OK, I swam in the river this morning. I swam upstream 10 minutes, and maybe got 500 yards. It took me about 4 minutes to cover the same distance back downriver. Also note, I felt a pretty good push from shore that pushed you out toward the middle of the river, so spot carefully. The current will push you away from shore, at least where I was.
The river is about 10 feet up right now, and expected to go higher over the next couple of days. The current is going to get worse before it gets better.
Flanagan was right on the other thread, the times may be a little faster, but that far upstream, closing the docks downtown isn’t going to help the current, and any portion upstream will be a severe penalty. The area around Towhead is somewhat buffered, but still a current and still a penalty.
Swim director said about an hour ago that they GPS’ed the course, and it was 2.37 miles. A friend had used the mapmyrun.com option and also come up with exactly 2 miles. I think the GPS is closer and they were going to doublecheck it later today I think.
I am going to hopefully talk to him again later and see about the TT start, but I think it is great way to break up drafting. Remember, the first/last 11-13 miles of this course is dead flat. Too many opportunities for the cheaters out there (you know who you are) to form packs early on.
My IM swims have all been between 1:11-1:15, starting in the back and waiting for things to settle down to start. In the pool, probably 1:30 100’s for a 500, so 7:30ish. Not fast by any means, just steady.
I’ve had a pro staying with me and we swam together this morning. She felt the same type of difference. We intended to go 10 mins out and 10 back, and both of us were around 15 mins round trip, she covering more distance than me.
We were kibutzing here about whether they may use “mini-waves” of about 10 people per start, seperated by a few seconds, as opposed to an *individual *time trial start which would take a lot of time.
This from a training partner, who just left the expo: I just left the IM expo and stopped by the race office to figure out the swim. They said we will be doing one full loop around Towhead Island, then will continue towards the swim exit at Joe’s. It will be a 2.4 (no shorter) mile swim because the race serves as a qualifier. Something to keep in mind: the time trail start is on a first come first serve basis. Meaning line up early for an early start. The middle of the line on back will be entering the water as early starters are making their loop through, this will cause some congestion. * * All changes will be covered in detail at the race meeting tomorrow at 10:00am.
They need to come up with some sort of seeding (age group ?)! I’m not a big fan of being around 2,000 nervous athletes with no order. First come first serve is a mistake in my opinion. I will be in no mood to rush over to the start to fight for a certain position an hour before the race starts. Like others have mentioned, I don’t think it will make a huge difference what time of the day you start because it will be hot regardless.
IF I were doing Lou…here is what I would do. Being a pretty good swimmer (just under an hour give or take a bit), I would take my sweet time and not worry about where I start. With no big bunch, it would probably not be a big deal to navigate around people. It would also probably make the swim more interesting as I could actually pass people as I would use them as carrots. This would be even better on the bike course. Instead of getting passed by the usual 500 people in the first loop, I could still ride my own race and still have my carrots. I loved doing Memphis in May for this reason. Always someone to focus on.
you could try to switch to the pro division. Are you gunning for a kona slot?
Are you swimming today?
I’m gunning to finish. I am not sure if I can run or not with my leg injury. I’m just resting today, I swam for maybe 10 minutes. I had a good one yesterday.
Currently in Louisville and can add the following…
There is a set of floating docks at the Police boat docks where we can enter the water and there is a sensible staging area of concrete steps where they could line us up by anticipated swim times and them out us in the water ala Memphis in May.
We’ll know for sure in the am at the meeting but the map shows an almost complete lap of Towhead Island but not a second so we will swim the gap between KY and Towhead Island once…not looping it…water is definitely warm!
Air temp is HOT…relief coming they say but it will still be hot…
Wow - just back from the Gatorade morning swim. VERY fun to watch people swim and going nowhere or BACKWARDS in the central current!!! Looked like a giant Endless Pool experiment! I even saw a few people putting on wetsuits! Yikes. Water was VERY warm - had it listed at 84, but felt warmer than that. Certainly warmer than the typical warm pool at a YMCA.
Took me 18 mins to swim around and up to a yellow buoy near the I-65 bridge and 5:30 to swim back! I still overshot the entrance. Can’t really “feel” the current, but wow!
Very glad the course is changed. A slow swimmer would never even make it to the turnaround if they had to swim upriver with this current. I don’t know if the locks were closed today or not (I’m guessing no).
My guess is that a strong swimmer will have a much faster swim time, midpack guys about the same, and slow swimmers will still suffer some compared with other IM swims since they still aren’t in a wetsuit.
No, this was near Joe’s Crab Shack. No where near the Towhead Island site where the current is expected to be MUCH less. Also, I purposely got way out near the middle of river too, but even just 100 yards off the bank you could see people struggling upriver going nowhere
The swim started at the swim exit. Ditto what Rod said, very fun to watch people simply trying to hold their ground. It was a real mess at the begining about 8:00, the first people in the water were told to swim out to a bouy and hang a right upstream. Problem was, the first bouy was a bit out and in a lot more current. Afterward, people were told to hug the shore on the way up.
The water was warm and took a_Lot of effort to get upstream. I went up to the 65 bridge and headed back. The current is just as tricky to navigate downstream as it is upstream. First thing I wanted to do when I got out was take a shower, i bumped into quite a few things floating (that were’nt outher swimmers).
Funny sign posted near the swim start this morning…
that’s what I’m afraid of… oh well, this is going to be a slow one guys.