74 degree water temp without wet suit? (Page 2)

Glad to read this and other responses - my sprint in 9 days is forecast to be in 74-degree water and I, too, practice in 80-degree water. I'm not planning on a wetsuit, glad to know I'm not in for a terrible shock.

X2.  I have been following the comments on this thread as well.  I'm doing the same HIM as the OP'er and we are actually getting a break in the heat in Iowa which is a huge reliefe. 

I really appreciate the advice on the water temps.  I've done a few OWS tris both in and out of my wetsuit but never this distance.  The water temp last year at the Hy Vee 5150 dropped 5 degrees overnight (becomming legal to wear) and most people did not have their wetsuits.  I brought mine and wore it and PR'd for the 1500 meter distance.  Makes me think.......

Have you been watching the weather forecast?  The 10 day forecast (up to Saturday AM) shows mid 80s and 60% chance of rain in CR.  That will be a fun first HIM if it's thunderstorming...

I did pigman last year with no wetsuit and was fine, not cold at all. I'm not sure what the temp was last year, but it was definatley wetsuit legal.

This year has been a lot hotter and I was thinking there would be no way it would be wetsuit legal

I had a friend follow me around the lake in a canoe last night so I could do some "real" open water swimming (as opposed to swimming within the roped off beach area, which is all you're allowed to do without a boat escort) and I think I can safely say that there's not much of a chance of this year's race being wetsuit legal. I didn't have a thermometer, but the park manager told me the water temp was around 90, and in the shallower areas I believe her. The water was way warmer than the pool I swim in. Only over very deep pockets (50 ft. plus depths) did the temperature fall to what I'm accustomed to in the pool.

Are you doing the Pigman this year too?  If not, any particular reason you would like to share with those of us that are doing it?

Not sure if I'm the right guy to give the info or what your looking for, but here goes, some of this you may already know if you've done your homework on the course.

Last year I think I got there around 0530, there was traffic, but not too bad. Try to come before 0600 at the latest. The transition we be divided up by AG so you wont get to choose where to rack, you have about 2-4 racks assigned to your AG. The transition area is probably about 100 yds long, so if your rack is at the beginning I hope you know how to do a flying mount or you'll be running a long way in your shoes. Don't worry I had to do this last year, but now I have tri shoes and do the flying mount.

The swim is a clockwise triangle swim, the first leg is fairly short, followed by a long leg, the a short return to the beach. Unless your an elite it is a TT start, one swimmer across a mat about every 3 seconds. I dont think I ran into, or had a single person run into me last year. I swam a little wide since I'm a slow 2min/100 swimmer to let the fast people behind me have an easy way around.

Coming out of the water there is a decent run to T1, maybe 100 yards or so sand then grass and slightly up hill, then T1. Another thing I forgot about T1 is it is uphill as well. There were porta potties, inside of the exit of T-1 and ride on the outside, I'll come back to those when I get to T-2(the same as T-1).

The bike, well not much to say, just general rolling Iowa hills. There is a slight hill around a huge traffic circle coming out of the park then down hill. This is a good time to get settled in, the down hill last a few minutes, maybe two the a long flat to Palo. There a few RR crossing but I think they are all 90 degree crossings so not to many worries. I think they might have had wood across soem of them, but some people did lose bottles.

The course isn't to difficult, last year I would say the weather was perfect with very low winds, hoping for the same this year, although I have read RR's froma few years ago that is was really windy and raining. All the bottle eaxchanges are pretty straight forward and I didn't have any problem with congestion. Just make sure to look at the info on the race website, some of the station only have water, and some have water/heed/gel's etc. If you need something specific at a certain time make sure you know when you'll get to it.

Also on the bike if you look at the map in the town of Newhall they make you turn off the main road and onto side streets, there is also a bottle exchange here. Make sure you watch for gravel in the corners and the streets are kinda bumpy. It didn't have any potholes, but justthe typical bumpy blacktop/asphalt streets you have in small town IA that havent been redo in a few years.

The last two notes about the bike, the bottle exchange right after the turnaround was supper busy. I don't know if it was just my race timing, but the bike went from really spread out, to all of a sudden a traffic jam after the turnaround, then about 5 miles after the turnaround spread out again. It was weird, maybe it was just my timing, or maybe people were just taking breaks after the turnaround?? Not sure why you would take a break, but anyway. The last peice was the hill coming back to the entrance of the park. It's big, but not that big. We don't have mountains or anything, but after 53 miles it will slow you down.

T2 going into T-2 you'll also be making a decently sharp left in the dismount area into transition. Last year I got off the bike, step one, fine, step two fine, step three, where did my legs go. Almost went down after 3 hours on the bike. If you can't do flying mounts, at least learn how to do flying dismounts so you don't have to run 50 yds up a slight hill in your bike shoes.

THe other note about T2 was the porta potties, last year I started to get a cramp about mile 48 on the bike, I didn't know what it was, as soon as I stood up off the bike I knew exactly what it was I had to pee. They had porta potties on the inside and outside of the exit of T2, for some reason the two on the iside had zero wait, but the 3-4 porta potties on the outside all had line 3-4 people long waiting. I didn't want to use the one on the inside because the only thing I do well are transitions, but I certainly wasn't going to wait in line so I went inside and killed my T-2 time.

Well not that bad though, still had 5 or so out of 30 in my category for T-2 lol. I guess those folks on the outside didn't want to kill there T2 time???????

The run is pretty basic, out and back, hill going out of the park, up then down then flast to the turn  around, slight up hill, turn aoround back down then back. The hill coming back into the park will slow you down more than you think, but once you make it to the top only about 1.5 miles left.

The run was well staffed, water/heed/gels/fruit/pretzels every 1 mile, then all had tents as well to help keep the workers cool.

It could be a hot run as there is no shade on 97% of the course. I alternated running on the road and on the gravel shoulder as I'm slow and fat and my knees hurt after awhile.

I hope that covers everything, one thing I did forget there a fairly steep down hill on the bike after you come into the park that once you get to the bottom of there is a sharp right. Last year the breifed it before the race, had signs and cones up, and even people to warn you to slow down and some people still almost crashed/crossed to center line into the outbound runner area, so slow down a little.

Hope that might help.