dirtymangos wrote:
It is actually extremely difficult to avoid swimming over the top of slower swimmers. Just because someone can swim, does not mean that they have super vision and super fast reactions. You come up on slow swimmers quickly and visibility is often not great. Swimming through previous waves of swimmers is like sprinting through a night club with the fog machine on. It is pretty much certain that you are going to bump into someone.
If races were to " suggest" that slower swimmers might consider the outside/inside, it might reduce accidents.
With mass starts I feel that people who get swum over kind of deserved it. (I mean why push and shove your way to the front if you are just going to get on people's way).
This is not the case with wave starts. Why not give people that do not want to get swim over a way to opt out?
This is so true. M25-29 was the last wave to go at Florida 70.3, and it was exactly that. I would say if you are not a strong swimmer perhaps stay on the inside line so that way (god forbid) you can hang onto the buoy, and in most races the paddleboards/kayaks are closest to the inside line. I do agree, a general understanding would be helpful and perhaps alleviate alot of anxiety that people have of swim starts. There was a guy in our wave that looked completely out of sorts at the beginning. I am by no means a strong swimmer, but will come out FOP in most races. He was on the front line of guys in the water, and I politely asked if it was his first 70.3....his response was that it was his first triathlon. This is a recipe for disaster. I hope he made it out of the water safely.
IG: NCGregory8778