I’ll never forget wading into the water for my first Ironman in St. George Utah in 2010. It was a traditional mass start, in the full ironman tradition. The water was cold, in fact, it had been measured as low as 52 degrees in the middle of the Sand Hollow Reservoir. The cold water caused the athletes to wait until the last possible moment to enter the water. I still put myself about 10 yards behind starting line, and because of the tentative nature of many of the athletes that day, got to experience a mass ironman start without most of the resultant chaos. Three years later, at Ironman New Zealand, I put myself on the front line, albeit off to the left. There were athletes on both sides of me. I’ll never forget that experience. I’d done many triathlons where I’d had other athletes swim over me. I usually just let it happen. On this one occasion, something clicked. After the gun went off, I started swimming as hard as I could. (here’s a quote from my race report: "I made sure that I was horizontal when the gun went off, that is key, and I took off as hard as I could, bodies flying everywhere, trying to go over me, around me, whatever. But today, I’ll have none of it...I keep my head up and keep my elbows up and I make my way forward without getting hit today.” I remember athletes on both sides of me trying to swim over me. Instead of letting them succeed, and getting pushed back even further by the rush of swimmers behind me, I did something that I’d never done before. I put my hands on their shoulders and pushed myself further ahead of them. More importantly, I was able to keep swimming and hold my position! Aside from the downhill swims at Ironman Chattanooga, that was my fastest Ironman swim ever (1:08 if you’re interested).
Almost every Ironman now has a “rolling swim start,” where athletes seed themselves into groups based on their expected swim times. It’s generally safer than the mass start, but far less iconic, and makes it hard to compare where one is in relation to their age group competitors. With that in mind, I’d probably lean towards age group mass starts instead, but that’s another discussion. I’ve been in an interested position the last few years when it comes to seeding myself for the swim. Until a few years ago, my typical ironman swim time was in the range of 1:10-1:14. My swim training diminished and my swim times gradually increased, so I never really knew where to position myself. I also don’t like starting too late for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to reduce the amount of time spent in the heat of the day. Also, the further back one starts, the less chance to briefly draft off faster cyclists as they pass you. In fact, at Boulder, I seeded myself at the front of the 1:10-1:20 group, which wasn’t far off. I never had anyone swimming over me, and seemed to stay with a similar group of people throughout the swim. It also gave me the opportunity to draft off of slower swimmers who are faster cyclists than I am, which I actually took advantage of to some degree during the bike leg.
That brings me to the Santa Rosa 70.3. I’ve been reading the race reports from previous years and it’s a race with a lot of participants! This can lead to a pretty crowded bike leg. There’s certainly one way to guard against this, and that’s to start earlier on the swim. My recent swim training has increased my confidence in this regard, and reviewing my New Zealand race report was a first step in my mental preparation. If I’m going to seed myself in one of the early swim groups. I need to be prepared to swim hard and to have people trying to swim past, or over, me. On the other hand, I’m familiar with the course, and it wouldn’t be too hard to swim a little wide initially if necessary.
My swim in the pool yesterday would probably translate to a 34-35 minute half ironman swim. That’s pretty much what I used to do! My swim fitness and recent data would attest to the fact that I should be able to do “at least” that! I’ve got 4 1/2 weeks to get faster, and I also have some time to work on my swim form in my wetsuit. I actually think that I’m not benefitting from a wetsuit right now with my new two beat kick, and need to figure out what to do about that.
I’m pretty sure that the rolling half ironman swim groups start with 25-29 minutes, followed by 30-34 minutes. I’m tempted to go in the back of the first group. I’m very confident with my ability to have a good bike split, and am actually planning to go hard on the bike. I relish the thought of better cyclists who don’t swim well passing me. It will give me the opportunity to draft off of them for 10-15 seconds before settling back to the requisite 7 meters behind them, which is still in their draft. At Boulder, I followed one guy for several minutes this way, and passed several other people during that stretch.
I also recently wrote about the controversy over the swim start at Kona. Whatever it ends up being, I want to swim well there. I’m setting the bar high for my swim. Santa Rosa will be a great opportunity to see where I’m at!
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