There are strict water safety regulations for any race. Organizers have to ensure the safety of the water or they can't get permits to hold a race there since the insurance company backing them won't insure then to run a race on an unsafe swim course. They test for many different things but perhaps most importantly...bacterial levels. The Philadelphia triathlon had a lot of people all freaked out about swimming in the Schuylkill, which has a reputation as a very dirty body of water. But race organizers constantly tested the water, their insurance company backed them and everything was fine. You may not want to drink it, but I'm sure it won't kill you to swim in it. If there is a real sanctioned race happening (which the Nautica NYC definitley is...) then rest assured that the water is safe to swim in.

the swim portion of the 2003 race was canceled due to high levels of bacteria in the water as it had rained for 2 weeks before the race. they changed it to a duathlon.

Being a native New Yawka, I entertained the thought of coming up and doing that race, but had the same concerns. I have some friends that are supposed to do the race, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Ant

hey, i did it last year and i had a couple days of diarrhea after. no cramps or discomfort, just what ever i ate or drank just went straight through me. from what i understand i wasn't the only one with similar symptoms. other than that the water tasted great. im doing it again this year, flying up the west side highway with no cars on a bike is a trip! too cool!