IMNA didn’t exactly make a rectangular course…the buoys were all over the place
WAY too many people cutting the corners
Folks over compensated the 1st turn and started swimming around 80 degrees…for which #2 seems more appealing.
Great day…perhaps my most “fun” IM. Got an asthma attack at mile 75 and didn’t have my inhaler until T2 which set me back 35 minutes, but mustered up a top 20% finish. Held back on the 2nd run lap so I could eat pizza and beer rather than find the medical tent. Although the asthma was kicking my ass, it perhaps saved my legs.
I knew my swim would suck going into the race (1:05ish goal) because I don’t practice (4 tris this summer, that’s all I swim).
Too my point…
Not trying to be a whiner, but really am concerned about people’s attitudes on the swim. I got punched (literally punched) twice. I saw the guy on my roll fist my ribs. The second punch happend at the 1st turn buoy when I tried to swim around the buoy (I swim on the inside) and everyone else was cutting the corner. I said “around the buoy” when another fist came at my head…but I ducked.
Kinda funny, but also rather sad.
Congrats to my other Moo 2005 competitors…minus the (2) jerks.
Where the little “midpoint” buoys out of line as well?
Seems that I’d look for a big buoy, swim a ways, then see a small buoy way off to the left or right. Of course I’m less than a “Straight” swimmer so it was probably me.
I’m not sure. The mid-point buoys were way off during the practice swims, but assumed they would fix everything for race day. Being a MOP swimmer, I just kinda follow the crowd (on the inside) and then cut in at the corners. Seems like other people had the same strategy…damn Slowtwitch pointers are too mainstream these days!
Perhaps swimming Mirror Lake and using the yellow line at IMLP raised my expectation too high…
The mid-line buoys were pretty straight on the first leg, but a little off on the return leg.
Not to bag on people who’s ‘secret’ is to swim ‘inside’ of the buoys, but that should be discouraged. Having people moving ‘out’ as well as ‘in’ at the corners is just asking for trouble, and encourages more people to cut the corner since, ‘they had no choice because no one gave them room.’
Actually cutting the corner should be a DQ, or at least those people should be forced to go back and go around the buoy.
In the past, I remember the swim course having distinctly different buoys for the ‘turn’ buoys, ie. large cylinders as opposed to the tetrahydrons. That made it easier to see, and know when to actually turn.
The two turn bouys at the far end definately weren’t even. You needed to turn 75-80 degrees (instead of 90) to make it to the second turn. At the second turn it was more like 100-105 degrees. I found that I didn’t really need to do much sighting as long as I stayed with a group of people.
I assumed that it was a DQ/penalty to cut the turns.
the problem is 2200 PEOPLE on a multi loop course!!! Cut down the people - or make it one big out and back, with a real wide start area. Course, that costs more to guard/set up.
Unfortunately, unless there is historical precedence (IMC, IMH), I think we will only see multi-loop courses for IM. The logistics/cost are just that much better for IMNA/WTC.
“Not to bag on people who’s ‘secret’ is to swim ‘inside’”
Not my secret but occasionally I end up there…but usually on the same course I end up WAyyyy outside the buoys to. My secret is more like “Tacking” the course. If I were a boat I’d rock.