Swimming: what's an average time for 400m open water swim? I'm competing in my 1st triathlon thi

Check out last years results from the same race and see what the people in your AG did.

Well, this one is tough...are you wearing a wet suit?
I would say the best swimmers in my club do this in 4:30-5 minutes. I'm about a 6-7 minute average...the new swimmers take about 10-14 minutes. I'm faster with the wet suit.

What is more important is your sighting, staying calm and keeping your goggles from getting knocked off. Otherwise go kick some open water booty. you will be a stonger swimmer on the other side of this race with all the confidence you gain! Good Luck!

I did. It's not broken down by event, only finish time for the race.

I have never done a 400m open water swim specifically, but when my goal was "not drowning" I did a 400y pool swim in about 8:30. However, as I learned from doing my first open water swim a few weeks ago, going in a straight line is much harder in open water than in the pool.

Unfortunately your time is largely dependant on your level of fitness, but if you can manage to stay on course, your open water time should not be significantly different from your pool swim time over such a short distance.

Just my 2 cents...

Thank you.

Remember to use the breast stroke for sighting. That way you can keep going forward while taking a breather and getting your bearings.

if you are nervous swimming close to others, give the pack a 5 - 10 second head start and swim to the outside of the group. I do this for every race and find that I'm not fighting people for space so I save energy for the rest of the race.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Edited by jeanneroth 2006-09-05 1:06 PM