Let's say there are a 100 people doing the 100y race, all ages from 18 to 70 years old. You give a seed time, say 1:10. They organize heats of say 8 people (depends on number of lanes) and everyone in the heat is of similar time. The slowest heats (first) may have people from 1:20 to 1:30, the fastest heat (last) may have people doing 50 to 52s. IF people are properly seeded, the people in your heat should be about your speed.

Results are then sorted by AG and sex.

Unless it's a really big meet, masters meets are usually run as open seed, which means you get to race against other people of similar ability, regardless of age. A lot of meets also run men and women in the same heats, not all though. I prefer the mixed heats for masters, they give better quality competition IMO.

At the end of the meet the results get broken out by age group and gender.

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If you're a triathlete, maybe you should also swim the 500 or 1000 or 1650, or the metric equivalents. Unless your turns aren't all the way locked in. I think those events are more pertinent to your aerobic capacity as an enduranc athlete. I've tried to beg the local triathletes who train with the masters to swim meets, and swim the distance events, but they never do (I'm told it's because they don't want to compare to "real" swimmers, including the ones who don't look like they're as thin and fit as the triathletes but who nevertheless push their chubby guts to crush the late-onset swimmers). I'm glad you're going to swim a meet. I mean, triathletes often run in local 5k and 10k fun runs, right?

It means you will be racing against people who are more or less the same speed as you. If there are, say, 20 people who want to race the 100 free, and 5 lanes in the pool, they will split you up in to 4 "heats" based on your seeded times. Age and usually gender don't come in to the equation.

When you go to look at your results, then you will see them listed in age/gender groups.

BTW, meets are a ton of fun, and IMO, a great way to get faster.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

What events? Is coach seeding you, or are you doing your own seed times?

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I am a former triathlete. No more running as a result of knee issues.

The coach is seeding me in a few events. It is a new masters program that has only been going for a few weeks. My 100scy pr is 1:10.

I don't know if I have proper endurance for the longer races yet.

I appreciate everyones answers.

Welcome to the club. Back and calf issues keep me from doing too much running.

Try to swim some stuff other than freestyle. It's masters swimming, no one cares if you are good at it or not, just try it.

The 200's and up can get rather painful if you don't have the base fitness.

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I started swimming Backstroke a few weeks ago successfully except for turns. I also need a nose plug.
I have unsuccessfully started swimming fly.
I can't do Breast stroke because my knee moves too much laterally. I am having partial replacement next month.

I have learned a lot from the fishes on these forums. Thanks to you all.

Hell yes ...



400m/500y free
800m/1000y free
1500m/1650y free
200 m/y fly
400 m/y IM

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Then you have the dual sanctioned USA Swimming/USMS meets where you are swimming next to the 10 year old girl with a faster 500 time than you...

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The Doctor (#12)

LOL...

Never been to one of those. Thankfully I don't think there are any 10 year old girls who are faster than me in this province.

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If they seed everyone by time and not age group it works like this. For each event, the slowest heat goes first and progresses to the fastest. There will be (likely) 8 people in each heat, one for each lane. The fastest swimmer in the heat gets lane 4, the second fastest lane 5, 3rd fastest lane 3, etc. You'll be told what heat and lane you are in for each event at the beginning of the meet (the line up will be posted on the wall somewhere). Swim as fast as you can, the computer will sort out where you place in your age group after all the heats are done. Results will be posted somewhere as the meet progresses. (Aside - some dude came up with a computer program to do all of the entries, seeding and results (the touch pads hook directly into the program) about 25 years ago and sold it a few years ago to Active.com for big bucks. Who says there is no money in swimming?).

Once the meet starts, there may be an area where heats are "marshaled" which is really just a spot for folks to gather and get organized before their heat so things stay organized and move quickly. Pay attention to the announcements or the black board showing when you event is being marshaled. The other option is a "self marshaled" meet. If that's the case, you are responsible for showing up at your assigned heat and lane on time. Once things get going, its like a giant assembly line. Folks proceed to the blocks a couple heats before their race. When its their turn then the official starts the race. They wait for no one. Generally the officials will try to minimize the time between races to something like 30 seconds, 15 seconds if they have something to do after the meet ;-) so things move really quickly.

Oh, another thing I just thought of, STP's post reminded me. A lot of masters meets really aren't all that big, which means that they do things like run all the stroke 200's as one event, for time management reasons. See if you can look up last year's results just to get an idea of how many people were at the prior year's meet, that will help you select events with sufficient time between races to recover.

I did one meet last year where I literally got out of the water from one race to get up on the blocks for the next one. about 45 seconds recovery time.

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Or a 70-yr old with a faster time:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."