Swim or don't start.

I have never seen conditions where a cancelled swim was justified.

I'm a 1:10 IM swimmer.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I had a swim canceled this year (Nations Tri). I was somewhat ambivalent. It's no longer a tri, but my swim training was practically nonexistent during the prior months. Would have prefered to swim but I wasn't very irritated that it was canceled. If I was properly prepared I would not have been very happy about it though, and I'm a worse swimmer than biker/runner.

I'd be disappointed if the swim was cancelled. I'm a (very) slow swimmer and a decent (relatively) cyclist and runner. If I've entered a tri, I want to do all 3 disciplines.

That said, if it's cancelled, it's cancelled for everyone. What can you do? It's not exactly a world-changing problem I'd worry about.

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http://recipher.co.uk/

sad.

i am a mop swimmer but love to swim and been training hard to improve (getting good results, i was awful).

and basically if one leg is missing it is not a triathlon.

Cheers!

like others have said, I'm not a good swimmer but I enjoy it.
especially in open water during an IM.
so, if the swim were to get cancelled I would be disappointed.

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” - Plato

(no, I'm not picking on you lately :-)

I'm a 1%er in triathlon swims, and there was a race (the old Seaside Heights Triathlon) in which, after trying to warm up in the ocean, I sought out the race director and implored him to cancel the swim. The current was so strong that people were going to get swept past the final turn buoy into the nearby pier, and many of those who were able to make the turn would get dumped pretty badly coming back in (it was a battle for me). They were going to lose people that day, me not being one of them. The swim was replaced with a two mile run.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Easy solution. Don't swim, get a DQ.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I'm always sad when they cancel the swim - mostly because if I had wanted to RBR i would have signed up for a du. It also gives those skinny runners that don't spend enough time in the pool a huge bump.

Answer to the question really lies in how competitive you are in the overall race. For a pro 58 minutes might be the breaking point. FOP, 65. MOP 70, BOP 80. Just random guesses.

I'm ~ top 5-10% swim split in local races and top 20% or worse in bigger races and much better overall. I would have benefited from no swim in every race I did this year. Still glad none of the swims were cancelled, even the 53 degree swim at Boise 70.3

I'm generally top 10 out in olympics. I'm fairly consistent around all the sports, nothing is really spectacular for me. When the swim is cancelled though I view it as neccesary. I've raced enough duathlons where I understand the tactics, easy first run so that you don't zone 4 too soon.

The advantages of racing duathlons? Probably learning how hard you can truly run off the bike. I set my 5k pr off the bike a year ago in a duathlon. The runners definately benefit, but racing a pro race they swim pretty fast anyways so I just recognized I'd probably lose less time over the two mile run option versus the 1500.

My last IM swim was 56 mins non-wetsuit on a legit course (judging by pro times) two years ago...my swimming has come some way since then and given the expected conditions (small freshwater lake with no current or chop) and a good build I was aiming for <55 here. I figured that would put me up among the first pack exiting the water from the M18-34 wave with a handful of super fish strung out a few minutes ahead up the road.

Take the swim away and the dynamic changes instantly.

I've had the good fortune or winning my AG at an M-dot IM and a HIM national champs (this year's qualifier for Henderson) and I didn't get those results from being the best athlete with the biggest engine...they came from preparing for the courses and conditions of the day, using some race craft in the swim & bike to exit T2 with the biggest possible advantage, then hanging on for dear life and hoping the competition blows themselves up in pursuit.

So to answer your question of advantage/disadvantage, it obviously depends on your strengths & weaknesses relative to those you're competing against (whether that's OA, AG, or just your mates) and possibly more so the manner in which you "race" the race, rather than a specific time over a specific distance...if the swim is an important element in your race strategy then of course you're gonna be peeved when it's cancelled. To say I was on Saturday would be putting it mildly... :)

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blood, sweat...and big gears

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
- Muhammad Ali

Easiest way to gigure this out is looking at previous times. Look at your overall rank and how you rank in each of the three diciplines. If your swim rank is lower than the other two, cancelling/shortening the swim is a good thing. It is that easy. You could argue that the energy exerted on the swim (or lac therof) would affect competitors performances on the bike and run differently (such that their rank order on the bike and run would change), but my guess is that this would be minimal.

Swimming is hands down my weakness, so I tend to rank higher in overall time in races that are not swim-heavy. In other words, half and full =good, oly=bad.