How about a new triathlon start process

Triathlon Forum
1 
I recently watched, on TV, a Tri race from Saskatoon where the women left 16 minutes before the men.  First one across the line won the prize money.   This has been done a number of times and apparently, as of the race I watched, it was split 50/50 between one of the women winning versus one of the men making up the deficit and winning.

That got me to thinking.

How about we do that in an IM. But, we seed based upon past performance. The slowest start first, the fastest start last, they would likely have to start in groups every 5 minutes or so, based upon previous times. The Pros would find themselves racing in the dark, there wouldn’t be any food left at the end, the aid stations would have run out of many things and they wouldn’t get a finishing medal / shirt / hat because they’d be out of them.

But, the first one across the line would be the winner!   Of course you will have a bunch of people crossing at pretty much the same time.
2

So basically the opposite of the mass start. Rather it would be a mass finish.

3

I say “Bring it on”
.

4

I would love to read the draft report coming out of that race.

5

Haha, yeah I can imagine it would end up in total carnage on the run. Everyone converges into a huge pack towards the end and it comes down to a mass sprint.

I know the mass start is all part of the experience, but I like the idea of a time trial start and trying to chase down the rest of your AG.

6

How about we do that in an IM. But, we seed based upon past performance. The slowest start first, the fastest start last,

So it pays to suck for a few races to set up a start time beneficial for a big payday race?

John

7

How about we do that in an IM. But, we seed based upon past performance. The slowest start first, the fastest start last,

So it pays to suck for a few races to set up a start time beneficial for a big payday race?

John

Sure, if you want to loose out in earlier races. Or, perhaps the format is to use age and / or sex to place starters, then you would compete against fellow AGers but your start position would be dictated such that the average (?) AGers in each group would finish at the same time.

8

Closest thing to this I’ve seen is the Shamrock 8k in Va Beach. They have a legit purse that draws some guys running 22-24 min as an opener for th half or full the following day.
They have the “elite for a day” where somebody gets chosen at random and gets a head start based on previous 5/8/10k results. If that person holds off the leader of the elite field, he or she gets $1k. If not, the winner gets an extra $1k on top of the regular prize purse. This past year they picked somebody that got like an 18 minute head start who just managed to hold on by a few seconds