Swim distance got a little skewed

Overall, I must say that my experience with the PTC SuperSprint was much better in 2012 than in 2011.  The swim lessons really paid off and my overall fitness was way higher.  I ended the race strong and recovery was much easier.

The race was 350 yd swim, 8 mile bike, & 2 mile run.

Here are last year's times:

Swim: 8:46
T1: 4:13
Bike: 33:27
T2: 1:27
Run: 20:11
Overall: 1:08:01

Here are this year's times:

Swim: 11:25
T1: 2:01
Bike: 30:13
T2: 0:57
Run: 18:24
Overall: 1:02:59

Now....  I had just said that the swimming lessons really paid off -- so why did my swim time get slower by 3 minutes?  Very good question.  Dave and I went over video footage and lots of data comparisons and came to a strange conclusion -- the swim was a longer distance than intended.  Let me explain:

They changed the route of the swim for the SuperSprint course.  Last year it was a horseshoe shape and this year we swam to a buoy and back to the other shore (like a triangle).  Dave had video from last year's event and took video yesterday.  We compared the two and we're convinced that this year's course was longer than last year's.  I noticed it while I was swimming too.  I was training for swimming 350-400 yards and that felt more like 500-550 and my times showed it.

I also checked the results list from last year's event and found one other racer in my age group that was present in both.  Her time was 6:39 last year and 10:23 this year.  No way she got that slow when her cycle and run times improved.  So I'm convinced that the swim was longer.

Last year I finished the 350 yard swim in 8:46 (and I was shot for the rest of the race).  This year I finished in 11:25.  In the pool a couple weeks ago, I did 350 yards in 8:16 and had a lot left in the tank.  Saturday, I noticed by the time I got to the buoy that I felt like I had done about 250 yards and the distance to the exit looked to be about the same as where I came from.

I'm wondering if I should inquire about this with the race director or just ignore it.  But looking down the results spreadsheet, very few people completed the swim in under 10 minutes!  Last year, very few people took longer than 10 minutes.  Strange, huh?

I understand why they changed the route of the swim.  The SuperSprint race is occuring simultaneously with the Peachtree International Triathlon which has a .93 mile swim.  Last year, when we turned right at the final buoy, we had to merge with PIT swimmers.  It was a tad congested, but since it was my first event, I didn't know any different.  Lol.  The SuperSprint course this year never merged with PIT traffic, so that problem was solved, but the distance got skewed in the process.  Maybe next year they will fix that.

So my original goal was to finish in under 60 minutes.  I say that I did.  I'm estimating that the swim distance was actually 500 yards, which makes my 11:25 time sound about right.  Shave 3:00 off for the extra 150 yards, and my swim time goes to 8:25 (which sounds about right based on training times).  Take 3 minutes off my overall time and it transforms my 1:02:59 into 59:59.

Sweet.  :o)