I’ve done sprints in Panama City where they went ahead with the swim despite the red flag. I suspect the same would apply to IMFL, unless the race director decided the conditions were too dangerous even for IM-level swimmers. Since I’ll already be struggling to make the swim cutoff, I really, really, really, really hope it doesn’t come down to that.
I too, have done races that did the swim, on the Atlantic coast of Florida on “Red Flag” days…In fact, my first open water ocean swim was one such time…4-6ft waves…I was a cork until I realized you needed to swim through the wave not on it…
Sounds like my first open water race down in Ft. Lauderdale back in college. A lot of otherwise very competent pool swimmers got themselves pulled from the water or ended up dropping out that day.
The nice thing about finishing those kinds of races is that it leaves you with an attitude of “yeah, kind of choppy today, but no big deal. I’ve done worse” when you hit conditions again that would scare most people pretty well.
As for racing when the Gulf kicks up, all of the RDs down here will cancel in the swim in a heartbeat if they think conditions are genuinely dangerous. However their comfort level and assessment of genuine danger may be somewhat different than that of a person who doesn’t live down here, or is not familiar with swimming in the Gulf.
Yeah, we’ll race here while we’re under Tropical Storm warnings if the RD, cops, and health department think it’s safe enough to do so.
Swells…current…lots of bacteria…sounds like SF Bay on a fair day, just a bit warmer.
I cannot wait.
30 days, 11 hours, 21 minutes. Yeah, I know everyone’s excited about Kona (me too) but dammit, I’m not there this year, so I’ll continue with this countdown.
Oh, good luck to all in Kona. I will be watching intently in Ironmanlive.
