By far, I've heard the most worry over the swim in the Ohio River from participants and spectators. I was a little skeptical myself. Yesterday, my coach, Nancy McElwain of Train Smart arranged a "wet run" for her clients.
About five of us met a little farther up the river than the actual swim, but I believe the conditions were similar. We took off at 7:30 and did about half the distance of the actual race. I have to say it was fairly anti-climatic. The water was lukewarm (doesn't look good for the folks hoping for wetsuit conditions) and the water was very smooth. It was only treading water waiting to start that I noticed the current. When actually swimming, you don't feel it and because we really didn't have anything close to site, we couldn't tell we were going any faster or slower than normal. But we were going slower – it took us about 26 minutes going out and about half that going back (and I it easier going back).
At around 8:30 the waves started picking up a little and it got a bit rocky. I'd think more than an hour of that type of movement would affect your equilibrium. But other than that short bit of time, the swimming conditions were great – no guarantee on race day though.
I did go down to the river and take some pictures of the Great Lawn for folks that read this and are out of town. Here you go:
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