having just recently competed in the 2nd annual lake quassapaug open water festival, i can honestly say that stage racing has become my favorite way to kill a day (or a week).
i will be heading out to austin in october to participate in the highland lakes monster challenge....5 lakes in 5 days.
not to limit the pleasure of such a format to open water, i think there are tremendous possibilities for adding such challenges to the standard pool racing format.
here are a few suggestions:
50 of each stroke and the 100 im
100 of each stroke and the 200 im
200 of each stroke and the 400 im
1000, 1650 and 400 im
etc.
to clarify, each participant would be scored by their combined time.
Here in WA state, they do a SCM pentathlon meet. They have a sprint (50's + 100IM), middle distance (100's + 200IM) and monster division (200's + 400IM), with an added brute division (200 Fly, 400IM and 1500 free). Its a good format, but tends to be too short between events.
In fact that meet is coming up in 12 days. I entered, but I'm not aligned with any of the pentathlon divisions. I'm trying SCM 200 back for the first time ever. Then 50 bk, 50 br (trying to break 40 seconds), 100 free, 100 im. Anybody wanna gridge?
:hijack:
One year, I won the Iron Man award at an Age group meet. I still have it. It is based on who got the most points from the 200 Fly, 400 IM, 500 Free, 1000 free, and 1650 free, I think that is all the events for it. I was ticked off because the first year they had it, they put the winners in the Middle Atlantic newsletter. Of course when I win it, they didn't post the winners in the newsletter.
In Masters, there is a Pentathlon meet every year. I usually do the distance one. It is a 400 IM, 200 breat, 200 back, 200 fly and 200 free. When I did it this year, I bailed on the 200 free because I was just getting back in shape so I didn't do a complete pentathlon. The purpose of this meet was to finish a 200 fly and 400 IM. I barely got through my 200 fly.
A swimming stage race is an interesting idea, although it's probably difficult to get the variety that characterizes cycling stage races. You can vary the distance, but it's tough to get variety in the actual courses and terrain. (Not a lot of mountains or even hills on lakes.)
If you were in the right area, you might be able to do an ocean swim, a lake swim, a river swim, a pool swim. You could even do a lake swim where the course was difficult to navigate, I suppose: lots of buoys and turns, placing an emphasis on landmarking and tactics. Maybe an ocean swim could have frequent returns to the beach to test bodysurfing and dolphin diving, etc.
If you really want to make it interesting, take another page from cycling and have intermediate sprints worth cash or time bonuses.
I'm not sure its worth doing group swims vs. individual time trials, and the team time trial from cycling is right out.
I guess if you wanted to really put some effort into it, you could get a really interesting event, but I'm not sure how many people it would attract. I'd do it for fun if it worked with my schedule. Maybe instead of a stage race, doing it as a "series" of races, with something each weekend, might work better, since most people can't race 4-6 days in a row due to work.
When I lived in Atlanta in the 1990's they had the GOWSS or Georgia Open Water Swim Series which was very cool. I recall there were 5 races of various lengths from ~1k to 5k over a summertime. You scored points in a grand prix fashion which accumulated to an overall winner. You got points for high places in your agegroup and how many people you beat overall. The points accumulation kept you coming back. I don't know if they still do that, but I hope so.
Here in WA state, they do a SCM pentathlon meet. They have a sprint (50's + 100IM), middle distance (100's + 200IM) and monster division (200's + 400IM), with an added brute division (200 Fly, 400IM and 1500 free). Its a good format, but tends to be too short between events.
Also, there are people here who do a Tour de Mercer (Island). Its a six (?) stage race around Mercer Island done mornings over two weeks. There is reputedly a yellow thong for the leader. Not sure of the exact details.
I think events like this just need to be done by some faithful few until they catch on. Sort like the Ironman story. Started with a few guys, and grew and grew. Of course, there is no gurantee of it catching on, but it won't unless you start somewhere. I understand that the planning of these events gets very involved once you get "official".
yes, but since i survived last year's race, i'm game for another go at it!
will i see you there?
I wish. Due to rather extreme "complications" in my life, the odds of this are slightly less than throwing a rock at the moon and hitting it. Maybe next year...
Have a good one and don't get any water up your nose at Lake LBJ.
-LBJ
A little off topic but one of the things that I things that helped make the whole Phelps thing interesting this summer was the spacing out over several days. One of the problems with swimming as a spectator sport is that the races are mostly a minute or two long, that limits the degree of engagement. With Phelps it was a multiday challenge and each race was essential to his drive for eight golds. I think that made it interesting and engaging in a way that no single race could be.
It's too bad that Masters meets don't lend themselves to this sort of drama, even pentathlons tend to scrunch the events in so much that it is hard to do well in all of them.
What is so bad about that lake?
Last year there were some deaths at the lake as a result of some sort of (I think) amoeba that lives there. As I recall, it goes up your nose and then turns your brain to rice pudding, at which point you have no career options but to become a politician. Apparently the threat is based on warmer water temperature than the race is held at, but still strikes me as a little shakey.
After last year's race we were wondering if David would announce his candidacy for president.
-LBJ (No relation to the lake)
