Swim whatever strokes. Run walk nap....watch for cutoff times.

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

The swim portion is considered a "freestyle" event. Though many people refer to the "front crawl" as "freestyle," "freestyle" is technically not a stroke, but a format where you can swim any way you want. "Freestyle" is commonly used interchangeably with "front crawl" as it is generally the fastest way to swim. However, there is nothing stopping you from swimming a freestyle event breaststroke, sidestroke or my favorite thing to do when I get tired swimming: elementary backstroke.

In fact, one of my personal favorites is the trudgen. I have always wanted to try that in a race...

You can do whatever strokes you want, but for goodness sakes don't do breaststroke. You'll kick someone, and then they'll start a thread on ST about the idiot swimming breaststroke that kicked them, and we'll know it was you.

Also, you should swim it all free; other strokes are slower and you can't sight very well in backstroke.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Any stroke (or combination of strokes) is fine for the swim. Front crawl is the most common and fastest. You will see some breast stroke as people sight on buoys, or need to catch their breath.

For the run, you can stop, walk, stretch, whatever. There is a prohibition on crawling (at that point you might want to DNF anyway), and you can't get outside assistance (i.e. you can massage a cramp, or get checked out by a race doctor, but a spectator can't help you stretch out the cramp).

You can leave the course, but have to re-enter right where you left (ex. stepping off to use a porta potty).

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

even some coaches (I'll bet) don't know that the front crawl is the stroke. Heck, in a freestyle event you're welcome to doggie paddle!

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

dial back your distance races instead and do an olympic non stop. when you are able to do that then go up to half ironman, otherwise what is the point of paying? you might as well do a half ironman in your back yard.

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