In this time of limited racing, I decided to put on a challenge that has been out in the open water swim community for almost a decade. The challenge is to swim a 10k “marathon” swim in under 3 hours and then run a marathon in under 3 hours. It’s called the “Sub 3 Squared” and to date, no one has accomplished it back to back. A local triathlete and contributor to this forum, Aaron Thomas, and I have talked about this challenge in the past. He generously sponsored a prize purse for the event. I reached out to some pro triathletes and Lisa Roberts, Justin Daerr and Matt Hanson will see if they can finally put this challenge to rest. We are going to try to do some Facebook live during the event and we hope to have a lot of fun.
What would you need to do a 70.3 or IM swim in to have a reasonable chance of completing 10k in under 3 hours? The run for me wouldn’t be an issue if I was in proper race shape, but I have no frame of reference for how long a 10k swim would take me. All my open water swims are generally measured in 1.9k or 3.8k increments!
Shouldn’t be hard at all for a pro triathlete. The only question is do they want to give up a week or two thanks to the run. I suspect that the fueling during the swim would be the hard part for non-pros.
It works out to about 2:00/100M to go 3 hours, but that’s also open water and for 10,000M. My guess is if you can swim sub 1:05 for an Ironman swim, you can probably swim sub 3 for a 10k. But all dependent on conditions and training for the event.
Every athlete will have their own kayaker, so fueling isn’t that big of an issue.
I think the pros will be able to do it and I think they are going to be a little surprised what their run legs feel like after a 10k swim.
It works out to about 2:00/100M to go 3 hours, but that’s also open water and for 10,000M. My guess is if you can swim sub 1:05 for an Ironman swim, you can probably swim sub 3 for a 10k. But all dependent on conditions and training for the event.
Every athlete will have their own kayaker, so fueling isn’t that big of an issue.
I think the pros will be able to do it and I think they are going to be a little surprised what their run legs feel like after a 10k swim.
Tim
2:00/100M for 3 hours will lead to 3:20 marathon swim - still 20 minutes over the target.
My real question here. How long should I expect in order to train my speed from 4 hours 10 km to 3 hours 10 km swim?
The open water swimming community doesn’t like wetsuits. I’m going to go by FINA open water wetsuit standards.
Tim
So the swim leg is cancelled if the water is under 16C ? Think that’s the min temp under FINA rules for 10ks.
Very Ironman cancelling the swim when the water is too wet 🤣
There needs to be a standard, otherwise athletes’ health can get put at risk. And if you were ever in charge of an Ironman swim course, you’d understand why Ironman is conservative around swim conditions.
I’m about 8 hrs from there (driving). I’d be interested next year if the pandemic is over. The sub-3 run wouldn’t happen for me, but I could have some fun in the swim
