ericmulk wrote:
BonusTri wrote:
Food for thought, why aren't there more deaths at masters swim meets?
I've thought about this quite a bit myself, and I think it is b/c
masters swimmers actually train for swimming in competition, whereas many tri peeps mainly train for the B + R, and are woefully under-trained for the swim, b/c it is such a small part of the race. Kind of ironic but it could be that, in their desire to cater to "what the customer wants", "increase their market share", "increase participation by the masses", and my personal favorite "we're sticking with the original Ironman distances b/c that's what the customer wants", race organizers are unwittingly contributing to the "heart attack in the swim" issue by keeping the swim relatively short in most races. If the swim were longer in iron races, like say 5 miles, then people would take the swim more seriously.
Of course, some will argue that masters competition is "not as stressful" as swimming in a tri b/c you have your very own lane and no one is elbowing you or trying to swim over you but when you get up on the blocks in a swim meet,
it is just you all by yourself up there, all out in the open, with your stroke clearly on display during the race, along with your time on display on the scoreboard, and your being ahead or behind the others in your heat being very clearly visible to anyone paying attention. When you swim in a tri, you just blend in with the masses unless you are very fast or very slow, whereas a swim meet performance is a very, very public event. It's just you in your Speedo up on the blocks and in the water, without 200 other swimmers to hide behind:)
Someone just died at Lavaman, and here you are proclaiming about how stressful it is what others might think of a masters swimmer relative to his peers. DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT IS GOING TO CAUSE SOMEONE THAT MUCH STRESS THAT THEY WILL DIE? Seriously? This is all you could come up with?
Triathon swim starts in open water, often mass starts with people swimming over your back, depriving you of oxygen are an entirely different world from a masters swim meet. To some degree you are being like the swimmer version of H2ofun...in other words, everyone should do like you do because it is the only way. I won't deny you that more swimming is helpful, but you're making the assumption that our peer athlete who dies in lavaman did not train for swimming.
One of my very good friends died at mile 25.5 at the Philly marathon a few years ago. He was on sub 3 hour pace at the time. Earlier in the year, he went 10:0x at the IMLP on a no wetsuit swim day. You know what people were saying when they heard some poor guy died in the final mile of the Philly marathon? They were saying, "oh yeah, another out of shape dude that did the marathon on a whim and dies during the race." But no, he was not out of shape and he trained really well. Shit happens sometimes to guys who train too.
Do people did in swims because they are not training for it? Perhaps, perhaps not. I think it's unfair to get on this thread where one of our peer athletes passed away and then tell people they don't train enough for swimming. I know what you are getting at, but it is disrespectful at least in this thread. Some guy left behind family and friends doing what we love. We can always suggest better ways to handle the mass start, but just saying people die in mass swim starts because they don't train for swimming seems to be crossing the line...at least it comes off as saying that our man who died at lavaman, would be here today if he trained for swimming...at least this is how it came across when I read your comment. I think there is a time and place for that commentary, and its not in this thread.
