Swimming Question

It depends.  Some races have in-water starts, some have out-of-water starts.  Generally with lakes/rivers, they have an in-water start where you tread water for a couple minutes before the gun goes off, then it's pandemonium.  If you're in the middle of the group, you will get bumped, kicked and hit, but its not on purpose, its just incidental contact.  If you want to avoid it, set yourself to the back and to the side and let the pack go.  There's no rules against waiting for 30 seconds for the group to go which some beginners do so they don't get mixed in with the churn.

If its an out-of-water start (usually reserved for ocean swims), you stand behind a line, and when the gun goes off, everyone runs into the water like its Baywatch, high stepping the waves then dolphin swims until you get out past the surf.

Thanks for the replies, I will just have to see how it is setup/organized for the lake swim.

My pool swim is 6 lanes with 2 to a lane.