So there I am, swimming along in the Delta for the Bethel Island International Distance race on Saturday, perhaps maybe 300 meters or so into the 1.5k swim…when “slash!!!” and a burst of pain from my left arm. Someone–don’t know if it was male or female or an eagle that decided to swim along with us–friggin gashed the s*it out of my left elbow and upper arm. If we were in the ocean I’m sure I would have attracted sharks our way with the open wound…
Now I’ve been kicked, clawed, punched, swam over, under, through, dunked and otherwise generally mauled in races through the years…but this was the most blood-inducing incident to date.
The funny thing was that pre-race listening to the RD talk, I’m looking down at a guy’s feet in front of me and those toe nails are about a 1/4 inch (at least) past the toes themselves—in other words, a set of talons themselves, and I’m thinking “dude, break out the clippers every now and then, ya know?”
So people…can we agree to observe a little bit of nail-length etiquette as part of the prerace ritual???
Does the ride still go out and back something like 19 times?
Well, they do adverstise that they use every available piece of road on the island…so, IIRC there’s at least 5, maybe 6 turnarounds on the bike. Certainly a good workout for “jumps”…
If you are an IM Community Fund person you get a couple of e-mails from none other than the esteemed Paula Newby Fraser. The last one included the following: “Finally, trim your finger and toe nails. Finger nails need to be trimmed for the swim (nothing like coming out of the water with a nice long scratch down your side) and toes need to be trimmed for the run - you’ll understand this if you do the marathon with toe nails that are even just a little too long.”
I had a similar experience, but it was in the pool… I wish people trimmed their nails year round
Big time agreement there…if you’re going to be possibly close to another human, be it in the water, on the basketball court…wherever, dammit, trim your nails so that they’re not razor-sharp weapons. The longest of the three claw marks I have is about nearly 3" or so…!
“So people…can we agree to observe a little bit of nail-length etiquette as part of the prerace ritual???”
Actually many top swimmers grow their nails long on purpose. They want that extra bit of water displacement by their hands. I don’t know if it helps, but I used to know some who swore by it.
I love Mark and Kandee, but why do a bogus Oly with hand timing, no draft marshalls and +/- 20% on all distances when you had the Sentinel race just down the road in Santa Cruz (although some moron made the run 6.8 miles yesterday) with an ocean swim, PCH bike and running on the cliffs overlooking the ocean?
And how did you like the slip ‘n’ slide exit ramp from the slough?
One nice thing about Bethel is that it’s a mass start, so you know exactly where you are in the overall.
haha.
I have this argument with my gf from time to time when she stabs me. Coming from a violin background I’m used to keeping my nails short. (My mom would always tell me to cut my nails)
Some of us were talking about the merits of doing this local race vs. something like Santa Cruz, and the consensus (since we were all there anyway) was that supporting a small, local event was the thing to do.
Indeed, loved the incredibly slick ramp going up and down that boat ramp…! Stayed on all fours for a couple of steps before standing coming out of the swim. Regards drafting, Mark even said in his pre-race talk “if you want to after the race sit down and debate me for a couple hours about the merits of draft-legal vs. non draft-legal racing, we can do that” but in effect the narrowness of the roads made it virtually impossible to have any marshalling out there (but you knew that)…that said, I didn’t come across too many wheel-suckers…
Mark is a kick. He knows he can’t put marshalls on the course at his prices, so it’s just part of the deal. One year he was saying in his prerace talk that if anyone drafts you, you have permission to stick a pump in their spokes a la Breaking Away. I think Kandee told him to stop doing that because someone might take him seriously.
I always buy the full series for TFF/TFR even though I rarely race them all, and I’ve done Bethel, but I’ll only do it if I feel strong enough to do two Olys in one weekend. If I do Bethel it’s usually as a relay because Sentinel is just too awesome to miss.
That would be an interesting experiment. I know alot of women who have seriously long fingernails that would fail that test, but they race all the time without a thought. When I play polo we still get the nail check, so do the HS kids I coach, but they never check the feet. The worst damage I have ever had done to me was from a kick, but I had a firm grip on his rec-specs, so I guess all’s fair.
I actually have “trim toenails and file fingernails” as items on my race-week list. Short toenails for the run; short fingernails so I don’t snag my wetsuit. I hadn’t even thought about how I might snag someone else!
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