rpm1418 - 2008-06-19 7:23 AM
As a co-race director of a new Tri this year one thing we thought about was making the swim longer than ¼ mile, but to get the most people to participate in a first time tri you need a swim distance that they think they can do. I know many first timers signing up for our event because they can handle the swim distance. The swim is probably the most feared leg of the triathlon for beginners, if we were to make the swim 1 mile or 1500M our entries would drop to half. When we get our race more establish I would like to make an equalizer race which I think would consist of a 2 mile swim, 40k bike and a 15k Run.
An equilizer race sounds so awesome! I love to swim
They should make triathlon swim distances longer.
I belive there should be a shorter swim in each triathlon distance for people who don't feel very comfortable in the water. For stronger swimmers, however, there should be a longer distance swim. They should have this option in each race distance.
My idea:
Sprint distance: 1/4 mile, 1 mile , and 2 mile swim options
Olympic: 1 mile, 2 mile, and 3 mile swim options
1/2 IM: 1.2, 3 mile, and 4 mile swim options
IM: 2.4, 5, and 6 mile swim options
Maybe longer swims even...
For whatever swim distance you choose, the other legs of the triathlon would be proportionatly longer or shorter.
This might have prompting to lenghten the bike leg or run leg in proportion to the other distamces by stronger bicyclists and runners
(i.e. a marathon runner wants a 10 mile run for a sprint distance triathlon
). Wow! That would get confusing. maybe we should just keep things the way they are, or have more equilaizer races?
Edited by amyro1234 2008-06-19 9:49 AM