There is a great race this weekend with lots of support but the water levels of Ecoli are very high. If the the director does not turn it into a Duathlon do you still race or do you sit it out. What are the effects if you swallow a little too much human excrement? The lake has always had a few problems with farm drain off and geese increasing bacteria levels but recently the DNR installed a new sanitation system that did not work the way it was suppose to and pumped some sewage in as well. It is nice to have a race a week away and the front story in the paper tells you about the lake you are swimming in has unsafe levels of Ecoli.
So would you still race and what are the consequences if you do? Anything you can take prior to the race (high levels of alcohol) to help kill any bacteria in your stomach?
No way in hell I would let the swim go off (depending on the levels). We have our water tested 24 hours before race time and hope for the best. We really hope for levels far lower than the state will allow in a swim area and have had each year. If they are lower than the state requirements by some low % (I have not had the issue so I cant say what the level would be). I would have to figure that if the levels were at 90% of the limit I would start making other plans.
Maybe a few lengths of your local sewage treatment plant with a few flip turns added would help you out. Some of us find swallowing excrement is not ideal and getting diarrheal illness or dying of enteropathic E Coli infection is not how we’d like to spend our time.
Dave
I did Peterborough Half yesterday (Du not Tri) and after the race I was going to cool off and hit the lake. The beach was closed (not sure about status in the morning) because of levels of Ecoli.
She works for the Ottawa Waterkeeper (part of Waterkeeper alliance which is about protection and promotion of the ecological health of rivers). She told me: don’t even think about it. So I listened.
Few weeks ago Chicago had a monster storm, floods everywhere.
Turns out they dump sewer overflow into the lake to prevent excessive flooding when it monsoons like that.
Go for a swim the next morning before the lifeguards get out there, just about done with the mile and the guard tells me to get out, lakes closed, high e.coli.
Haven’t died yet, what can ya do?
Probably would have headed to the pool instead if I had a choice, but whatever.
What do they consider “high” levels? 400 PPM? 1000 PPM? County health departments will differ in their interpretation of what “high” is. It also depaend where the samples are taken. If it’s a stagnant end of a lake near the swim beach where 500 kids in diapers spent the weekend that’s different than a free flowing body of water or a sample taken across the lake from where the kids crapped in it all weekend. I elected to swim last friday in a local lake that had a count of 1000PPM, but the sample was taken at the diaper beach. I just don’t put my head under water until I’m 100 feet from shore and I always wear ear plugs. So far, so good.
I did a race back in April with similar conditions. The race went on and I didn’t get sick, but some people did. Based on the fact that some people did get sick, I’m sure the RD would not do the swim next year with the same water conditions.
I did Peterborough Half yesterday (Du not Tri) and after the race I was going to cool off and hit the lake. The beach was closed (not sure about status in the morning) because of levels of Ecoli.
She works for the Ottawa Waterkeeper (part of Waterkeeper alliance which is about protection and promotion of the ecological health of rivers). She told me: don’t even think about it. So I listened.
Thanks,
Fred.
Huh? There were lifeguards on duty and tons of people in the water after the race. My family was at the beach and in the water all afternoon- I didn’t see any warnings.
I don’t want to beat this to death, but i’m not sure you are correct about the water last Sunday. Here is a link to the test results for July 8. http://www.pcchu.ca/WQ-beachsampling.html showing Beavermead is acceptable. Can it change that quickly? I suppose it can but I saw no signs or warnings Sunday.
Even when they don’t open the locks to let the river flow back into the lake the heavy rains will wash enough bird poo into the lake to raise the e.coli levels past the “safe” conditions.
One of the reasons that the Chicago Triathlon moved from Ohio St. Beach, to Monroe harbor was for this very reason. They don’t test the water in the harbor as it’s not a normal swimming venue and thus are not subject to the rules as a beach would be. This gets you the super sprint canceled on Saturday with the RD passing out swim at your own risk flyers at the expo for the sprint and oly on Sunday. They’re never cancel the swim because of bacteria.
If that’s true man then that’s really nasty.
Move the swim to water that’s not tested so you can’t get canceled.
Take some garbage, add some bird crap, throw in a little boat fuel & oil, and what do you have…a Triathlon!
With regards to my initial post, apparently part of the city overflow system is a series of overflow valves up in Wilmette or Winnetka or something, that put excess water into the lake to avoid backflow into sewers, basements, etc in the city. This overwhelming amount of, umm, sewage, tends to increase the e.coli levels.
Thankfully that’s way north of Ohio St. Also I have a friend who is a lifeguard who told me what the parks people don’t tell you is that when they make a decision to open/close beaches based on water tests, it is at about 10a when they receive results from yesterday’s water. So hopefully I might have been ok by that point. Oh well, live to tell about it I guess.