Madison Open Water Swim (MOWS) : Official Thread (Page 2)

Hey, thanks for the ideas!  All good, however I got my butt out of bed early this morning and knocked the 3 hour run out before it hit 80 degrees!

Now, I have a short ride Friday, our big day on Saturday and a 30 minute run either right after the Saturday ride or maybe Sunday am before I drive home.  Still debating on whether I should do the whole bike course or stop at 6 hours and have someone come get me!

You are right, I would not look forward to driving home after a 3 hour run though today I took and ice bath, shower, put on my compression tan colored socks and drove around Indy working and I don't feel too bad. 

So depending on how I feel I would do that run with anyone after the ride or Sunday am.  I am slow though. Will probably run 3.5 miles or so in the 30 minutes.

Are there any suggestions for parking tomorrow morning for a car with bikes on top? This was touched on briefly in another thread and it seemed like the suggestion was Olin Park. If that's the best idea for those of us riding afterward, is there a secure place for bikes during the swim?

Sorry for the multiple posts!  I love it when you receive and error and it posts anyway!

One possibility, since you mentioned bikes (as plural), is to drop them off with your passenger, then park in a ramp.  Or, pull over and chain your bike to something, then park.  I found this on the Monona Terrace website: http://www.mononaterrace.com/attending-event/getting-here/>

Bicycle Parking

There are nine bicycle parking racks at Monona Terrace:

• One on each side of the main pedestrian building entrance at Wilson Street/Olin Terrace level.
• One on each side of the main pedestrian entrance off of the automobile/bus drive through lane on the top deck of the parking ramp.
• One on the top deck and one on the lower deck of the parking ramp at the West end of the building (near the stair tower).
• One on the East and West ends of the building at Lake Monona level off of the bicycle/pedestrian path.
• One in the East loading dock area close to the parking ramp helix on the lake side.

The bicycle/pedestrian elevator is located at the East end of the building next to the stair tower, and is accessible from all levels between Wilson Street/Olin Terrace and the bicycle/pedestrian path at Lake Monona level.

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Hey Greg - Nice to meet you and thanks for riding with me for part of the course.
Tony - thanks for volunteering and good to meet you.  You cut off legs very well - I mean the chips.

So, did anyone think the course was a tad long?  I heard a single rumble that it seemed long, and my own experience...well, other than my issue, the course seemed longer than what my goal time was supposed to be.

My wetsuit came unzipped on the first length!  That took about 7-10 minutes of time to stop, get the attention of a kayaker, and then have the guy zip me back up.  That's an experience I hope nobody goes through!  I'm sure I carried an extra 2-3 quarts of water with me around the course after that which slowed me down and made me work a bit harder.

I came out feeling strong and jumped on my bike for a 4:45 ride within 35 minutes of the swim.  I was happy with the effort. 

How did you do?  What did you think of the event?  I didn't like the patch, but maybe that's a throwback for swimming events?  The duck pendant was "neat" but a little sharp.

I was happy with my results.  You can get the details if interested in my race report.  Yeah, not sure what I will do with the patch(maybe stick it on the duck medal string?).  It was nice to meet so many people in person.  That is one of the great aspects about triathlon.  Tony, I think I will steal your tat design if I pull the trigger and get one!

Don, I should have asked you during our ride to explain the whole "donkey" thing to me!

I couldn't say if it was long or not. First 2.4 in a wetsuit for me. Was great to do it with a few hundred people to practice sighting and get ready for a couply thousand people. Came in just under 1:10 which was my goal so felt good.
Checked the results and some of the guys did place but were already out on their bikes so they missed out on a larger duck award, Matt, Ben and Greg at least.
Great job everyone, and thanks for only taking off the chip Tony.

I had so much fun on this swim! All though I was a tiddy bit disappointed in the LACK of contact I mean, I'm trying to simulate the Ironman swim and people are being all polite and such!

I would not be surprised if it was a little long. I swam the exact same time I swam my 2.4-mile OWS in a week earlier, but did that one WITHOUT a wetsuit. Either way, I'm happy with my time and happy with the experience.