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Scary, but race went on

A stiff wind kicked up 4-foot swells Sunday, when more than 50 swimmers had to be plucked from Tampa Bay.

By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published May 3, 2006

	[Times photo: William Dunkley]
	Participants in the St. Anthony's Triathlon prepare to enter the Vinoy Basin on sunday as conditions worsen.

Now he was worried about himself.

He paddled his kayak ashore, but soon was asked to care for a lifeless swimmer who had been pulled from the water.

"She was not breathing, her skin was blue and she was literally dropped in front of me,'' said Carlson, a volunteer at Sunday's St. Anthony's Triathlon. He gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and "we literally saved her life; she would have been dead,'' said Carlson, who credited the help of paramedics and other medical personnel. He called it "very, very harrowing.''

The annual St. Petersburg triathlon is supposed to be a grueling race, but for some participants this year it was more than that.

It was terrifying.

A stiff wind swept east over Tampa Bay and kicked up 4-foot swells that shocked and stymied many swimmers just as some of the least experienced athletes were entering the water.

Some 50 or 60 swimmers had to be plucked from the water and taken back to shore, including the unconscious woman who was rescued after she was found floating face-down, and another woman who appeared to suffer a panic attack.

Along the swimming course, which extended from Spa Beach on the St. Petersburg waterfront and along the Pier, the waves grew so strong that they turned over kayakers who were there as a safety backup for the swimmers. It also exhausted lifeguards on swimming boards who also were present for swimmers' safety.

"I just know when I've got my staff coming in off their boards, literally hardly able to lift their arms, I can't imagine what it was like for a swimmer trying to be able to make it through that,'' said Paul Hoffacker, who coordinated the lifeguards.

Race director Philip LaHaye said he believed race officials made the right call to proceed with the race at each step along the way, based on the information they had at the time. But he said if he had it to do over again, he would stop the race at the point the weather worsened.

LaHaye said he and other race officials had carefully studied the weather Saturday, and he said winds were far too strong for a race.

The winds were so severe Saturday that Hoffacker said workers couldn't set up buoys to mark the race course. The wind kept moving the buoys, which were weighted down with chains and concrete.

But the "forecast was for winds to be decreasing through the night,'' LaHaye said. By 5 a.m. Sunday the winds had decreased 50 percent, he said, and all race officials agreed that conditions had improved enough for the swim to start as scheduled.

However National Weather Service meteorologist Ernie Jillson said after looking at last weekend's forecasts, "It looks like we were expecting it to be pretty choppy.''

The weather service on Saturday predicted winds on the race morning would be around 15 knots coming out of the east, with "bay and inland waters choppy.'' Winds from the east can cause problems, because they sweep over the bay toward St. Petersburg with nothing to slow them.

At 4:15 a.m. Sunday, the forecast called for winds from the northeast, 15 to 20 knots strong, expected to diminish to 10 knots by the afternoon. Because the winds were at 15 knots or above, a weather service warning called a "small-craft exercise caution'' was in effect.

That warning still was in effect as the first competitors splashed into the water to begin their nearly milelong swim.

With about 3,200 participants, organizers sent the triathletes into the water at Spa Beach in "waves'' with about 150 people in each wave, and each wave starting five minutes after the previous one. The first wave splashed into the bay at 7 a.m. and the last began shortly after 9 a.m.

Jim Box, 44, a systems architect, entered the water at 7:35 a.m. An experienced open water swimmer who had completed St. Anthony's five previous times, he said he felt fine. But his wife began about 8:30, and by then conditions were so bad she nearly turned back. "It got more and more challenging as the day went on,'' he said.

Carlson, the doctor, was stationed in his kayak near the end of the Pier to watch the swimmers and provide assistance if any felt too weak to finish. Once he got in position, he was surprised not only at the strength of the winds, but also at the waves that bounced off the seawall near Vinoy Park.

The winds worsened as the race went on.

Kayakers who were there to provide safety to faltering swimmers had to fight the waves with their paddles just to stay upright. "It was like working out in a gym doing bench presses,'' said Darry Jackson, who organized the kayakers and is a triathlete himself.

Complicating the situation was the fact that many of the novice competitors were scheduled to enter the race at the end, because they tend to be slower and create crowding in the water if they start at the beginning, LaHaye said. Unfortunately, in this case, that meant the least experienced swimmers got into the water at the worst time.

Although weather clearly was worsening, Hoffacker said on shore it was hard to tell just how bad it was out in the bay. He didn't fully realize the gravity of the situation until he saw seasoned lifeguards coming out of the water exhausted.

A question for organizers now is whether they had sufficient communication in place to understand how bad the conditions were and make a decision whether to cancel the race before everyone got a chance to start it. Many race volunteers had two-way radios. Overall, the communications setup "was there but it was not good enough for us to completely know ... to stop the swim or not,'' LaHaye said.

He added that race officials plan to meet within the next two weeks to review all those decisions and decide whether anything should be done to improve safety procedures for next year's race.

The St. Anthony's Triathlon is considered one of the premier races of its type in the United States. It features a 1.5-kilometer swim (0.93 miles), a 40-kilometer bike ride (24.8-miles) and a 10-kilometer run (6.2 miles).

[Last modified May 3, 2006, 05:47:57]