I ask the question because my own experience seems to be contrary to the stories that I hear others tell.
My only big (over 200 people starting at once) races have been Great White North 1/2IM (twice) IMC (twice) and Kona (once). At each of these I have positioned myself near but not at the front and have swum along the inside buoy line (the staightest and shortest route).
My experience at GWN and IMC has been some contact and congestion at GWN and IMC with the worst of it being at the turns, including one time where a competitor got my forehead with their elbow while doing breaststroke at the turn. I’ve also had a couple of guys who swam diagonally across my legs as either they or I swam off course and I have bumped shoulders and hips with lots of the other swimmers.
BUT at none of those races did anyone hit, kick or otherwise abuse me in any way and I didn’t find any of the incidents that I described above to be particularly bothersome. The consistent reaction to any contact was both of us tried to give the other some room.
Kona was even better (did it this year). I swam in a tight pack the entire way to the turnaround and it was if we were an almost well trained school of fish. There were (virtually) always people on both sides of me and people beside them and people in front of and behind us and yet while there was regular bumping going on, it seemed as if everyone was very focused on minimizing contact and swimming as straight as possible. I went around the turnaround boat without any incident as there was no congestion, it seemed like everyone held to the formation we were in and just swam around. I was expecting worse.
My IMC swim times were 1:10 and at Kona 1:22 (darn current) so I was relatively in the middle of the pack.
Now, I know that it makes a good story to talk about suviving the jungle war that the open water swim in triathlon is supposed to be, but that has not been my experience. Is it really that bad out there for everyone else? Or are we just needlessly scaring newbies and trying to impress our friends?
Well, define “bad.” I got the living SH#$ kicked out of me at IMMoo this year. I started toward the font of the pack, about 100 m in from the buoy. The first 400-500 m or so were brutal. Got kicked, hit, smacked, etc. But, I’m used to it, so, I just focused, swam like hell and got into open water just inside the markers. The rest of the race was very smooth and easy, except when I had to go back outside the orange markers at the four corners (swam inside the markers on the straights). I could easily see how a newbie would have panicked at the start of that race.
Worst race I ever had was the Pewaukee Triathlon (sprint). I got in the first wave with the elites. That 400 m was NOT a swim, it was a scrum. Seriously, I barely did any “swimming,” I just got pulled along. So, did it suck? Yep. Was it impossibly difficult. Hardly. It was just very unpleasant.
I’ve had a decent amount of bumping around, but IMFL was my first mass swim start and it didn’t bother me too badly. I’ve never purposely hit people, but I threw about 4 straight arms to push away from me. You hit me once, I will let it go. You hit me twice, and I’ll keep an eye on you. You hit me a third time and you’re getting the straight arm to get you or me away, depending upon who’s bigger. I won’t purposely hit someone unless I feel like they did it to me and I’ve never had. Now, I’ve kicked people before who have tried to swim up on my back but usually I’ll feel some hands on my feet and then I’ll get the 12-beat kick going and the hands go away. At a local sprint, I had one guy swim on my back, I did my 12-beat kick, and kicked him in the nuts. He was gone instantly but I actually still feel really bad about that. Because of that, I try to never swim on someone’s back. Also, don’t fucking breastroke in the middle of 1500 people. That’s just stupid.
I have been involved in some very rough starts (mostly at IM USA LP). Kona always seems to be good for body contact (or lack of). I’ve done IMFlorida twice and IMMoo once and body contact was not a big issue. Back in the '90s I did IMC several times and I remember the start always being pretty rough. One year someone grabbed both my feet, pulled me under him and swam right over me.
IMOO '06 was my first “mass start”. It was a difficult and nerve racking first 20 minutes in part because the chop was a little more than I was used to swimming in on the way back and I swallowed a good bit of water. Got one elbow to the head/goggles at about 1000 yards that was the only rough stuff. One of the more frustrating parts to me was the inability of other people to swim even close to a straight line (which is why I would guess that Kona is smoother/more people know how to swim). Just about the time a gap would open and you could begin a good rythym somebody would swim across your line at a 45 degree angle. 20 feet later here comes same/different guy (they all look the same!!) overcompensating the other way.
I concluded from my first mass start that the 80/20 rule applies to IM swimming; you either want to be in the top 10% (225-250 swimmers) or the bottom 10%; middle 80% sucks.
I meet with my new swim coach for the first time next Tuesday. I have set a 3 year goal of being in the top 10%.
The biggest problem in the open water is people who can’t sight properly – they just all of a sudden stop and look around like a seal trying to figure out where to go. I find it amazing that people get in the water without the skills required to do the job. I think that people who stop in the water to get their bearings should be automatically disqualified. Let the folks on the jet skis and kayaks make the call and arm them with paint ball guns or something to mark the offenders.
