My understanding is that the waves will consist of about 100 people entering the water every 15 seconds. A large part of the reasoning is safety, it will make a thinner stream of swimmers so rescue can more easily spot people in trouble and to get to them.

Deathride is actually July 13, 2013, but I do feel your pain :)

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Team Kiwami
Instagram

Louisville had a fatality in 2011 with a TT start. I agree that a mass start is important to the race. Everyone should get their 17 hours and the clock should read my actual time when I finish.

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Instagram | Team Kiwami North America

Why do you need a prior ironman for that process, a first timer with a swim background would be able to produce results indicative of a faster swim. I can show proof of a recent 1500 in 17:06 so that shoukd put me in the front corral.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

RealAlbertan, I was going to elaborate more on the corral requests I've seen. I've never had to report a marathon time to make corral 1, just a recent race in the 10k to half marathon range.

I've done dozens of short course races, at least a dozen HIMs, and 5 IMs (all different) and IMCDA is the only race where I've had a panic attack in the swim. Although I made it out of the water and came back to a top ten AG finish, it was scary enough that I never had any intention of repeating that course. Notwithstanding the folks who think it's degrading the event, I would reconsider going back if they went to a TT wave start. As for tradition, Ironman did not traditionally have the mega starting fields they do today.

I found the main issue last year was that they wouldn't let the AG wave onto the beach until the last pro finished their first swim loop.

I remember looking at my watch at 6:51 and still standing in line in the transition, I think 2800 athletes had about 7-8 minutes to line them selves up for race start. This was an absolute cluster f**k!!!

Having not done an IM in 4 years I went the furthest you could go to the right (almost the last swimmer) and swam line of sight to the first buoy. I am not a fast swimmer, but OK for my AG (swam 1:02) starting at the right I didn't touch one person for 800m (first buoy) and got there in OK time, around 12 min and change.

The issues started after the first buoy but if I had of swam 5 meters wide instead of going in tight I would have been fine. The crowding issues weren't that much worse than other IM's I've raced.

The main issue I think for a lot of people was that due to the pro time start the AGers didn't have enough time to properly self seed themselves, they could solve this by bumping the pro start time back to 6 am,

My 2C
Maurice

so no swim cutoff then?

i'd wait to be last and have a day full of drafting! JK

Tim

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Tim

Houston verifies the data too for the corals.

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My Blog | Twitter | Big Pistachio Racing Team

Was it the mass start , lack of proper warmup, cold water that caused that?

I'm planning on swiming ~48 at Whistler so I know I'll be out ahead, if we have a TT start I'll have to get in early to avoid the crowd on lap 1 and lap 2 will be interesting.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

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I'd also buy you a beer or three if you showed up in Penticton..

This year will be an interesting one for Challenge Penticton and I don't think it would be out of order to see two waves this year if the numbers are low enough..One wave for solos and one for teams....As for Ironman and these supposed swim changes,I can't say that I am surprised as they have had lots of bad press when it comes to thier swims in the last couple of years.

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Why aren't all Ironman distance events "in water" floating starts? eg: IMAZ, '10-'12 St. George
Doesn't this type of start help self-seed? Easiest and most non-combative swim of my life was 2010 IMSG. No contact whatsoever during the swim. (ended up 53:xx) However - when looking towards the beach after the start, it looked like half the participants were still on land freaking out about the cold temps.
I think this has me the most nervous about Tahoe. Not the elevation or temps, but the run-in swim start. Ankle spraining, cutting your foot on something from the bottom, being trampled...nightmares. Not a way to start a long day of racing. If I walk in, then I have to swim around/over all the runners and tall dudes. Seems like all the horror stories from IMCDA will be replayed at Tahoe.
However, the time trial start seems like the worst idea. The mass start is an awesome experience - if done while floating.

I believe I said that it's difficult to predict your time especially if you are not a swimmer doing your first IM. If you are a swimmer then it's easy-er :)

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Agreed. The lake is huge. No reason it is not a single loop swim. I live in Spokane and part of the reason I don't compete in this event is due to the horror stories I've heard about this swim (among other reasons). I am signed up for Whistler, however, so I'm sure I'll experience something like CDA during the swim up in BC.

I'm sure you could figure out a formula. My 5k PR is under an hour so I'm good.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

What is your source for this?

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Gary Mc
Did I mention I did Kona

I am a MOP IM swimmer from a total field perspective -- better than MOP for my AG. I did get a decent warm-up at IMCDA but attribute my panic to a combination of the crowded beach start and placing myself too aggressively on the line-up. I was gunning for Kona and went out too hard. Subsequently, I have looked for IMs with in-water starts or smaller fields.

Slowtwitch the only place where people bitch about drafting and ask for wave starts then bitch about possible wave starts.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I 100% agree. I will even go one step further and say they should have a competitive wave. Pro men, pro women, AG competitive wave, then AG waves.

Well everyone here is a good swimmer with impeccable judgement when on the bike. It's just all the other swimmers that get in the way, get into trouble or otherwise cause problems. Duh.

Reminds me of an old saying (which I've modified): The only thing ST'ers hate worse than change, is when things stay the same.

^^^ THIS

Perhaps you have not considered that not every STer has the same opinion.

What is the validity behind this rumor? Did someone associated with the event comment or is this just some 'friend of a friend who heard it from a guy' type of thing?

Extend the beach start width and we might not have a huge problem. I have done CDA in 2011/2012 and last year was far worse. Canada swim is nothing like CDA as the beach is very wide, replicate that. The beach in CDA is huge, take advantage of it. I understand there is the "pole", put orange padding around it and we are good to go. WTC is getting bad press so I would think all Ironman races will follow suit. We shall see