Cause Triathletes cannot swim and Race Directors want to grow their races and get money so they favor it towards the so called Triathletes we have today which are floaters, bikers, and joggers instead of swimmers, cyclists, and runners.
SHouldn’t it be more like this …Trahletes we have today are Sinkers with personal floatation bodysuits, bikers and joggers…
Yeah… but everyone on this forum is a-type anal triathlete that like to make things overly-complex.
I say everyone shut and race!
If they want a different distance, stop bitching and become an RD!
See how many people show up instead of hypothesizing about it on a forum!
I applaud the 101 people.
They had the balls to put together a racing series of the relatively unknown middle-long distance that is only popular in Europe at the moment.
I would like to see more RD’s make the race FIT THE COURSE instead of some arbitrary set distances.
For example, if a loop of the lake is 33km… make the race that distance… or 66km… or whatever…
If you make a good race… people will come. Oh wait… if you MARKET your race properly… people will come.
Just about anyone who can (and is willing to) run. 12k is like 7.5 miles. Nothing special here at all and I am guessing that is around 8:00 pace or close to it.
I think generally the race does fit the course. The exception being IM or even 1/2 IM where the distance has to be what it is. All of the short races I do seem to follow your suggestion.
8:00 min pace is easy for a lot of people on here, true. Many on ST would scoff at running that slow. But “most people” can’t walk 7.5 miles, not to mention run it.
Cause Triathletes cannot swim and Race Directors want to grow their races and get money so they favor it towards the so called Triathletes we have today which are floaters, bikers, and joggers instead of swimmers, cyclists, and runners.
SHouldn’t it be more like this …Trahletes we have today are Sinkers with personal floatation bodysuits, bikers and joggers…
I’ve never been to a triathlon won by an average runner. Average swimmer, yes. But average runner, no.
The run is still pretty darned important.
Exactly far to much time and effort spent on the run and bike and not near enough on the swim. No one ever won a Tri because of thier swim, they might loose a race but no won it.
I thought we were talking about people who race…
Of course 1600 meters is just a little floating…
Not really – this is about the third thread on this issue this week. And before you pummel me, I am the one that posted the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim thread. Go look and see how many views it got. There is your answer. Best.
ah hah, it took me a little bit to figure out who you were, this is Jason Difani right? I’m telling you, if you were to spend as much time on the bike as I’ve spent trying to learn how to swim fast the past few years, you would have crushed me this past weekend…
Really though, how many swim meets have distances longer than 1500m or 1650yds? Sure there are open water swim competitions longer than that, but the “common” swimming distances don’t go above 1500m or 1650yds… Course, someone is going to bring up some competition with longer distances… But it would appear to me that anything over a mile in swimming is kind of in the realm of “ultra running” or “doing a century” in cycling.
I have no complaints with this BTW. I would love to see more races that give some respect to swimmers, but for the good of the sport I am fine with what we have, and you have to start out somewhere and if that means triathlons that cater to floaters, or bikers, or joggers, sobeit. (would still be nice to see more races though etc… etc… etc… 
Being US native, I guess hardly anyone is really a cyclists at a young age. I like many other kids rode my BMX around and Mountain biked quite a bit when I got older, but never had any inclination to get on a road bike until I moved to Missouri where there wasn’t miles and miles of single track at my disposal. Cycling seems like it was the easiest to pick up. Working out with cycling teams helps and over the years I finally feel I can hold my own.
I have worked a long time on my running. Still not great, aside from a Rugby and Soccer background I didn’t run. It’s these runners that I want payback with. You know the guys that pop off sub 5:30’s in a 10K regardless of terrain. When they are getting 15-30 seconds on you per mile it hurts. I want to hurt them as much as possible in the swim.
Jason, your at where I was 4 years ago. Actually your much better off… My first rec-plex swim split wasn’t much slower then it was last week, but my bike and run were 30 minutes faster…
You can make significant gains on the bike rather quickly if you put the time in. Run as well, but not to the extent of the bike.
Shhh… we have to compete against him!!
In full disclosure, jd100 had the top overall swim at a tri in St. Louis on Sunday, j3ckyl had the 3rd fastest… I was 35th in the swim… 
This is the reason they both want longer swims and I would prefer shorter!
heh, I should add the the 2nd out of the water was a female elite who is training at Boulder with the National Team. Got me by 1 second 
On What Tony said though. Jason you should give up and stick to swimming. Hours of Biking and Running are worthless and you’ll never beat the like of us regardless of how much time you put into it. (Am I over doing it a bit?)
-“12k in an hour is very easy for most people.”
-
- Not for swimmers!!
For those ones that run it is. But that brings up an excellent point. All this talk about making the distances equal time is a bunch of crap. No real swimmer likes to run, and even though the longer distance might suit them in the swim- they would still not show up because the run would kill them.
I am still trying to imagine doing a 4000m swim, 40k bike, and a 10 mile run at LT. Yeah right. In the end that 40k bike and 10 mile run may be more like 1.5 hours each- and the "distances (time) would still not be what swimmers would want.
For those ones that run it is. But that brings up an excellent point. All this talk about making the distances equal time is a bunch of crap. No real swimmer likes to run, and even though the longer distance might suit them in the swim- they would still not show up because the run would kill them.
I guess you missed the thousands of posts on St from all the cyclist and runners asking how to swim and why they suck so bad. And all of the complaining about how the swim is to hard. Last I checked these folks hate swimming as much as us swimmers hate running. So it if it sucks for one crowd make it suck for all crowds and make is suck evenly.
I didn’t miss the posts. This forum is littered with thousands of posts by people who want to know why they can’t swim. It usually goes something like this "I have no idea why I can’t swim (or swim fast). I am doing all the TI stuff and am averaging 3x45 minutes in the pool each week… I am sort of in this group, except for I know why I can’t swim well and it’s the same reason someswimmers can’t run or bike well. It’s simply because I don’t do it enough.
Still, just because it sucks for one crowd doesn’t mean it would suck for everyone. It’s all a moot point though because to put on such a race would be a real problem, the least of which is that it probably wouldn’t be financially possible due to the low turn out. Count me in though. As someone who will concede at least 10-15 minutes on the swim it would be worth it to see all the real swimmers struggling on the bike and run :). BTW- I can’t think of anything worse than swimming 4000m and then trying to rip off a 40k bike in an hour and then a 1 hour 10 mile run. I just don’t see that happening anytime soon. Not from me any ways :(.
.