Howd you like the gasoline taste in the water? Ugh my throat hurts right now…
yeah, the water usually smells like oil and aids
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I guess its better than what was in the water when i did nyc 3 weeks ago
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Never seen conditions go from rough to swimming pool so quickly.
Rough to swimming pool? Please explain.
As someone who did the triple challenge, I hit the water at 6:00 am and later at 9:00 am. The water was the same both times, choppy.
Howd you like the gasoline taste in the water? Ugh my throat hurts right now…
You are not supposed to drink it.
Crap…
By 9:30 it was like swimming in a pool compared to the earlier waves.
for someone who has never done it, are the huge crowds difficult to race in? That is a ton of people jammed on a short course.
My wave took off at 8:10 and on the short leg going south all was good, but as soon as I turned north - holy cow! That might rank as one of my hardest swims in 27 years. The timing of the chop was wrecking havoc with my stroke and particularly, my breathing. I don’t recall starting the bike so exhausted before. But my memory sucks.
haha yeah gotta watch out for the tasty harbor water…
never have seen such high waves there before. rough, slow swim but a lot of fun!
It wasnt as bad as i expected it to be, but i started in wae 48 of 49 so most of the crowd had finished when i started
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I am glad to hear you say that. It was easily the hardest swim I’ve ever done in 3 years.
I started in your wave. I agree the swim was rough but the bike was rougher. Not so bad the first lap but the wind really kicked up by the second lap and there were a lot of slow folks riding across the road. I chose a trispoke and got blown into a cone on a close pass but managed to stay upright.
Here’s an interesting observation: To get where I’m coming from; I ranked 356/3321 in the swim and I thought it was so tough, there were moments I considered flipping over on my back or treading water just to take a break, or even grabbing the wall in near panic. On the bike I ranked 14th and had no problem with the wind, other than being a bit discouraged about the lack of speed going north. I found I went faster going north (into the wind) on the 2nd loop. So, the observation is - bad conditions I think, hurt the “weak” more than the “strong.” After doing this sport for 27 years, I just wish I knew how to be a stronger swimmer.
What caused the panic?
Near panic - not panic : )
something was telling my brain, this was too much effort, and there was too far to go. Normally if I get a weak moment like this I can just ease up a bit, lengthen my stroke, relax, slow down a little and then It’s all good - but there was no easy in this swim. It was threshold effort the whole way, just to move forward - at least for this skinny guy with weak stroke and shoulders or whatever. I did notice that when I concentrated on following through with my stroke more, I had a better chance of getting a breath of air when I turned my head (and body), but I would tire quickly doing that. The chop was coming at such a fast rhythm, it was really hard to have any confidence I’d get air each stroke. I guess I should have tried to breathe to my left side instead, but when I’m going hard, the tendency is to go with what I feel stronger with - in this case breathing to my right - in the direction the chop and wind was coming.
Compared to last year’s results, I moved up around 700 places in the swim (from BOP to MOP, go me) and turned in a swim time that was 4 minutes slower. Bike was a grand total of 2 minutes faster than last year and moved me up nearly 900 places (out of the 3300 total).
The wind and chop was certainly not helping anyone’s times.
Thank you for sharing – sounded painful.
During the swim in a tri, I breathe every stroke and only use my legs for balance not power. This strategy helps keep me calm and relaxed in the water. Sounds like it was hard to breathe in the Chicago tri though.
I was being careful not to kick hardly at all, if at all. I was actually tired starting the bike, and I’m never tired starting the bike.