In-water starts

You hang out behind some kind of start line marker and tread water until the gun sounds, and then try not to get killed as all those vertical bodies suddenly become horizontal .

See this picture from my album to get an idea of what it looks like at Lake Placid: http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/show-album.asp?albumid=9508&photoid=75590

Edited by Maine Rob 2009-10-01 5:41 AM

I'm surprised Cozumel isn't a mass beach start- guess the beach isn't big enough to fit everyone?  Not sure how I feel about having to tread water without a wetsuit. I hope I don't tire out too soon before the swim even starts

You'll float like a cork in the salt water.  IM mass start is a right of passage.  Good luck!

Ok, Maine Rob's picture makes me down right queasy.
 I had a in-water standing start with only about 200 people for my 1st IM, followed by a down right relaxing swim. I'm in for IMMoo and I don't know whether to ban myself from looking at the scary pictures/video of people at the swim start or try to look at them more to "de-sensitize". All my HIM had beach starts, which I guess has it's own problems.

See all those people around the edge of the water in Rod's picture?  There were easily 1,000 people who were not even in the water when the gun went off and were hanging around on the beach and the rocks around the edge.  I started about 6 or 7 rows back right in the middle.  Figured, if I'm gonna get beat up, might as well have at it!

And LP was an absolute slug fest compared to FL.  My FL swim was downright tame.

Oh, and that was the dryest part of the day during the LP race that year.

Edited by Daremo 2009-10-01 9:54 AM

I actually had a "mass start swim practice" with my friends. About a 1-2 dozen friends came and all swam right around me bumping into me, grabbing, splashing, kicking etc. for about 30-45 min. We would just start and swim 50-70 meters in the lake with all of them surrounding me, and then we would do it over again. The mass start at IMMoo was actually much easier than the "practice." I was, however, back and off to the side in Wisconsin as I'm a BOPer.

Yeah, you don't have to actually be "in" the water in an in water IM start (at least the ones I've seen).   You can wait on shore if you like

FYI - this year I started very near the shore on the right side, and kept wide throughout the swim and had no issues with slugfests.

In mass IM swim starts I only received a black eye in 1 out of 4 of them.

The 2 others I have done were large waves.

I started about 2/3 of the way over from the dock in picture^^^, 2nd row of people, and had virtually zero issues getting beat up.  Swimming in close quarters, yes.  I took it out fast and am also not afraid.  But if you are, as Rick said, lots of people wait on the shore line.  In 90-120 seconds, the masses will be a good 100 yds down the lake.