IMKY Swim - effect of the current

Yeah, but it's on a logarithmic scale and when you take the first derivitive of the velocity vectors to get the tagental acclerations and covariance, you get spurious data that you don't really care about.  So I'll spare you the graphs.  :-)

~Mike

But if the current is faster than your swim speed, you'll never make it to the turn around buoy.  That would be a bad start to the day.  Better pack the flippers just in case.

You joke but in 2007 two days before IMKY the current was so strong in the river that people were being taken down river on the practice swim despite their best efforts to swim up river.  This was when they decided to move the swim start to the estuary and shortend the up-river swim.  By race day the current had died down considerably....I think also the corps of engineers slowed the current some on race days via the dams.

Flippers are only allowed in IMFL (IM FLippers).  :-)

~Mike

Yep...that's what I thought too...and we all know that too much spurious data= potential thread yankage. 

I'll defend Mike on this one. Worthwhile info. I am doing IMKY and was curious on how the swim course was setup.

I know the IMKY website is SO indepth with a wealth of info but still had questions like...course maps???

I wondered what kind of advantage the current "could" be but know seeing you swim with it more than against it answers my concerns.

Now back to more prerace dinner questions and graphs from Mike

The swim start is in a channel between the bank and a small island.  The width of the channel is maybe 50 ft and people were pretty spead out in the channel.  After about 1/4 of a mile, you end up in the main river (still swimming up river) and the buoys get further and futher out from the bank.

Here is a lesson learned.  After you round the buoy, start angling back toward the south bank.  If you just head down river without really thinking about it, the current will tend to take you toward the center of the river.  Now I guess in theory the current is fastest in the middle of the river but when you consider the river is probably 3/4 of a mile wide...and you eventually need to end up at the south bank, you need to start heading back toward the south back right after you round the buoy.  I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well but I just remember looking around on the swim and realizing I was nearly dead in the middle of the river.  So maybe the lesson is simply, pay attention to where you are in the river and try to avoid swimming to Indiana and back.

~Mike

For all those freaking out.

Course Map

The Channel between Louisville and Townhead Island.  From the end of the boat dock.

My favorite pic of the swim course.  I took this on Thursday before the race..... after a brief rain.  Great motivation to swim faster.

I agree with Mike once you round the last up stream buoy head back toward the island.  I swam by myself for 15-25 minutes.  As I passed a kayaker I stopped and asked where is everyone?  And he pointed to the middle of the channel and said swimming to Indiana.  The closest swimmer was probably 50 feet away from me.