be limited to 20 athletes".
Anyway, very challenging race:)
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."