19 417 I Kenneth Lehner 49 M TINTON NJ 36 22:09 24:36 1:02 41 1:02:06 22.4 0:43 38 40:51 6:36 2:06:48 1 M45-49 19 M
20 763 I Des Nunan 53 M OCEAN C NJ 32 21:54 24:20 1:44 12 59:24 23.4 1:12 70 43:06 6:58 2:07:19 1 M50-54 20 M
Apparantly the 53 year oldster that finished just behind you in the overall knows how to swim! (take that you young whipper-snapper) 
Nice race, what ya doin’ to celebrate?
Must be a generational thing. This kids are just too damn lazy to learn anything!
When I was dodging dozens of flailing men backstroking and breastroking from the waves that started 3, 6, and 9 mins ahead of me, I was regretting not racing in the elite wave. I am by no means a great swimmer–I come from a running background and only swam 26:15ish yesterday. But that is only 1 min off of my wetsuit 1500m best. And in that race I wasn’t swerving around hundreds of strugling male swimmers. 3 mins is not enough between waves. It isn’t just a wetsuit issue, there are just a lot of people who freak out in open water.
Those of us with low body fat actually need the wetsuit pretty close up to the legal limit to stay warm. I was actually shivering while we were waiting to start in the 80+ degree water and it took a few minutes of swimming for me to stop being cold. But I also do my swim workouts in the pool with goose bumps half the time.
The bike was better than last year. Not a lot of drafting going on. It was windy though and it felt like it was wind in my face from 3 different directions. The out and back sections were dangerous. On the first one, there was a head on crash between two cyclists right in from of me. It looked really bad. On another one, someone was cutting a corner short and almost hit me head on.
The run course was different from last year. More shade and a few more small rolling hills. A little longer. 3 miles to go to 2 miles to go seemed like more than 1 mile.
Overall not too bad. Definitely better than last year. They pulled the same thing as last year and let a bunch more people in after the race was supposedly definitely 100% closed.
I ended up 5th overall female and 3rd NJ female so I am a little bummed. I was hoping to be top NJ female. I’m never ride on flats, so this course isn’t very good for me.
Doesn’t **anyone **know how to swim?
Backstroke, side stroke, doggie paddle - isn’t that all swimming? If someone completes 1500, didn’t they swim? I think the gripe you have is “Doesn’t anyone know how to swim fast?” Couldn’t you post a bunch of slow bike and run times and ask if anyone knows how to cycle/run?
However, I did watch a guy float down the Hudson yesterday during the NYC Tri in ~34 minutes without a stroke. The current was incredibly fast and the RD challenged a few people to try floating the whole way.
**Doesn’t anyone know how to swim? **
Ken,
Good question. I note that rush hour at the big Ironman races has slowed by about 10 - 15 minutes. It used to be 1:00 - 1:10 it’s now 1:15 - 1:30. If you swam even just under an hour at IMUSA yesterday, you likley had calm and open water ahead of you.