It now seems like race organisers are willing to listen to the athletes and start changing some rules (20m draft for example). So this is the start of my petition to Bring Back Mass Starts and Ban Rolling Starts.
I feel, and I know I’m not alone, that the introduction of rolling starts had done major damage to the race aspect of a triathlon. It’s not about racing anymore, it’s about pacing. How many times have you sprinted to the finish to pass someone just to find out they started before or after you? Or tried to calculate times not knowing if you started 2, 5, 30 minutes after the official start. And it’s a nightmare if you are trying to qualify for a championship slot.
My solution? I didn’t come up with this (thank Pro Tri News) but think it’s the best one. Have the Pros start, then have a self appointed “Age Group Elite” wave start for anyone who wants to race. Then you can have rolling starts for the less competitive participants behind.
It’s the best of all worlds. Helps keep the slower people safe and out of the way. Lets the competitive people race each other. Thins out the starts. Opens up the course. It’s a win, win, win.
I’ll be wearing this shirt to every race until we get some separation and are allowed to bring back racing to a race.
More Racing. Less Pacing.
Race Xterra then
Your welcome!
“Racers” are the minority. “Participants” are the vast majority. Race directors know that the swim is the biggest fear for most new triathletes or people thinking about trying the sport and they will not make things harder to attract newbies.
You will just have to either get your Pro card or just race to your ability and hope that is faster than everyone else in the crowd.
Are you finishing races not emptying the tank, could you have gone harder if you knew your position? How about you just empty the tank fully, if you are fast enough you qualify, if not try again next race…
In a mass start how do you even know your position relative to age group? Mass start by age group like the WCs maybe, but again it’s very hard to know your position unless you are fop and can keep a constant eye on the handful of competitors.
Just go hard and get splits on the bike and run course from friends and family like everyone else…
I no longer race, but, I started Tri as a BOP swimmer, and was a FOP swimmer when I finished.
I really enjoyed mass starts. It adds to the excitement and feel of the race. Even progressing from BOP swimmer, I never really found it to be an issue. I would just start towards the back/side and do my own thing. When I got fast enough to somewhat race the swim, it was even more enjoyable.
I would be all for bringing back the mass starts. The one point you can’t really argue against is that mass starts are less safe. If someone has a medical emergency in the middle of one, good luck spotting them.
Yeah, exactly this. I’ve only done two Ironmans but the idea that, had I known a competitor was on my heals I could have found another gear, was not my experience at all.
100% Bring back the mass starts! They added more fun to the vent. These 4 people every 4 seconds sucks.
Ah yes, the old Bring back mass drowning posts. Most of you have horrible swim etiquette and this would make it far worse.
Ruined to oblivion a post that I could otherwise half-agree with.
There are still a few mass starts here in France, esp smaller events. I think they have a great atmosphere and it’s just fun to run into the ocean/sea full-on. Larger events probably do need the rolling start but a small event can always go for it.
20m draft zones don’t go well with 2000 starters and mass starts. Just saying …
20m applies to the pros, and they mass start?
This is why they are never coming back except for the pro or rare “elite” wave with limited numbers. Race orgs need more participants and you aren’t going to attract them with a hype video of swimmers beating the crap out of each other for 100m.
Funny because that’s one of the things that actually attracted me to triathlon in the first place.
Kids today have gotten soft, as the saying goes!
Of course I don’t have statistics to back it up, but I don’t think I 100% agree with your point. With mass starts everybody sorts themselves out in the first couple of hundred meters and is in the proper position for the rest of the swim. In Rolling starts you have slow people start early and fast people start late which causes a mess the entire way through the course. As I have aged this has become more apparent and more of a problem. So, my advice is to figure out a way to control the first 200 M of the swim and go back to mass starts. Much safer and competitively better.
The issue with mass start is that from an basic emergency personal to swimmers ratio, and many life saving organizations have general guidelines on that ratio between swimmers and LG’s or emergency personal (quick google search has Red Cross’s ratio in a pool setting at 25 swimmers per LG); even if it’s only 200m the ratio is beyond safe. You would basically need more lifesaving numbers than what races likely are using in today’s day of volunteers; and obviously water safety are *usually paid for their “volunteer” services (I’m’ talking about the 16 year old LG who goes out on a paddleboard or kayak, etc; obviously the RD is going to get a bill from the local EMS/sheriffs when their using their boats etc)
Your a lawyer, so I should also add, I don’t think there is any “legal requirements” that races or RD’s are suppose to have within emergency requirements. Having been around enough races and RD’s, I think it’s more mininum requirements being needed, but I don’t think there is a race out there that likely actually meets likely the low 25-30:1 ratio that are guidelines/requirements in other water venues. IE in a 2500 field, if you use 30:1 ratio, you would need 83 emergency personal in the water. I don’t think I’ve ever in my life seen close to that many at any race I’ve worked/coached/spectated at. And yes I would guess technically on like a Sheriffs boat with 4 people on it, that would count as 4 people, etc. But even if you had 50 single LG’s in the water, that would still require ~8 additional boats of 4 people as well.
Agree 100%!!! If you think you have a chance at finishing on or near the podium and want a shot at winning that medal, you have to select the competitive wave. Depending on the number of people in the competitive wave and the particulars of the venue (narrow boat ramp vs wide beach start, twisting bike path start of the ride vs straight highway), the race director could break it up into a small number of start groups where everyone in a particular age group goes in the same start group, thus preserving the ‘race against your competitors’ aspect. For example all M40 and under in 1st group.
Why people are arguing swim safety aspect with the split start proposal (competitive group start plus rolling completion start) makes no sense. First, I’d think one signing up for the competitive start is experienced enough that they wouldn’t have any swim safety issues. I raced Hawaii a couple times when it was an in-water mass start and never had any issues with the mass of people all around. Second, not having a faster rolling start swimmer going through/over all the slower rolling start swimmers will only lessen the fear of those people so it should in theory improve safety. At Marbella this past fall I literally heard a couple slow swimmers stop and yell at me even though I didn’t even touch them as I passed. Just their high level of fear/anxiety/whatever and the speed difference and unexpectedness of turning to take a breath and someone being right there splashing water in their face was enough to freak out those people.
Finally, having your competitor in view near the finish line is important. I qualified for Hawaii once because I saw a runner just up ahead maybe a quarter mile from the finish and I thought to myself, “that is the Hawaii slot”. I was able to increase my pace enough to pass and hold off that person to the finish and I did receive that last slot! I will always remember and cherish that moment, way more so than any other part of that race or any part of the subsequent Hawaii race.
If only this was actually true, people sign up for all kinds of wrong waves all the time, or sign up for events that they frankly are under-prepared for. Things can happen at any moment in the water to any level of swimmer.
Well not that, but there’s something to be said for videos of a mass of people running down the beach (where possible or a mass taking off for an in water start).
This is the age of social media so you have to admit the visuals of 500+ people going off is going to sell the look better. Might not attract those with anxiety over swimming, but you might see more adventurous types get excited.
Why would the safety be such an issue - I would imagine the few folks on surfboards (and lets be honest, it’s really just a few lifeguards at each event) can much better keep an eye on a huge group of people - where one might have issues - rather than stretch themselves thin over 1900/3800m.
Would be interesting to have a comparison of the swim issues of mass starts vs rolling starts. List of multisport and triathlon fatalities - Wikipedia