Open Water swimming is sick. It’s definately in a league of its own.
How many people are keen on watching/following this?
How many triathletes out there would go enter an open-water swim race?
- going to watch for sure.
- I’m looking at racing a few OW events after IMKY.
Although, I’ve been a swimmer for a while so my enthusiasm for the water is more than likely a bit higher than most. Especially the open water
A bunch of us drove down to Cupertino last weekend for the Catfish Open Water Swim. Chloe was there. They had a 1.2 mile race followed by a 2.4 mile race (20 min btween the events). She did both. She won the 1.2 in 22 min. I never heard about the 2.4 as I was probably still in the water as she was driving home.
I think I need to start entering OW swim events to lower my swim splits. I’ve been thinking about a post you made that triathletes can benefit from doing more single sport events…
Sutton won her first senior international title when she was 14. She’s been somewhat inconsistent since then, but when she’s at her best, she’s very impressive. She’s won a couple of Tiburon Miles by hanging with the big names in the men’s pack.
I got lapped by Chloe at the Catfish. She was awesome to watch.
Love the open water swims. There are plenty in the Bay Area, although most of them are 1.5 miles or less. I’d like to see more 2-4 mile race options.
I think I need to start entering OW swim events to lower my swim splits. I’ve been thinking about a post you made that triathletes can benefit from doing more single sport events…
I agree with you in the general sense. I see a decent number of triathletes doing running races. A few triathletes doing cycling races - TT’s and road races, but I hear of very few who do open-water swimming races, so that is why I was asking.
I’ve known a few (myself included) - but usually they are people who were swimmers first, and then became triathletes. I was doing open water swims before I ever bought a bike. A lot of triathletes I know hate/fear the swim, so they’d have no desire to do an OW swim for fun.
Plus most open water swims put have separate divisions for wetsuits, and if you wear one it doesn’t count towards the overall or age group standings. I know some triathletes who refuse to step in a lake without a wetsuit, so that drives them off also.
This is the current swim rules. At there next meeting there year, they have a proposal to change their approach and attitude about wet suits.
Shall be interesting to see what happens.
Dave
My GF is going to Harbor Springs Michigan on Aug 2 to do a 10K swim. I’m just a little concerned about the water temp.
jaretj
I’m psyched to watch the OW events at the Olympics. They have rough-housing penalties so you know this is nothing like pool swimming!
I’ve done one OW race a year for the past three. We’re lucky to have a great open water swim organization here, VOWSA (Vancouver Open Water Swim Association), putting on three races in the summer as well as weekly ocean swims. The Canada Day race (1km, 2km & 4km) has always had a lot of triathletes and apparently the Kitsilano Challenge last weekend had its fair share too.
It’ll be interesting to see if there’s more interest next year after the Olympics. If a Canadian medals (I have no idea who the contenders are) it’ll get a lot of press here and we should see more people interested in competing.
I hope that she does well. How is she training for this. Also will she take in any nutrition on the swim and if so where and how? This is something that I would love to try, but the shear volume of it seems daunting. I have done a dozen or so 10 k work outs...but i have always had water bottles and stuff like that on the pool deck. Obviously this is not an option in an open water race.
How many people are keen on watching/following this?
How many triathletes out there would go enter an open-water swim race?
On both accounts, I will!
I actually got into triathlong through a now defunct OWS race series here in NC. While there, I over heard some other athletes talking about the local tri series, and ended up signing up for one later that summer. It’s too bad there aren’t more OWS races around here.
I’m definitely interested in watching it, and have been excited for the opportunity (however little of it NBC decides to show) since it was announced as an olympic event.
I find it very intriguing, mostly because it’s such an unknown sport (to me). IM swimming has gotten me intersted, and impressed, by what some of the OW swimmers can do.
I’m really excited to see it in the Olympics and there are usually 3 open water swim races on my calendar for a year. I’m a fish, but gaining speed on land.
Yeah, I heard about this and can’t wait to see it. Sounds amazing! I hope the media will cover it though.
i believe there are “feed zones” in many 10k swims, at least at the elite level. supposedly one of the mistakes grant hackett made when trying to make the aus open water team was not stopping to drink. there’s a great “how to” website with tons of info at www.10kswim.com
cool site. This sounds alot like a bicycle road race in terms of tactics.
I like the pic of the guys with 2 gels sticking out of their suits and the comment they have 2 just in case one gets lost.
This brings up an interesting question, if a triathlete were to do a 10 k open water swim, how many gels would he or she take with?
yeah mark warkentin (USA qualifier) said that Hackett skipped the feed zone. They also eat gels and stuff too. Its going to be epic at the olympics