Simple... no Candy Ass grey zone. Do it as ITU does... all wetsuits or all not.

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

Because TJ didn't race last year.

Did you just type 'irregardless'?

^ this. Or my transition spot was REALLY far away.

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Badig| Strava

Too bad for those of us who want to race. In a mass start or wave start you are racing head to head meaning if you pass someone you are ahead of them. In TT start you can finish ahead of someone and still get beat.

Not if, like in many IM 70.3 races, they split some AGs into 2 or 3 different waves.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

There is no such word as 'irregardless'

And that's your take away from my post? You must be a blast at refereeing street countdown.

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

If I recall, they got all 2000+ athletes into the water in 90sec at IMCDA the year I did it.

I am reasonably certain all of my competition were in the water within 20sec of me which in an IM is as good as starting together.

I think you will find the change to be better for the overall race experience. The swim will start faster most likely, since you won't have to wait while the masses slowly wade to the deep water start.

Jack

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
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I think 90 seconds is being a little generous. Probably more like 10-15 minutes.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Yeah, I was in the 1-1:15 group (near the last quarter of people) and I was in the water about 90sec after the first person, so 10min or more for everyone. Doesn't really change my point, which is that there won't be much separation for competitive people.

Jack

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

Coeur d'Alene is about 14 minutes and it's the fastest. Lake Placid was 18 minutes. Boulder 22 minutes. Depends on how wide they can go. Louisville takes 40 minutes because of the narrow dock. Chattanooga was 30 minutes - same reason. Not sure what Woodlands will be like but I'm guessing about 20 minutes. They're not bottlenecked by a dock but it's not as wide open as the beach at CDA. Coeur d'Alene is also perfect for a warmup before the start. They just cordon off a decent-sized area of lake parallel to the path you're walking along the beach to get to the start. Woodlands will probably be a bit tighter but they'll figure something out.

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Sylvan Smyth | http://www.sportstats.asia | sylvan@sportstats.asia | Starvas

I just completed IM Melbourne which had a rolling start, 6 at a time. I have always been a big fan of mass starts because of the draft, you are literally pulled away and the swim can be effortless

While this years swim was a lot less messy (and harder as a result), i noticed there was ALOT less packs and drafting on the bike. The difference was night and day. Think when you have 2500 spread out over 30 mins, its has an impact on the bike course. It was a much fairer race!!!! No packs and maybe a few tiny paletons (small ones)

Unfortunately, this is probably the way forward, will miss the mass starts but the upside is a much fairer bike leg

Good point. My takeaway is that you lack a rudimentary knowledge of the English language.

My bad, the OP lacks basic English skills is what I took away.

I think he got sucked into that hippy crowd and never found his way out of T1
Was a little disappointed to hear about the rolling start. I understand what WTC is trying to do but I would prefer knowing that everyone in my age group started at the same time.

How wide is the dock at Louisville? The dock at Lake Woodlands is roughly 15-20 people wide (guessing) with a wooden dock extending out. I would guess total time could be closer to the 40 min mark like Louisville. Last question, Is the rolling start on the swim specifically used to cut down on drafting on the bike? I can only believe that would be the case for this race. Some buddies of mine were really beaten up during the swim last year, but they hung out by the dock in the beginning. I swam out to the middle of the lake for the start and while i did run into folks on the way out, i had a pretty easy swim ( I am not a fast swimmer, finished 1:11). I ran into more folks in the canal than i did in the lake. I am just wondering what others thought about the reason to turn from mass to rolling.

Louisville essentially puts the entire field through a single file line. When you get close to the start, the line gets split into two for actually entering the water, but the bottleneck is the single file line getting down to the docks.

There's ongoing construction along both sides of the waterway just east of the finish line that won't be completed prior to the race (the south side *may* be finished but the north side definitely will not be). I'm curious to see how they reroute the run.

Previous year's map: Link

Picture from mid-February, taken from the bridge that the finish line sits on:

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South side pedestrian bridge will be open. The north side though there are a few options being sorted out. Good chance everyone will head off the waterway (like you're heading to the finish) and then multi loopers will drop back down in and around the fountains. I haven't spoken with anyone at WTC, but the rate that they are building the hotel makes it seem close that the building will be closed in by race day, meaning that I still have hope a carpet/trail along the water might be possible for those 400 feet.

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Badig| Strava

I spoke with the superintendent for the hotel today and he said that optimistically, the tower crane will come down in June. The main tower of the hotel is dried in about halfway up but the surrounding steel structure still has a fair amount of work to be done. For safety reasons I don't think they'll allow runners through the job site, crane or no crane. Glad to hear there are alternates.

I haven't talked with my contacts on the bridge project in awhile so I didn't know the south side would be open. They'll be cutting it close if that's the case.

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Ditto. No issues. Slight angle to the right upon entry. no big deal

IMFL 2013 was a shit show with the start. Horrendous.

And the thing with IMFL is that ease with which people can cut the course at the top and 2013 only accentuated that.

Bob

"Shit show." Yep, that's spot on!

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I've done it every year since 2009. It's the same every year. Last year however was the single exception.