Ironman Swim question and thought.

robin sarner

Seven ironmans so far.     four with times 60+/-2 minutes.    last two swims 65 minutes.    Last two swims with water inhalation and panic episodes near the start.

1)  My wife is a 75 minutes swimmer.   smoothe.   relaxed.    energy efficient.   with that time she is typically in the middle of the mosh pit for a lot of the swim.       She has some strategies on how to deal with this.     One is, if there is a panic or getting mashed problem, get on your back and swim.      Swimming on your back is better than stopping.   Gets your mouth out of the water for constant breathing.     She happens to be a good backstroke swimmer and can go faster then those around on her back.     So I am going to work on my backstroke myself to have this option for brief use.

2)  Just did Mont-Tremblant.     Like Ironman Canade, clockwise one loop swim.    Rectangular.    Unfortunately Tremblant had no room to spread out in at the start.   If I had not had the panic deal and water inhalation, I might have been able to stay ahead of the mass of mess like I normally do.      Question.      Do the rules allow staying inside the buoys until the turn?    For Tremblant, in other words, ok to stay to the right of the buoys going out as long as you get to the outside of the two far red buoys?    As I understand it, you can go on either side of of general buoys as long as you go around the specific turn buoys.      So after getting mashed at the beginning this last race, did get to the right of the buoys and had open water.   Until having to get back in line for the turn buoys and get around them but things were spread out by then.     So ok to go whereever as long as you go around the turn buoys?

[Deleted User]

I'm pretty sure the rules allow you to go on either side of the buoys, as long as you go around the corner buoys. That was the case at Lake Placid last year - not sure if it is the same at all of the races. And I did just that. I am also about a 75 minute IM swimmer, and somewhat accidentally found myself to the left of the buoys (counter-clockwise swim) shortly after the start of the swim. I could stay just off the cable, and swim in relative calm. And I could see the melee not far from me on the right side of the buoys! It was a bit of a challenge to merge back into the crowd to go around the corner buoys, but not too bad and worth it. I intentionally stayed on the left side for the rest of the swim, and it was great. Planning on doing the same at LP next year.

GMAN 19030

Posted By Jim Daley on 22 Aug 2012 05:12 PM

I'm pretty sure the rules allow you to go on either side of the buoys, as long as you go around the corner buoys. That was the case at Lake Placid last year - not sure if it is the same at all of the races. 

It does depend on the course.  Ironman events that have narrow out & back swim courses like IMTX and Kona do not allow you to go inside the buoy.

Paul Hough

@ Robin - since my panic attack at IMCDA, a key factor in my race selection has been in-water starts or races likely to have 2,000 or fewer starters. Hence, Cozumel (in-water) and Sweden (in-water, 1391 fnishers this year). If Challenge takes over IMC as expected, that's a future possibility because they do wave starts. I think IM Canada set the "record" in 1997 for a mass start with 1550. It's simply gotten out of hand since then. WTC's insistence on a mass start is no longer reasonable with 2500-3000 in some races. Since all the races in Europe have a 15 or 16 hour cut-off, there is no reason why they can't institute wave starts in the U.S. between 7 and 8am. Everyone would get at least 16 hrs. Perhaps with the threat of Challenge coming into their North American turf, WTC will see the light.

tgarson

I'm not sure if it was legal at MT, but I saw plenty of people doing it. In fact I'm pretty sure I was well inside the buoys for a good stretch on the way out trying to escape the sheer madness that was the buoy line. It was marginally better, but still not fantastic because you could only go so far inside the buoy line until you ran into a wall of boats.

I'm a slower swimmer than you, so getting out ahead of the crowds is less doable for me, but I agree with Paul that in-water start races seem to be far more manageable in this department. Even though IMWI is still a ~2500 mass start, it was exceedingly gentle in comparison to the start at IMMT, likely as a result of it being a much wider in-water start.

Lastly, re the water inhalation and general panic, I'm sure I swallowed a little water this year at MT but I'm not sure if backstroking would have done much to help. The worst incidents were when I ran into a complete logjam of swimmers in front of me, prompting the wall of swimmers behind me to start clawing up my back. In that case I simply dropped my legs, kept my head straight up out of the water, tried to sight a clear path left or right and just gunned laterally for patches of open water vs just swimming into the maw of thrashing limbs in front of me.

jhbinsc

I thought it was legal to swim inside buoy until a turn but didn't know about Kona and TX but have not done those races.

Nice race at MT Robin!

tim cronk

Interesting comments about in water starts being less violent I assumed maybe incorrectly that they would be worse.

Also did not know IMTX and KONA required swimming inside buoy line.

Agree with Robin, Trevor and others who have commented about IMMT just brutal swim! I was officially scared!

Christian Rabbat

x4 on scary swim - both start and finish. Even when there was some open water after the second turn, the hoards reappeared in the last 500m, likely funneling into a narrow finish.

This is probably needs confirmation at individual events.

robin sarner

Thanks all.