Swim times (at least for some waves) were pretty bad. I talked to a couple of people after the race, including a couple of spectators, who thought many swimmers took the wrong route during the early portion of the swim - anyone else hear anything like this?
Wondering b/c I’ve swam more than I ever have the last couple of months and my pool times are faster but my swim time was actually quite a bit slower than usual instead of the other way around. If it’s the case that all that swimming was a waste of time, I’m going back to 2-3 times a week subsistence swimming.
My swim time was quite a bit slower than usual as well . . . but I also haven’t raced a half for 4 years, so take it for what it’s worth. Watching the first few waves, it looked like a lot of people swam to the quarter turn buoy and then to the half turn buoy rather than taking the tangent to the half turn buoy. In the pro wave everyone but one guy did this and the guy who swam the tangent ended up 150 yards in front of the rest of the wave. Knowing this, I tried to swim the tangent, but really struggled with sighting and felt like I got pushed around a lot by the wind/current. I wouldn’t take a slow swim time as validation that your swim training was for naught.
My swim time was 2-3 minutes slower than usual but I also had a sketchy start towards the first buoy. I don’t think the inner line of buoys was a straight line to the turnaround buoy from the swim start, so some folks followed the buoy line and others stayed to the right. Definitely a sighting issue on my part - nothing to do with the course or buoys.
I doubt many races hit 1900m on the button everytime. As long as everyone swims the same course.
Good swim course, Great race.
Seemed to me (doing the 1/4) that the current might have been against us during the longest stretch (parallel to the land). Although I also had to swim with one eye closed 'cause something got into my right eye and was burning. That was fun…
I feel just like you: I’ve spent more time swimming lately and was disappointed with my time on Sunday. In that respect, I’m glad I’m not the only one. Aside from that, the organization was great.
I just happened to have looked this up a few minutes ago. Looks like the two fastest swimmers in my age group (M 35-39) both finished the HIM swim in 28:47. And the fastest overall was 27:03. That seems a bit slow for the top swimmers, especially considering saltwater, wetsuits, and a mild current helping for the longer leg of the course. Course might just have been a bit long.
I wasn’t there, but how was your overall/AG placing in the swim compared to previous races? When ever I think a swim is a bit long or short, that’s what I look at.
I just happened to have looked this up a few minutes ago. Looks like the two fastest swimmers in my age group (M 35-39) both finished the HIM swim in 28:47. And the fastest overall was 27:03. That seems a bit slow for the top swimmers, especially considering saltwater, wetsuits, and a mild current helping for the longer leg of the course. Course might just have been a bit long.
I have swam with and against both of those guys since we were kids. They are both typically in the 24 to 26 min range for halfs. A high 28 is slow for both of them.
At first I was surprised that my swim was 38 minutes… But then I remembered that my sighting for the first 3rd was awful and I didn’t exert myself very much. I was mostly cruising at warm up speed and saving myself for the rest of the race.
I spoke with Galveston Beach Patrol after the race, and they mentioned there was a fairly significant current race morning, from the tidal flow. I went out with them on Friday, to check the course. It GPS’ed pretty accurately…They checked it again in the am, so I think the slower times had more to do with the current than anything else…
As for sighting, working on strobes on the corner buoys for next year:)
KJ, amen to the ‘great race’ kudos, looking forward to your other Lonestar races.
About that water bottle, so it’s not dishwasher safe, anything else we need to know about it? I see it’s made in China, could it be leaching uranium. molybdenum or some other eenyum? I feel a little light headed
they’re really nice bottles. Each bottle had a piece of paper in it to alert people that they weren’t dishwasher safe. Of course, we removed all of those to fill them:)
