ows in a river

Hey Kathy,

I had my first OWS river (sprint, 400 meters) swim last weekend. We had to run across the timing mat and jump in deep water, swim up river about 50 meters and take a right turn at a bouy, then swim across the river and take another right turn at a bouy, then swim downstream and take another right turn at the last bouy, then swim back across the river to some ladders, get out of the water and across the timing mat.

The "Corps of Engineers" tried to lessen the river current thru the dam network. But there was still a current. So going across the river, "play" the current with your swim. In my case, swim to the left on the initial "going across." After swimming downstream and making the last right turn (in my case), swim to the right to play the current on the homestretch.

Sight the bouys!  You'll see them move as the current pushes you downstream.  Then you'll wind up swimming upstream and encounter "traffic" when rounding the bouys.

Good luck!! Hope you have a great race!

Best thing to do is to walk along the river the day before and observe the currents (where it's fast, where it's slow) and then get in and swim the course. Swim it slowly constantly checking your shoreline observations with what it looks like in the water. This will give you a huge advantage.

In some river swims the current is so slow it is not much different than a lake swim.