I voted and expected to see a certain ratio and instead see that 33 percent voted for more swimming. So far in my decade or so of racing and meeting triathletes, the only people I have ever met who wanted more swimming were people who swam as a kid and felt ripped off that swimming is not given equal time. I’m guessing that the swimmers are the only ones who feel strong enough about the subject to really care to vote. I mean, if there were upwards of 1/3 of triathletes that wanted more swimming then would there not be races that reflected this view? Come on all you swim haters–vote–we know you are out there or else races that feature 500 meters of swimming with 30K and 5K bike/run would not be so popular.
I suspect those short-swim races are popular with the crowd that isn’t on ST. I want the swim to be given equal weighting, and I didn’t even swim as a kid - I do spend a lot of time with the local masters’ team, and I hate the thought that, from a tri perspective, that’s mostly dead time (especially here in Boulder, where the sprint courses have a 17-mile bike). Half-iron and iron courses are the worst, and I don’t think of those most of the time precisely because the swim is largely irrelevant and I’ll be killed by the bike studs. I’d like the sprint and olympic swims to be doubled.
Isn’t the half swim a couple 100 meters short of th oly swim??? And we all know they usually shorten the half swim anyway.so it is more like a oly swim.
So far in the 30 years I’ve been in the sport the distances for triathlons came about not by market research but by what the typical single sports were. 1.5K swim is the longest pool swim in the Olympics (OWS hadn’t been added to the program back in the early '80s). 40K bike is the international TT distance. 10K run is the longest track race & a popular road distance. Ironman was created by taking the longest distances in swim, bike, run on O’ahu. Bingo! There are your triathlon distances.
Yep., I’m one of those who swam as a kid & still marvel at the wimpy, thrashing, flailing bodies called triathletes as they leave the land & go back from whence we came. As a former race director of a 100+ local triathlon my distances were 1K swim, 16K bike & 5K run.
I am not a very strong swimmer (mid 14’s for 1k) but I would like to see a longer swim just so it would make people actually train for the leg. Currently you can wing the swim training and still get a pretty respectable time in HIM/IM (not so for OD). This is why I see events like Tristar taking off, all about the bike! Actually they would be a great ‘training’ race.
TBH I am pretty happy with the distribution for OD’s.
It has been my impression that the differences in times between the top 50% of pros and the top 20-30% of AGers, are about the same for all 3 disciplines. If the swim was way longer, only the fish would win. If the bike were way longer, the cyclists would win, same for the run. The ratios are pretty good, I think. Besides, riding and running are way more scenic than the stripes on the bottom of the pool, unless there is some really attractive member of the opposite sex (or same sex for some) in the next lane, but usually there are cetaceans there.
Isn’t the half swim a couple 100 meters short of th oly swim??? And we all know they usually shorten the half swim anyway.so it is more like a oly swim.
You had it switched in your first sentence - Oly is 1500m, half is ~1800m, but I think you meant it the correct way. Yes, my ideal would really screw with the longer distances, but after one half, I really like the shorter ones…
I think if you are a swimmer you think you get ripped off, and in general people think the swim isn’t correct, even if they aren’t swimmers. I think the poll reflects that, however, in reality people avoid long or tough swims.
I believe Lew Kidder once put on a tri with legs of about equal time, which meant a long swim compared to the bike and run, the participation was shall we say underwhelming.
Its like Chilies when they tried a Light menu. That was their leading suggestion, but when they put together a healthy menu no one ordered it.
The funny thing is every tri I do that doesn’t cancel the swim no one says I want the swim longer.
Every race I do where the swim gets cancelled I can’t believe the number of people who claim to be swimmers.
You know how to find the true swimmers at a triathlon? Announce 15 min before the start that it’s non wet suit. The 6 people cheering are the swimmers.
Before the 2011 Half IM nationals everyone was asking if the swim would be WS legal and when it would be announced. After the swim was cancelled everyone was pissed.
Before the 2011 Half IM nationals everyone was asking if the swim would be WS legal and when it would be announced.
i was there. A ton of people crowded around me at the start where bitching about it. I was thinking most of them were 32-34 minute swimmers. I wondered why they were whining about not starting the bike 6-9 minutes behind the leader.