Colonies Zone SCY Championships - Fairfax VA

I just looked at the meet info for kicks...today is Feb. 2nd, just opened registration 2 days ago, and already the distance events are filled up!! INSANE!!! 48 1650s and 80 1000s already! I'm glad I don't live in an area of the country that has that much demand to get a mile swim done. But it sucks for those folks over there who really want to get a swim in and now can't!

I just looked at the meet info for kicks...today is Feb. 2nd, just opened registration 2 days ago, and already the distance events are filled up!! INSANE!!! 48 1650s and 80 1000s already! I'm glad I don't live in an area of the country that has that much demand to get a mile swim done. But it sucks for those folks over there who really want to get a swim in and now can't! It's all the triathletes, especially Team Z, that register right away and take all the spots from masters swimmers. And they only swim Friday and skip the rest of the meet.

It's all the triathletes, especially Team Z, that register right away and take all the spots from masters swimmers. And they only swim Friday and skip the rest of the meet. I noticed an unusually large quantity of folks in the meet distance events, and the numbers just didn't correspond with the other normal events at all. I figured it was a bunch of "one hit wonders". :)

I swim out of the Niagara LSMC with the BUMS but live in Savannah. I have noticed some of the meets I go to down here charge a meet fee only, no event fees, which being from up north I was not used to that at all. But the Colony Zone SCY event organizers might want to look at this in the future. Right now it costs $25 to swim Friday nite distance day but charge a meet fee of $45 and they might think twice before they sign up and if they do the event will at least get a little more revenue out of them. I was planning on attending this meet (and swimming 3 days) on my way up to NY to prep my sailboat for the summer but without the 1650/1000 free being available I'll be skipping this one. Now its an Austin, TX meet in April (and do the annual family trip early) or the Nat's in May (which interferes with sailing). To me it looks like someone could organize a distance only event in this area and make some money for a club.

I'm all for expanding the sport, and getting triathletes involved is part of that. But yes as far as I can tell, it sold out in an hour or two. In future years, hopefully they will figure out a way to open it up for people with some sort of qualifying swims. Maybe if you have a 500 or longer usms swim in the last year you get to signup in week 1, everyone else is week 2. This is how they do it for the Boston Marathon (or a system like it) and might work here, particularly since this is the colonies zone championships. On one hand allowing dedicated masters swimmers to sign up and also allowing some new swimmers to get in as well.

I see no reason why Team Z couldn't host their own distance meet. ...other than the work involved, you mean? Sorry for being snarky; after some time in planning LCM zones -- I'm co-directing with my wife (the marriage is still surviving...for the time being) -- I've come to realize that it isn't like rolling off a log.

...other than the work involved, you mean? Sorry for being snarky; after some time in planning LCM zones -- I'm co-directing with my wife (the marriage is still surviving...for the time being) -- I've come to realize that it isn't like rolling off a log. I can't even imagine how much work is involved. And I thank you in advance for Zones. My daughter and I plan to attend. Should Team Z just let other people do all the work when they plan to swim in a pool? If they think these swims are of value for their triathletes, they could organize one once in a blue moon. Another problem seems to be that some athletes entered at crazy times like 1 hour 45 min for the 1000 ...

Fort must have been planning on doing a split request for the 25 fly, using the rest of the 1000 as a warm-down. That would explain why she is upset that the event is already filled. :) Nah, I was merely commenting at the outset that Team Z had filled the spots. Much as I love my split requests, I would never take a spot from a dedicated distance swimmer. Plus, I am not entirely sure I could actually complete that many consecutive lengths ... without being DQ'd for boredom anyway.

Fort must have been planning on doing a split request for the 25 fly, using the rest of the 1000 as a warm-down. That would explain why she is upset that the event is already filled. :)

I'm all for expanding the sport, and getting triathletes involved is part of that. But yes as far as I can tell, it sold out in an hour or two. In future years, hopefully they will figure out a way to open it up for people with some sort of qualifying swims. Maybe if you have a 500 or longer usms swim in the last year you get to signup in week 1, everyone else is week 2. This is how they do it for the Boston Marathon (or a system like it) and might work here, particularly since this is the colonies zone championships. On one hand allowing dedicated masters swimmers to sign up and also allowing some new swimmers to get in as well. For Nationals that is sort of what we do to help with the meet timeline (qual times). That would certainly add an administrative layer of work to a Zone meet to go that route, though. I can see why it is much more straightforward to simply limit the number of entries per event if you know how many heats you can accommodate - it cuts right to the chase and fills your meet just the way you want. And after all, picking a Qual time doesn't always work and could really bite you if you your timeline is a concern and you missed the mark with your cuts. Anyway, what is more fair in life than first come first served if the meet was announced to all in advance? It's not like the meet was announced only to one team. I am helping with a meet this year and we plan to enforce an entry cap (if we get to that limit). Hopefully we settle out just below the cap and it isn't an issue. We set the number lower than last year, but above just about every other year so it is anybody's guess what will happen. If we should reach that limit, I'm sure there will be some unhappy swimmers who want to swim but what can you do? It's sort of the same thing at Nationals when somebody realizes the day after the entry deadline that they forgot to enter. Neither method (first come first served, entry deadline) discriminates against anybody. It's all the triathletes, especially Team Z, that register right away and take all the spots from masters swimmers. I just checked and they all are in fact registered USMS swimmers.