Tuesday, June 4, 2013

SPIbelt or Risk the Gods?

Attention please all you waterproof pumpers out there who do open water swimming and triathlons. 

I have a question. 

Where do you put your pump? 

In the pool, I clip it to my bathing suit, facing in. It doesn't move. It doesn't even budge. I don't think about it until my swim is done and I'm heading for the showers. 

When I mentioned to the Animas folks that I might just do that during open water swimming, they looked horrified. They said that the clip wasn't tested for open water swimming and it might not hold.

I mean that odds are pretty slim that the pump will unclip from my bathing suit, pull out my infusion site and sink to the bottom of a murky lake to be lost forever but I guess there is a chance. I guess there is also a chance that the pump will detach from the clip but it would still have to pull out my infusion site if it's going to sink to the bottom of the lake no? I mean the thing is attached to the clip and to my body. That's a lot of things that have to go wrong.

Animas suggested I get a SPIbelt and put my pump in there when I swim in open water so that it doesn't unhook, yank out my infusion site and sink to the bottom of the lake. 

Here are my concerns. When my pump is hooked to my bathing suit, the tubing is safely covered by my bathing suit. There is nothing for the tubing to snag on. If I put my pump in a SPIbelt, there would have to be a length of tubing that is exposed, increasing the odds of it snagging on something. The pump would be in a zippered pouch, which could, conceivably, unzip. Non? The odds are slim but so at the odds I mentioned above about my pump unclipping. 

Also, I already wear a SPIbelt for the bike/run part of a tri. My race number is attached and the little pouch is already filled with my gels, lip balm and other essentials. 

So do I wear two SPIbelts? That seems crazy. 

Try to find one with two pouches? Then I'd have to attach my race number to it during transition (since I'm not going to swim with it on) and stuff the second pocket with the things that aren't waterproof. That's a lot of lost time folks. 

I've looked (not too seriously but a bit) to see if I could find triathlon clothing with pockets on the inside. No luck. I've asked local stores that sell tri clothing if they know of any clothing that has inside pockets that could keep my pump secure - no luck. 

Any other ideas? I really just want to clip my waterproof pump to my clothes, swim the race, and attach my SPIbelt with my race number and snacks during the transition. 

It's the easiest of all the options. 

I just feel that, if all the diabetes gods work together and my pump does unclip, yank out my infusion site and sink to the bottom of the lake, the Animas folks are going to fingerwag and say "I told you so". 

3 comments:

  1. I thought about this overnight as I will be doing the same as you (hopefully) in the near future. To be honest I still think I will still clip it to my bathing suit. As you said, in the pool the thing does not budge an inch so I am pretty sure things will stay the same in the open water. I guess one could sew a little pocket on the inside of the top of the bathing suit that could velcro shut as well to keep it super tight to the body... Definitely something to ponder!

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  2. You didn't say exactly what you'll be wearing, but I assume there's a good chance you'll be wearing a tri-top over your swimsuit. If you wear that during the swim--as most men and women do--you could clip señor pump to your swimsuit and have your tri-top over it. No exposed tubing or pump, and while you may want to rearrange things after the swim, you're talking about mere moments on the run into transition instead of lots of seconds as you swap SPIbelts next to your bike.

    Because triathlon swims can have a bit of pushing/shoving/swimming-over-top-of-other-people, I would be really nervous about a SPIbelt.

    Of course, the third option is.... a wetsuit. Just sayin'.

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  3. No ideas here, sis. Sorry. I'll defer to the smart folks up above me. :-)

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