Back in the BOP, I got bumped, banged, frog kicked in the eye, and even punched once (that one I still don’t understand, WTF? but c’mon, how hard can somebody who’s swimming poorly hit somebody else who is swimming poorly? I shrugged it off and kept plodding along).
Still in all, it really wasn’t that bad. I thought it was going to be much much worse, so since I had overhyped it in my mind, the reality wasn’t too bad.
Kona had very little contact comparatively. Probably had something to do with the fact that the first 1500 swimmers were in front of me already… :-p
I did learn from this experience not to seed myself too far in the front. Yes he did have good eye-hand coordination. I wish I would have got his number I would have ran him off the road on the bike
I am a FOP swimmer and find every IM swim I do very nerve-wracking for about the first 200 m. Regardless of where I start, I get run over because everyone seems to think they need to sprint to get out in front just to get passed again later. This year at IM Florida, I actually had the roughest swim yet because I started a little further back but closer to the bouys instead of my normal outside thinking I wouldn’t get knocked around as much. I ended up more in the middle with no free water to swim. If I was not a strong swimmer, I would have been panicking at this point but was able to make it to the outside and around everyone by the time I got to the first green bouy. After that, didn’t have any trouble.
saw a lot of that too. I am by no means a “good” open water swimmer but I got the distinct sense that some of these folks only experience in open water is at races. I can’t imagine how much energy they use up zig-zagging across the course.
I would say that an IM swim start is something that no matter how much you see it or hear about it, you can only “experience” it to understand what it is like.
I’m hoping the experience helps for the first 20 minutes of IMOO '07 cuz I was a little intimidated by the first 20 minutes of '06.
Like the guy in “Point Break” says though: “if things get tough you can’t just call time out and stroll on in to the beach”
The swim at Lake Placid is the only thing that scares me about the race. Everything else I can tough out, except for panicing in the water. It will be my first IM and my first swim with so many people. The most I’ve ever swam with is about 400 at my first 1/2 IM. I start to hyperventilate a little just thinking about it!!! I think I might wait on the beach for about 5 minutes after the horn goes, so I can have nice clear water.
no the swim is not that rough - i have done quite a few large start and mass start races and have had few if any problems - but i’m a strong swimmer. when talking with poeple who have had a rough time and watching prople in swim starts — IMO…
people seed them selves too high
people have poor open water skills
people are afraid of open water and act in odd ways when scared
people are way too aggressive with the swim start - particularly with shorter races - too many people trying to jocky for position and lots of chumps blowing their wad in the first few 100 meters
people don’t know how to swim around other people and/or turn bouies - you gotta practice both
people are too uncomfortable swimming in packs - watch good swimmers they love swimming in a tight pack because of the draft - they will work together and when they do bump into one another/hit anothers feet/wack another they back off quickly and act reasonably - other good swimmers take this as part of the game and don’t retaliate - so again people need to practice swimming in close quarters
I think it always has the potential to be bad. I think it seldom is ‘bad’ but often has scary moments. In those moments, a lot of people panic, which is contagous and that causes a lot of problems…
If you go in NOT expecting to be hit, pushed down, held under, climbed on, and kicked, then I think you set yourself up for a ‘bad’ swim. I think the way you choose to deal with these things determines how ‘bad’ the swim is. Some people roll with it; others freak out.
But I know I would not want to be a lifeguard for an event like that. It would be too hard too see everyone.
slower swimmer often have weird behavior and cant swim really straight… i dont think i ever had one rough swim at ironman level other than one person at one occasion…but even hawaii with a few guys around me was a quiet swim…
but the main idea for a weaker swimmer is to swim outside…go in the clear water…you will be faster to swim with a relax stroke and conserve energy than draf in the big group and get hit…until you can swim well in tight formation…start in the outside of the course…
The difficulty of the swim is inversely proportional to your swimming skills and how comfortable you are in the water. Those with marginal swimming skills find the IM mass start “difficult”. Those with good swimming skills understand there will be some contact and just try to minimize it.
Mass swim starts have contact.
This year at IMFL during the swim, a number of people came in contact with my feet while taking their stroke. That to me is incidental contact. What was not incidental contact were the buttheads that hit my feet and than grabbed my ankle and tried to walk themselves over me. And I did pass a guy doing the breast stroke in the middle of the pack. WTF?
If you know you are going to have to do an alternate stroke as your main method of propulsion, you should line up appropiately. Not towards the front.
I expect that after you complete IMLP you will be saying that the swim was not anywhere near as bad/rough as you thought it would be. You’ve already done more than one 1/2IM. i think generally your most difficult open water races are your first ones, it doesn’t matter so much about the number of people. The most there can be around you is one on each side, one in front and one in back. So someone touching your feet, someone whose feet you are touching and two guys bumping shoulders and hips with you. Its just a moderately crowded dance floor. Rock and Roll!
Look forward to it. An ironman swim is a great experience.
