Can someone calm my nerves down a little and provide some input on the Nice swim?
I’ll be racing 9/22 and am not a strong swimmer - I’ve never swam in salt water before and have also never done a race without wetsuit. I’ll swim when I get there and see how it goes but my anxiety is kicking in.
Good news, you’ll float like a cork still. Bad news, it will probably be a little wavy and lots of awkward smooth, rounded rocks to run on.
I’ll help you out a little further though – the Mediterranean has a higher density of salt than the Atlantic and even a little more than the Pacific, so it’s prime floating water.
Unless you go to the dead sea, in which case you can float like a boat, but you’d likely be dead if you tried to swim 2.4 miles in it.
No worries. That water is as smooth and beautiful as anywhere you will ever swim. You will acclimate and get into your groove within a few hundred meters. Then you will simply enjoy it.
I appreciate the input from both of you, thank you.
Sometimes people have the attitude of “it’s the world championship, you should have it figured out by now.”
My swim has come a long way but I have a history of being an anxious swimmer and having the added flotation of a wetsuit helps. I did an open water swim in a lake with a swim skin this summer and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but the nerves are still there since I don’t have any experience with racing in salt water with no wetsuit.
I’m hoping to swim at least part of the course once the buoys are out next week too.
It’s a beautiful swim! Get some practice swims in before the race and you’ll be sad when you have to go home and can’t swim there everyday.
It was a little choppy at the turn-arounds, further out than the buoys are set prior to the race, but nothing worth worrying about.
Thank you. I’ve never swam in such a big body of water before so I’m concerned about waves, wind, and not being in a wetsuit. I’m hoping that I can get at least 2-3 swims in next week to alleviate my anxiety.
You’ll be very surprised in a great way if you compare this in anyway to a non-wetsuit lake swim. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel more comfortable in salt water nonwetsuit than I do in lake water with a wetsuit.
Now, I know I’m still a little faster with the wetsuit, but in terms of flotation and comfort, I’ll take the salt water.
For reference: I did the race last year. Till the end I hoped for wetsuit, but it was no wetsuit. I’m not a good swimmer (wetsuit IM pace around 1:45min/100m, non wetsuit IM pace around 1:55min/100m).
For you: you’ll be fine. The water in Nice is quite salty, making you float a lot. Really a lot. The start is a mass start separately for every AG, from 2m deep water. You basically get to water and wait 1-2min floating before the signal. Try to position yourself in e.g. 5th row or farther, to avoid the washing machine effect of your AG in the beginning. Later, after maybe 700m (first buoy) you’ll anyway have a mix of speedy people from later AGs with slower people from earlier AGs. Just do your thing. As for the waves - they might come, but these’re not breaking waves at that point, just wavy surface. Good luck!
Why were you hoping for a wetsuit? Added speed and comfort?
You have recognized your concern. Don’t fixate on it.
Think of the positives:
Open water in a lake is tougher than this swim you are talking about for sure
I’m faster with a wetsuit by around 10s per 100m. I can also save legs more. And I can swim with calf sleeves 
Again, the water in Nice will make you buoyant, and everybody will be buoyant as you.
I did not put enough body glide under my arms. Had the trisuit on (not rolled down) with a swim skin on top. The area under my arm pits chafed so bad. When I got out onto the run it was so painful for about 5k. The sea water will chafe a ton. Use double or triple amount of body glide!