I stop buy the local TT today and run into a guy I know. Strong Cat 1 and used to run a 31 - 10K. His new GF is into tri so she talks him into doing an Oly. The guy does not swim well and said he just did his first 1 mile swim and it scared him - ha. So I offer up the advice of starting in the back of the wave to be more comfortable and get a rythym. He says he got the opposite advice and the faster swimmers would just go around him and that would give him an advantage over the other weaker swimmers. I just say well you’ll more likely get pummelled depending on how many are out there and might be easier to get a rythym if start further back not wanting to really argue much. I tried that a few years ago and it was a bad experience. IMO it is just rude to the faster swimmers and more likely for you to panic if you are not used to swimming with others. Swim starts can get kind of rough. Just curious, can anyone else think of some good reasons to start in front if you are a total beginner?
If you like pain, getting pummeled and your goggles knocked off your face, go for it.
don’t start in the front. you will only get in the way and possibly hurt others and yourself.
how many entrants does the race have? If it’s only 300-400 hundred there will not be that many fast swimmers (sub 20:00 in my mind) there. He could start about half way back or better yet have him start to the side of the pack opposite the first turn. ie if it is a L turn around the first swim can people stack up on the left so have him start to the right.
Please don’t start in the front. Would you line up for a local 5/10K on the front line if you were a 9 min/mile kind of guy? It is just plain inconsiderate and wrong. I just have to swim over the top of him if he gets in my way and I am sure he would rather not have that experience.
If your friend must start at the front for whatever perceived reason, at least advise him to start way, and I mean WAY, off to one side. It’s a longer line to the end/turn than straight on, but it’ll keep him out of the way, for his own sake and for the sake of the fishies.
PS-I start WAY off to the right AND WAY towards the back. As a sh!^ swimmer I can’t ever be too far out of the way.
Just curious, can anyone else think of some good reasons to start in front if you are a total beginner?
Not really. Swimming’s my thing so I’m at the front of the swim wave and while its certainly better than the middle of the pack, it is not somewhere you’d want to be (or could be for that matter) if you’re a beginner who can’t swim well.
First off, anyone who can swim well has the same idea, get to the front and out of traffic, so the good swimmers all sprint at the beginning of a tri swim. Its kind of a madhouse in the front for the first 100m or so. No matter how fast a newbie swims, unless he/she has some serious swimming background, they’ll be swallowed by the pack within seconds so the plan is pointless. And, most of the folks at the front are still tri swimmers, which means even though they can go kinda fast, they can’t swim straight. So, being at the front just means the idiots who run into you are going faster, are swinging their arms harder and kicking harder, and they are more likely to swim right over you without pitty since they are in a hurry.
Agree totally with STP. The only beginner triathletes that should be in the first row of the swim are the ones that used to swim competitively. If the water where you are is like it is in most Michigan lakes, a fast swimmer might not even see a slow swimmer in front of them before swimming over him.
Well he’s pretty damned cocky, so I was thinking of not saying much else and let him listen to whoever gave bad advice and learn on his own. Susect it is the new GF so did not want to get into a pissing match. Seemed like a no brainer - I just could not fathom why someone would think it was a good idea and wanted to see if someone else out there had a different perspective that I was missing - the great thing about this forum is that everyone has opinions!
If the one mile swim scared him, he wont like being hammered and swam over by the fish. I learned my lesson many years ago. I just save the energy and pass the them on the bike. As a cat 1, so will he. It will be much more satisfying.