Cancel swim to race physically distanced

Aug 6, 20 10:06

Post #1 of 20 (2536 views)

Main idea: Cancel the swim and start with the bike launching athletes every 5 secs

I've just posted this in the St George thread, and I think this can save some races in the back-end of 2020. And I think it's a no brainer for everyone who loves racing but wants to maintain physical distance, and also for WTC and race directors

This is stupid simple (and comes from a FOP swimmer who just spent $1,000 in a new wetsuit)

* Implement a bike start leaving athletes on 5 seconds separation (benefits: physically distanced, eliminate T1, no need of wetsuit strippers, staggered arrival times to start, etc.)

* By doing this, it takes only one hour to get 720 athletes on the road (which is more people than in most local races)

* It will take only two hours to get 1440 athletes on the road (most large ironman races these days)

* Start the bike at 6:30 and by 8:30 you have everyone on the road!

Do you think this may work? If yes, please help spread the idea. If not, what would you recommend to implement the idea in a better/safer way? Remember: "Simple solutions dominate complex ones"

I think we can race safely in the back-end of 2020 and 2021. Remember "Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures"

Last edited by: SlowPig: Aug 6, 20 10:50

Re: Bike time trial start to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 10:19

Post #2 of 20 (2523 views)

Is this for a triathlon or just a TT.

Normal TT's often start 1 rider every minute so they are even more spaced out.

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Re: Bike time trial start to race physically distanced [RowToTri] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 10:40

Post #3 of 20 (2499 views)

RowToTri wrote:

Is this for a triathlon or just a TT.

Normal TT's often start 1 rider every minute so they are even more spaced out.

I'm talking about cancelling the swim in triathlons and start with the bike launching people every 5 secs

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 10:53

Post #4 of 20 (2480 views)

It might be stupid simple, but it is a stupid idea. Do you really think that 5 seconds spacing between bikes on such a long event will do anything for maintaining separation?

Re: Bike time trial start to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:05

Post #5 of 20 (2460 views)

Standing start?

That would be funny to watch.

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:08

Post #6 of 20 (2452 views)

The appropriate term is "wetsuit peelers"

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:23

Post #7 of 20 (2426 views)

Where are you corralling the racers pending their start? Isn't that where the problem lies? If you figure that out, you could do the same for a time-trail swim start.

Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:34

Post #8 of 20 (2408 views)

Stupid idea. It's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. You must just be a crappy swimmer...

------------------
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Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:36

Post #9 of 20 (2401 views)

Why not just stagger the swim by 5 seconds and require a mask in Transition before/after the race?

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:40

Post #10 of 20 (2391 views)

It's not even a triathlon nor it's less fun cousin the duathlon.

I'm going to patiently wait until racing can be fun instead of trying to force something that might be a type of competition but no where near resembling the sport I love.

Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [timbasile] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 11:56

Post #11 of 20 (2369 views)

timbasile wrote:

Why not just stagger the swim by 5 seconds and require a mask in Transition before/after the race?

This is how most IM races start anyway. I guess it's typically groups of 4 going off every few seconds. But that leads to massive hoards of people waiting around to start.

It's likely more feasible for a 200 person race where people can stay distanced at the start/finish than a 2,000 person IM event

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 14:14

Post #12 of 20 (2274 views)

I think this is a good idea, but maintaining distancing during staging would be challenging, as other posters have mentioned. A potential solution would be to divide the start into some number of boxes (say 10), each ~10 feet wide - like an XC race start. Send off someone from each box every minute, with 5-6 seconds lag between each box. This would help keep distance and make the line waiting behind each box much smaller. Easiest to do this in a big parking lot.

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 14:18

Post #13 of 20 (2261 views)

2k athletes, and all the family hangers on, coming to a town for an IM race require food. They will undoubtedly eat at restaurants, or spend some time indoors elsewhere. Based on our historical deuchbaggery and entitledness, I don't see this ending well.

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Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [ericMPro] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 14:38

Post #14 of 20 (2235 views)

ericMPro wrote:

2k athletes, and all the family hangers on, coming to a town for an IM race require food. They will undoubtedly eat at restaurants, or spend some time indoors elsewhere. Based on our historical deuchbaggery and entitledness, I don't see this ending well.

This. I would be upset if my town decided to hold an event that brings in 1-2K people when we are trying to "control" the virus so we can do things like open schools and businesses.

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [ericMPro] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 14:38

Post #15 of 20 (2235 views)

ericMPro wrote:

2k athletes, and all the family hangers on, coming to a town for an IM race require food. They will undoubtedly eat at restaurants, or spend some time indoors elsewhere. Based on our historical deuchbaggery and entitledness, I don't see this ending well.

.
.
What he ^^^^ said!
There is way more to think about when hosting a race than the race itself.

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 6, 20 15:59

Post #16 of 20 (2184 views)

What was the point again of going 5 seconds apart on the bike? Because what I see is a whole lot of people getting packed up, earlier than if you had an actual swim, and now in about the most compromising position you could be during a race.

No doing a tt swim start would probably work, maybe try for 15 to 20 seconds though. And if you did a fast to slow(as in swim speed) you would get a mostly tt type of race, with minimal passing. And whatever passing you did have, most of it would be at bigger speed differentials, thus eliminating any congestion on the course...

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 7, 20 17:12

Post #17 of 20 (1958 views)

What wetsuit for $1000? What does it do for you?

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [timbasile] [ In reply to ]

Aug 7, 20 18:42

Post #18 of 20 (1928 views)

timbasile wrote:

Why not just stagger the swim by 5 seconds and require a mask in Transition before/after the race?

You could even add to this and line up 50 swimmers at a time on 50 dots spaced apart 2m, and release one swimmer every 5 seconds.

Just show up and stand on your dot 5 minutes before the start of your 50 person group so that people have a start time in a 5 minute window....in the mean time, just hang out in the spaced out transition zone with masks.

0-50 leave in the first 5 min
51-100 in next 5 min
101-150 in next 5 min

and so it goes until you get to the number of people in the race.

The original poster in this thread is just talking about the bike-run duathlon system that Ironman used when they have swim cancellations!

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [SlowPig] [ In reply to ]

Aug 7, 20 19:05

Post #19 of 20 (1911 views)

I have a better idea - cancel the bike and run and just make it a swim :)

"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Re: Cancel swim to race physically distanced [boobooaboo] [ In reply to ]

Aug 8, 20 4:03

Post #20 of 20 (1834 views)

boobooaboo wrote:

I have a better idea - cancel the bike and run and just make it a swim :)

Or just cancel the swim and bike and just make it a run.................all 140.6 miles.

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