I just looked at one age group, saw Bruce Gennari did a 39:40 in the swim, and stopped looking.
What is the point of the swim, again?
The little swimmer graphic looks cool on finisher hats, shirts and medals.
What is the point of the swim, again?
To make people feel good about themselves. 
What is the point of the swim, again?
To make people feel good about themselves.
To get to the bike!
Well they do get those extra 4 miles on the bike to make up for it.
I just looked at one age group, saw Bruce Gennari did a 39:40 in the swim, and stopped looking.
What is the point of the swim, again?
Hey, leave Bruce out of this!
Edit: Just wanted to say that.
What is the point of the swim, again?
To make people feel good about themselves.
To get to the bike!
x2.
It’s all about the run anyway…
All joking aside the swim course at a race is so dependent on what is available, if there is a crazy fast current like IM Louisville or the one and done IMNYC so be it. Some bike courses are 30-40min faster as well.
A friend at the race said that during the race briefing, they had people jump in and float downriver in 2:30.
I just looked at one age group, saw Bruce Gennari did a 39:40 in the swim, and stopped looking.
What is the point of the swim, again?
It gives us good swimmers/bad runners our moment of glory running in to an empty T1 like we own the joint.
I did my first IM this summer and maybe it was just the adrenaline of the start of the race, but I really felt like the swim was way too short. 3.8k goes by pretty damn quickly. 5k/100-110 mile bike/marathon would be awesome.
A friend at the race said that during the race briefing, they had people jump in and float downriver in 2:30.
All part of WTC’s 16:45 or bust plan.
All joking aside the swim course at a race is so dependent on what is available, if there is a crazy fast current like IM Louisville or the one and done IMNYC so be it. Some bike courses are 30-40min faster as well.
At least Louisville challenged you with about a 1/3 of the leg being upstream.
I just looked at one age group, saw Bruce Gennari did a 39:40 in the swim, and stopped looking.
What is the point of the swim, again?
These WTC down river swims are a joke. May as well make the bike 100 miles and call it 112 miles and cut the run to 20 miles and call it 26. It is the same effect.
I just looked at one age group, saw Bruce Gennari did a 39:40 in the swim, and stopped looking.
What is the point of the swim, again?
These WTC down river swims are a joke. May as well make the bike 100 miles and call it 112 miles and cut the run to 20 miles and call it 26. It is the same effect.
Agreed. Haven’t looked up the current and crunched the numbers, but I would bet that folks swam something less than 2 miles based on the times.
Spot
I find it equally as ‘funny’ that the rd came on here saying that TVA was on board and that he planned to minimize the flow of the river on race day.
huh, uh…about that…
But the thing is they could have shut down the locks more at the dam. At the Olympic distance race in June there was not that big of a current and it’s the same exact swim course, just starting further up river today (same finish).
I don’t understand the disdain. As long as you are not comparing times to other lake or ocean swims events what’s the problem. Everyone still has to cover the distance. The fast guys are faster, the low guys are less slow by a bit.
The little swimmer graphic looks cool on finisher hats, shirts and medals.
I quite literally looked for the “like” button.
These days though the purpose of my swim is to ensure the roads are clear of cyclists before I start riding.
I don’t understand the disdain. As long as you are not comparing times to other lake or ocean swims events what’s the problem. Everyone still has to cover the distance. The fast guys are faster, the low guys are less slow by a bit.
I think some of the distain is that you have a huge majority of people coming out of the water at the exact same time. If you were at the bike out today it was a freaking joke. Means there will be extensive drafting along the entire bike course. This is not triathlon as the founders meant it to be.
Plus you have all the people who were freaking out about not being able to wear their wetsuits. Actually, freaking out about most every single thing about the race. It’s like everyone wants to be spoonfed.
I don’t understand the disdain. As long as you are not comparing times to other lake or ocean swims events what’s the problem. Everyone still has to cover the distance. The fast guys are faster, the low guys are less slow by a bit.
I pretty much agree. The standard distance course (Unlike Ultraman fore example) does lend itself to comparisons though, even if they’re not valid.