My training group always share news of an extremely handsome guy who swim 10 km in 2 hours - I'm very jealous. I can only do about 5 km in 2 hours - even 3 hours for 10 km seem a very far away to be a realistic target.
I feel discouraged reading such news - the speed difference is so huge - the handsome guy is doing double my speed. What a tremendous amount of training is needed to double the speed?! Moreover, for serious competitions under FINA rule, the cut-off is 30 minutes after the winner - assume that the winner completes in 2 hours, the qualifying time would then be 2 and a half hours - much faster than Boston Qualifier in running, which is the dream of a lot of runners. This is another fact which discourage me.
miklcct, where is your region? I've been involved in open water swimming for more than 50 years (and open water event management for more than 25 years), and I've seen only the highest level FINA or USA-Swimming championships conducted using the 30 min rule. I've NEVER seen a USMS-sanctioned event using this rule, due to the great differences in time between masters age groups. Many longer swims have cut-offs for event management and safety, but these cut-offs are usually reasonable and nowhere near the times of the leaders.
As to your local team, fast teammates are a blessing! Learn from them without being jealous of them.
I'm from South China. We have access to the sea but I can't find any useful information about mass participation OWS events in South China (especially over 5 km) on the web and also in the community.
