I was watching the Women’s Olympic Swim Marathon (10K), and I noted once again that our vaunted IM distance covers a real running marathon, a bike ride of “marathon” proportions, being greater than a century, but not even half a “marathon” swim. While watching REAL distance swimmers, I noticed again that our relative allocations of the three sports seemed overly terrestrial, if not a little wussified.
The IM swim distance is a matter of historical tradition, but is so proportionally short (in all triathlon distances) as to be little more than a weed-out for truly awful swimmers. Being a superior swimmer will never win you squat. Getting out of the water 1/2 hour behind the leaders didn’t keep a buddy of mine from KQing recently. A proportionally slow 8 hour bike split, or a 5 hour marathon split, would have been utterly lethal to his ambitions.
So why not a real marathon swim? 6.2+112+26.2=144.4. Is that so crazy?
This is a rhetorical question; I’m just putting it out there. I–as a former competitive swimmer who always finishes the swim in the top few in my AG–did not lament the end of the IM swim, and couldn’t wait to get out of the chilled yuppie stew and onto the bike, where lifting my head to spot, crashing into others, and dealing with waves/surges all mercifully disappear as problems, to be replaced by how best to sip sugary liquids and dine on the bike. From what I can tell, most of us think open water swims are a pain in the arse, not to mention a source of liability for both racers and whomever puts on the race.
Yet in our current configuration, we’re really only assessing who the best 2.387-sport athletes are, and those of us in the US are neglecting a sport in which US athletes shine.
Just puttin’ it out there; seeing if anyone else just happens to have an opinion. ;-}
Just watching BMX so i’ll play. Some events have had longer swims, people stay away in droves. Aside from that its the swimmers fault that the swim is shore, Yeah you heard me correctly, ;-0, its not the runners or the bikers that are the reason is you, the fish.
The bike is rather short compared to normal biking races, the run is as long as normal running races but the swim is well over 2 times as long as a normal swim race (1500m). Sure now the 10 k is in the olympics, but you have all us runners and bikers that swim a 2.4miles swim in IM races to make “long” swimming legit.
Ironman would again become and exclusive club instead of a hodgepodge of individuals of questionable fitness. (This statement might ruffle some feathers, not meant to insult)
Being a former swimmer I would like to have a longer swim but I don’t know if I would like it if they changed the IM distance. It completely changes the saying ‘you can’t win an IM in the swim but you can lose it.’ If the swim was longer you might be able to win it in the swim.
If WTC decided to make the swim longer I wouldn’t complain.
In order to do this they would have to have some kind of aid station, like we saw in the olympics and they have for all long distance OWS competition’s. It was hard enough for the competitors and there was only 30-40, now imagine even 1000 and the cluster fu#$ you would have.
I’m guessing that is why IM distance is what it is, logistically it would be impossible unless it’s a small event, and your going to pay a large entry fee.
As everyone has said above, its basically that the swim is the most challenging leg and you’ll limit your audience/market if its too tough. Plus, the IM distances are ones which came from the original event where they appropriated the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a lap of Oahu and the Honolulu Marathon. I can respect that but I’d love the swim to be longer - after all most good swimmers will do 3.9km in an average training session but no-one trains 42km a day running.
I know there are longer events out there but FWIW here’s my version of the ultimate long-course triathlon race:
10 km swim (same as Olympic/World Champs marathon swim) 220 km bike (similar to Olympic/World Champs road race). Or - could be shortened to reflect the TT distances at either event but its the length of the bike which makes it pretty epic. 42.2 km Marathon.
I agree a longer swim would be better, but the logistics would make it impossible for a large-scale event to run, let alone attract athletes to. Hence, no profit, and no takers.
Rather than altering the iron distance race, I have thought that a new format with temporally equal (very roughly) legs would be cool. What I would like to see would be a 4(ish)km swim, 40km bike and 14(ish)km run. Each would take roughly an hour for someone skilled over those distances. A novelty prize could also be awarded to whomever has the closest splits between the three.
because the original IM was a compilation of the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 miles), the around Oahu bike race (112 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon 26.2 miles. That’s why. There are no other reasons. If it was 2.8 miles to swim from one end of Waikiki to the other (including the segments to get you away from and into shore) then the IM would likely have a 2.8 mile swim.
I also think it would be great to add a tough swim but imagine the uproar, people want easier races not harder. Also imagine how many posts there would be about water temperatures. We already get them 6 months in advance of races.
I think it would be a great way to lower the number of competitors in races.
Why? Because a longer swim would mean less crowding at the start of the bike course and then less opportunity for drafting.
A lot of people might not like that.
because the original IM was a compilation of the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 miles), the around Oahu bike race (112 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon 26.2 miles. That’s why. There are no other reasons. If it was 2.8 miles to swim from one end of Waikiki to the other (including the segments to get you away from and into shore) then the IM would likely have a 2.8 mile swim.
Funny how often the question gets asked and the answer is so simple as you noted.
I agree a longer swim would be better, but the logistics would make it impossible for a large-scale event to run, let alone attract athletes to. Hence, no profit, and no takers.
I agree that this is the ultimate reason that we’ll probably never see it, and that equilateral triathlons have historically been a tough sell.
How many folks here would actually participate in a IM-ish distance race with a 10K swim? Chime in if you would (and if you’re still following this thread. . .)
How many folks here would actually participate in a IM-ish distance race with a 10K swim? Chime in if you would (and if you’re still following this thread. . .)
I’ll do whatever distance they tell me to do (not pink on purpose)… As long as I can get my m-dot tat when I’m finished.
I’d love to see longer swims… most short tri’s (less than HIM) aren’t even worth getting wet for the swim… not to mention the hassle of getting in and out of a wetsuit!