Swim Start Chaos

This post is inspired by Sarah, who completed Ironman Coeur d'Alene last weekend!  Her statement pretty much sums up what my teammates said about their swims last weekend, too! 

"I was punched, groped, dunked, crawled over, swam under, and I even ended up with someone else's toes in my mouth. "

I assume more people would be taking up triathlons if they weren't afraid of swimming.  Most people can handle a bike and run/walk without a major training effort.  But they are not comfortable swimming or have fears about the open water swim.  I'm fortunate that I swam for a couple years in high school and that I spent my summers boating around the Columbia River so I'm not afraid of murky water or being unable to see the bottom.

However, one of the things that I never gave any thought to prior to my first event was the chaos of a swim start.  Whether you have a mass beach start, deep water start, jump off the dock/boat start, or go in waves, it is always chaos.  The question is how much and for how long....

A beach start at IMC

Deep water start in AZ

Ribs get kicked.  Lots of feet get tickled.  Someone pushes you right as you breathe, resulting in a mouthful of water.  It's a full contact sport for some people!  I saw one guy in Canada riding his bike and later running the marathon with a sponge taped to his eye from getting kicked in the swim.  Nick was elbowed and his contact lens knocked out at Wildflower.  He literally put someone else's contact in his eye so he could finish the bike and run (ewwwww, but I guess if you can barely see you'll do anything).   Often times, it is so congested at the buoy turns, you just have to paddle your way through before you can go horizontal again.

A few months ago, I learned how to roll over people, in case of getting stuck in a pack and needing to get out.  But, when it was my turn for someone to roll over me, it was very uncomfortable and I couldn't help but slightly panic at the thought of drowning.  Right now, I'm feeling really fortunate that Vineman is such a small venue and that IMAZ is a very wide deep water start.  Because I'd gladly take someone else's toes in my mouth over getting dunked or rolled over!