Hurricane Florence

I'm am in North Alabama and hurricane Florence has already affected me!

http://teamrockettri.org/swim-hobbs-island/

The 5th Annual Swim Hobbs Island open water swim through the Tennessee River hosted by the Team Rocket Triathlon Club (TRTC) will be held on Sunday, September 16, 2018. The 5-mile swim will begin at 8:30 am, and the 1- and 2-mile swim will begin approximately 15 later in waves.

I got a text message last night saying the "Swim Hobbs Island" swim has been cancelled. The RD sent me a text saying TVA had advised her the current was gonna be too strong in the TN River for the swim to be safe. She said she cried while on the phone with TVA. I know she had been working and promoting this even since January! She had asked me a month ago to bring my pontoon boat as back up for the timing boat for the race and to help set the buoys.

War story time. I did the inaugural Ironman KY in Louisville in 2007. The swim was in the Ohio River. The original course had a 1.2 mile swim up river and then 1.2 miles swim back down river. I got there on Saturday and did a practice swim. I swam up river to a buoy. When I got to the buoy I took my spit.....about 25 minutes. I did a 180 and swam back to the dock, in under 5 minutes! Oily crap! I heard stories that on Friday the current was even stronger and some pros were taken down river by the strong current and had to be recued by the kayakers. There was concern they would have to cancel the swim.....but at the minute they changed the swim start to an estuary up river at a marina. So we swam about 1/2 mile up river and then the balance of swim down river. The Corps of Engineers also slowed the current on race day.

I asked the RD for the Swim Hobbs Island event if she asked if TVA could slow the river just during the race. She said she did ask but they said they could not as there will be so much water coming. I had no idea the TN River is somehow connected to rivers in NC.