With all the people I saw running in the swim, why have it. Some of us play by the rules and are honorable. Did it say in the rules you could run in the water? I kept swimming, when I could have run with these cheaters, because it was a SWIM!!!
What do you think about someone who walks on the bike course such as going up a steep hill like The Beast at St. Croix? Are they cheaters?
Also, it takes a lot more energy to run through the water than to swim through the water. Yes, those people are probably going faster, but I bet that they can’t keep up that speed going through the water like that for 1.2 miles.
It’s legal to run through the water on the swim.
USAT rule 4.2 Bottom contact and resting. A participant may stand on the bottom or rest by holding an inanimate object such as a buoy, boat, rope, or floating object. Excluding the bottom, a participant shall not use any inanimate object to gain forward progress.
They weren’t cheating, they knew it was legal to do so - and now you do too. If a lot of the course was shallow enough to run, and you want to take issue with it, you should take it up with the race director.
I guess you didn’t go to the course talk where the RD says if you want to stand up and walk, go ahead.
I rather enjoyed swimming past the water-runners.
agreed. I swam past at least 8-10 people just at the swim finish b/c they stood up and were walking/running through the water WAY to soon.
The only time I had a problem was when the guy I was drafting off of suddenly stood up at the turnaround and I slammed into his back forcing my knee to smack the bottom.
O well, no harm no foul. I beat him out of the water.
I’ve always heard that it wasn’t worth it to stand up and walk/run until your fingertips were hitting sand/mud on the pull.
That’s what I go by, I usually wait til my hand touches bottom twice in a row, don’t wanna be fooled by any false bottoms.
I’m sure people find it entertaining watching my swim exit. Besides the inability to swim straight I just about beach myself everytime before I stand up.
how shallow was it?
I swam past the few I saw walking. They were moving pretty slowly. I certainly saw no advantage to walking/running in the river.
I’ve done this race since they moved it to the Russian River, never been an issue.
Ever do multi-lap swim races where you have to exit the water for the next lap? Good for spectators and just part of the race. Deal with it.
I usually do a couple of dolphin dives once my hand touches the bottom before I go vertical.
The river is lower than normal this year to be sure and the bottom changes over the winter due to storm run off. There are two major sources of water for the Russian River during the summer. Farthest north is Lake Mendocino which holds water from uper watershed and gets some water from diverted Eel River near Von Arsdale dam. This lake is very low this year and they are reducing flow from something like 125cfs to 85cfs so migratory fish (Steelhead and salmon) will have water for fall runs. The second source is from Dry Creek tributary which dumps in just below Healdsburg. This water comes from Lake Sonoma and is still quite full. Ironically they can not increase the flow down that creek into the Russian beyond a set level since too much water will injur juvinile steelhead and salmon that are in that body of water.
If you talk to old timers about the Russian, they will tell you in the “old days” it would nearly dry up in the summer so we are actually pretty lucky we have any river to swim in. Personally I would be more worried about temp than flow. I wonder if one of those DeSoto speed tubes would be just the ticket?
I wonder if one of those DeSoto speed tubes would be just the ticket? <<
I’m wondering the same thing!
bsmith21,
I think you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience (in any event) if you just ignore those around you who are doing things that either non-legal or just normally disturbing/irritating to you. Who cares if they’re running as long as you’re doing what you feel is important and ethical. It’s no different than life – if you spend too much time focusing on the negatives things going on around you then you’re just going to have a miserable experience.
No doubt, that race had some challenging and dangerous moments with all those people and traffic on the course but think about the incredible ride through the vineyards. That had to be one of the most beautiful courses I’ve ever ridden.
Thanks, Chris
Vineman sounds like a great race. I’ve never ridden out that way. I’m looking at my schedule for next year, and am wondering how the bike compares to Wildflower? It looks like it’s a lot easier race, and except for the shallowness of the swim, most enjoyed it.
My take on the bike course…
The only way it resembles WF, imho, is in the area of road surface. Vineman had some of the worst roads (unfortunately in the most technical areas of the course) I have ever ridden on in a race. Having said that, the flats sections had very nice road surface. The course is deceptive, imho. I drove the course the day before the race and thought there’s no way I’m doing sub-2:30 on this course and then proceeded to ride 2:25 on very conservative power numbers. It’s a reasonably fast course (much faster than WF) and what appeared to be “technical” in a car was much less technical when I rode it. Even with the road surface, it would probably be one of my favorite HIM courses out there if you removed the 1000+ riders and numerous vehicles in front of me.
As I’ve said before, the beauty was incredible…
Thanks, Chris
I don’t have the speedtube, but opted to wear just my bib john bottom. it fits me pretty snugly so I didn’t have to worry about it opening up and creating sails for hydrodynamic drag. I opted not to wear the top due to the temperature of the water. I am sure a speedtube would be better, but I didn’t feel like spending the extra $$.
I walked a few times (and actually passed someone, and it wasn’t at the swim exit), but the downfall to walking is I actually cut my foot due to broken glass in the river (most likely around the bridge where people probably throw bottles from).
I wonder if one of those DeSoto speed tubes would be just the ticket?
I used the speed tube (and first wave pullvover),it worked well definitely and i didn’t have any issues with the temp. I seem to be slower than i would expect in the speedtube over the bibjohn - but i am a pretty crap swimmer so it may impact a poor swimmer more than a good swimmer. I also got clobbered at the start so that might affect my perception of how bad the swim was.
“I wonder if one of those DeSoto speed tubes would be just the ticket?”
I was just on the DeSoto web site looking at the size chart for Saturday’s race. Can you see if Mr. DeSoto can come up with some sort of a Full Vineman Slowtwitch discount that comes with 2 day shipping. I am sure he would have a number of takers.
See you Saturday,
Dave