Extend the swim leg...please!
444
Member
794 days
Sully800 posted 1 year ago.
Very interesting stew, I like where your head is at. I somewhat doubt the safety of putting the swim in the middle for many triathletes (those that struggle with the swim currently) so perhaps there should be some sort of swim ability test. If people are sprinting into the water, out of breath after two other legs, I can see a lot of novices getting into trouble and possibly drowning.
Anyway, I really like the idea of more transitions to make the race spectator friendly. It would be very cool to see how a runner might be able to get an early lead, then fall behind throughout the race, and try to bring it home strong on the final leg. Similarly, the fish out there would really be able to shine, because the nonswimmers would struggle if they got into the water tired. From all of these discussions, it is clear that there are many possible multisport variations out there beside triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon, aqua-velo, winter triathlon, and xterra/adventure races... Not to mention the various distances already available within each type of race!
81
Member
679 days
M posted 1 year ago.
I also come from a swimming background, so I'm relatively faster there and relatively slower elsewhere, but I just figure that's how it is.
Like a few others, I love not sharing others' anxieties about managing the swim. One side of relative swim strength might be gaining all this advantage; another side esp in a longer event might be holding a strong pace but starting the bike relatively fresher than your competition.
At the Lake Anna Half, the top elite guys were starting their second lap on the swim just as the later waves were starting. It may have been a few rough seconds for those later starters (lesson: stay off the 'racing' line in that situation), but those guys didn't lose ANY time getting through the slower swimmers.
Interesting thought about putting the swim in the middle. It would be great for a hot-weather race to cool off in the middle. But if it were a wetsuit swim, T2 (bike-swim) would be tremendous fun for spectators... watching sweaty racers struggle into their wetsuits.
205
Member
1546 days
ht001 posted 1 year ago.
ChunkyB wrote:
For me, though, what it comes down to is that this is the sport. They could change it, but you could argue that that would make it a different sport.
I agree ChunkyB! This is really what it boils down to for me. I choose to do triathlon because I love that it combines three sports into one. I too have a swimming background but use that as a reason, like Britda, to focus my really hard work on the other portions of the triathlon. That's how I look to equalize in THIS sport.
OP, you might consider starting your swims on the far outside of the pack. You would then have a mostly open path to swim around everyone else, including those waves that went ahead of you, with little interference. You would have to be extra diligent about sighting buoys to ensure that you didn't go too far off to the outside, and you might also be able to find a place where you could angle back in to the buoys. This approach is an option for stronger swimmers, one I used to use before I became more accustomed to the chaos of swimming over/around/right next to everybody else.
Let me preface this by saying my background is in swimming, and it's easily my best leg...
I'd like to know what everyone's general thoughts are on extending the swim leg of sprint and olympic tri's?
At 23 years old, my age group M20-24 is ALWAYS in the 2nd start wave. So my tri-start consists of slightly breaking away from my group, follwed immediately by a wall slow swimmers from the wave ahead of me, which allows the group in my wave to creep back up. Now, I understand the agression of the swim leg is all part of a tri, but there's no opportunity for fast swimmers to pass or separate themselves during the swim, much like the best cyclists and runners can do on their respective legs.
Increased distance to the swim would undoubtedly give stonger swimmers the chance to breakaway from traffic and separate themselves, and no longer would the best triathletes skew to runners and cyclists. Personally, if given a couple extra hundred meters on the swim, my placements would consistently be at the top. I'm always in the top 10% of finishers in the swim, top 25% in the bike, and about 75% in the run. If given a longer swim, all you clowns passing me on the run would never be able to do so! :)
I don't think this is a biased thought, rather a reasonable one that levels the playing field.