How to Survive Triathlon Swim Starts: Beach, Deep-water, Pontoon

Most triathlon noobs are nervous (if not straight out terrified) of swimming in open water, and the thought of being mauled, punched, kicked and/or swum over at the mass swim starts, adds a thousandfold to the trepidation. How does one get off to a good swim start? This post covers the types of starts, and what you can do to survive the swim start. Now, I'm most definitely not any expert on triathloning and haven't done any Ironmans or anything like that, but I can claim to having survived a bunch of swim starts :p

Types of Starts

A common start is from the beach, where tri- (or try-) athletes run into the water and keep running until it becomes more efficient to swim, then they start swimming. A few dolphin dives are usually thrown in for good measure, between the run and swim bits. A variation of this is a start in the water, just off the beach. Here, racers are about waist deep and can proceed directly to the business of swimming upon gun start.

Starting in waist deep water at Moraine State Park, Butler YMCA Triathlon 2012.

Deep water starts have the swimmer taking off from a treading water position. You'll see this is Ironman races. And pontoon starts such as seen in the Olympic triathlon events or ITU races, have swimmers dive from a platform. The Port Dickson International Triathlon Sprint had a pontoon start the year I took part.

Triathletes launch off at the pontoon start at the London 2012 Olympics. Photo from london2012.com.

Start Survival Strategy
If you're a total newbie taking part in your virgin triathlon, the best way to have an uneventful (read non-violent) swim start is to hang back and let the crowd go first. If there is a buoy line marking the course and you wish to swim right next to it, you can do that after first letting everyone go first. If you're next to the line and at the front of the start group, you risk getting boxed in and swum over if you don't swim fast enough.

Letting others go first helps avoid water-maulings at triathlon swim starts. Photo by Reza Ali.

For fast swimmers on a beach start, you'll do well to run side-to-side style with your knees high and pulling your foot out of the water. Dive when it is deep enough, then dolphin a few times by pushing off the bottom and launching yourself forward. That will get you ahead of slowpokes (like me) who wade in leisure-like. It's a good idea to do a practice run on the beach where you'll be racing, just so you know how many strides you'll take before dolphining.

The Port Dickson International Triathlon Olympic Distance beach start. Note Hong Kong pro Lee (front) with high knees, feet pulled clear of the water, and side-to-side run stride. Photo by Tey Eng Tiong.

There are a few ways you can execute your pontoon start. Again if you're not fast or if you're nervous in any way, start at the back of the pack. Make sure there's enough clearance in the water so that when you dive (or cannonball) in, you won't land on someone else. For deep water starts, the key is to get from a treading water position into a more horizontal position about 30 secs before the gun start, then use a breast stroke kick to start the swim.

That wraps up today's post. I'll cover sighting and breathing in my next one. (Which is going to be funny, because I have a problem swimming straight myself!).

How did your first swim start go? Any tips for newbies? I LOVE hearing from you. Please leave your comments at the end of the post!

xo Gracie

p.s. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!

PD Swim-Bike-Run 2012, Instalment 1: The Swim

Folks! Here's the much anticipated report of the swim at the 1st PD Swim-Bike-Run held 28 Jan 2012. It's gonna have to be short this time.

If you recall, we were supposed to do loops of 500 m out and 500 m back. The plan was to have the anchor kayak paddle out 500 m and stay put while we swam to it. Thus we could do as many 1 km loops as we so desired. It's 'supposed' to look like Map 1 below...

Map 1: Grace & Kayak on 14 Jan 2012. 500 m out, 500 m back.

Why do I say 'supposed'? Because the Real Route the kayak took (Justin wore the Timex Global Trainer on his wrist) is Map 2 below:

KL-PD-KL Birthday Bike-Run-Swim Triathlon

I Kena Racun! Since I started getting better from chronic illness and more and more involved in triathlons, I've become addicted to any form of physical exertion. And the Ironman, Ultraman and Superman characters whom I hang out with (you know who you are) have further encouraged my current fitness craze. I actually now think that cycling 80 km to Port Dickson, then running and swimming for another hour each, is a GREAT idea! Especially for a birthday celebration!

So when Syerol invited me to this tri birthday bash for himself, Cynthia, Pui San and Rupert, I immediately said yes. Even though I didn't have a bike and therefore couldn't cycle. Nor should I be doing any running (thanks so much plantar fasciitis!). I figured even if I couldn't do it, I could tumpang gembira and cheer on my buddies, and make myself useful. Plus, I looked forward to the swim.

Can Swim Straight?: Port Dickson Open Water Swim and other happenings

Whoa my last post was nearly three weeks ago! It’s been BUSY! I was going to get busy again today with a trail run in FRIM then it started chucking down rain, so I thought I’d dash off a short note here. But first, here's a route map of the PD Open Water Swim that I yak about at the end of the post:

Errr.... I can explain this (see end of post)