Are Triathletes worth the dues they pay toward Masters Swimming?
I say we force all Triathletes to spend one day a week in the sprint lane, one day a week doing stroke (i.e. IM) work, and then make them focus on their starts and turns.
This invasion needs to be controlled.... :-)
John Smith
:)
Parents
Former Member
It is amazing to think that so many people will show up for a Tri event when our Nats have about 1000 .I do think it is a totally different mentality for most of them. How many people go to Nats just to say they went to
Nats,but I suspect many people do Tri's just to have done them. (If you find a Tri that consists of 50,100 and 200 BR I'll definitely want to go.)
I actually mulled over the idea of doing exactly that, for the excuse to travel among other things. But I just can't wrap my mind around traveling hundreds of miles (and spending a fair amount of time and money) to participate for less than a minute in events I have absolutely zero chance of placing in. And what would I get to say after the fact? "Woo, I swam 50m!! and came dead last." Almost anyone could do that.
A typical triathlon I can understand: You get to take part for hours; and if you're in any kind of decent shape, you might well not be the last to finish because there are hundreds of others just participating in order to complete. :dunno:
It's not true of everyone obviously, but enough people seem to take swim meets very seriously for them to be too intimidating, I think, for much of the less-than gifted to participate. And that's probably for the best. I don't think serious masters athletes would want thousands of swimmers of my calibre to clog up the parking lots and change rooms, and otherwise get in the way to make those annoyingly endless meets last *even* longer.
It is amazing to think that so many people will show up for a Tri event when our Nats have about 1000 .I do think it is a totally different mentality for most of them. How many people go to Nats just to say they went to
Nats,but I suspect many people do Tri's just to have done them. (If you find a Tri that consists of 50,100 and 200 BR I'll definitely want to go.)
I actually mulled over the idea of doing exactly that, for the excuse to travel among other things. But I just can't wrap my mind around traveling hundreds of miles (and spending a fair amount of time and money) to participate for less than a minute in events I have absolutely zero chance of placing in. And what would I get to say after the fact? "Woo, I swam 50m!! and came dead last." Almost anyone could do that.
A typical triathlon I can understand: You get to take part for hours; and if you're in any kind of decent shape, you might well not be the last to finish because there are hundreds of others just participating in order to complete. :dunno:
It's not true of everyone obviously, but enough people seem to take swim meets very seriously for them to be too intimidating, I think, for much of the less-than gifted to participate. And that's probably for the best. I don't think serious masters athletes would want thousands of swimmers of my calibre to clog up the parking lots and change rooms, and otherwise get in the way to make those annoyingly endless meets last *even* longer.
