Poll on swim wave start order (Page 2)

I like it when the young men are followed by the older men, then the younger and older women. As an older guy, I like racing the fastest women and the slower young guys on the bike course. The women proceed to blow past me on the run, but the bike traffic flow is best for me in this order.

I voted other. Starts should be seeded by projected swim time. Fast to slow. It would guarantee a nice stream of people out of the water and the fast bikers would still have plenty of space to pass folks.

Another point:  If the argument is that starting the supposedly slowest waves first shortens the overall time the course has to be open, I think that can't really be predicted enough to make that a realistic consideration.  At my tri this weekend, only 2 of the 8 slowest participants started in the last two waves (which were F40-44 and F50+), so moving those waves earlier wouldn't really have done much to allow the course to be closed sooner.

I voted to send faster waves first. I think your solution is a better one but not a practical one. I can't imagine a way to "seed" 5000 swimmers. Even if it's a smaller race (but still a large one) like Philly or Columbia I wouldn't think there's an effective way to do it. Would you leave it up to the athlete to be honest? I think many (probably most) would exaggerate their time in order to be in an early wave. Would you leave it up to the RD? Seed 5000 people? or even 1000 or 2000? That seems like a nightmare.

This weekend I was in the last wave of swimmers, but finished 5th overall in the swim.  I wound up swimming over a lot of people accidentally (apologizing profusely), mainly because the water was so dark & murky I didn't see them until I was hitting them.  By the time I finished I was in with people 2 & 3 waves ahead of me.

Even though I was a newbie, it would have been nice to swim with people closer to my own pace.  Not sure how best to accomplish that though.

For me the passing on the bike can be a real pain if everyone gets bunched up on the bike course.

I've never done a huge race, but I have become convinced that I NEVER want to do a pool race because of the seeding problems and getting jammed up. I think seeding would work well in open water, though - if someone exagerates, then they just get swum over a lot, but I think in general it would work itself out without as many problems.

I could see an RD putting on the entry form something like:
"Do the following: 15' wu, 100, 200, 100. Write the time from your second 100 here _______" (or, you know, some workout that would actually make sense)

It would give newbies a lot more guidance than just "Estimate your time." People are gonna overestimate because they are SURE they'll train more before the event, or race adrenaline will make them faster, or whatever. Giving a specific workout at least reduces this somewhat, though obviously doesn't eliminate it.

MIddle of pack   -  MOP
Front of pack  -- FOP
Back of Pack    -- BOP
DNF -- did not finish
FBL-- first in beer line

I believe Rick said it already.. but it's pretty difficult since many AG have either a strong or weak event.  

You can have a FOP swimmer that is a BOP at biking, running or both.   Or relays which usually go last that recruit a very fast swimmer.  or someone that can barely float but will hammer the bike and run course