Opinions wanted on this one -
I have a meet this weekend and on day 2 the 500 FR is seeded by time and gender (men are separated from women.) I am actually used to swimming mixed seeding in distance events.
Provided the meet director would accommodate me (and s/he may not), would you ask to be seeded with the men to get the full racing experience?
As it stands, I'm seeded 1st of the women (2nd place is 48 seconds behind) and I would be seeded 5th with the men.
The only other thing to consider is that if I swim with the women, I will have 1 hour rest until my next event. If I swim with the men, I will have about 30 minutes until my next event. And I have 3 events left to swim after the 500 FR.
And, to confirm, am I correct in assuming that if I swam with the men, the time would not count for USMS purposes due to my changing the event/ program order? But am I correct in assuming that my other swims would count assuming all the rules are followed?
This meet is for pure racing fun. Times are irrelevant for me. Oh, and I'm used to swimming by myself which I find sort of boring; however, I have gone PB's swimming solo or having competition. And, I will get creamed by some of the top men (will be a fast heat), but that does not bother me greatly. It's more of a learning experience.
Thanks!
Former Member
You may only be able to swim with the men if the meet referee (not the meet director) allows it since it would be a deviation with the sanctioned meet information. I am thinking that since it is a men's event you can't be seeded strictly by your entry time and would only be able to swim in an otherwise empty lane. The referee could assign you to the fastest heat where an empty lane was available. That would probably be the slowest heat and possibly the next-slowest heat.
If there was a no-show in a faster heat you could possibly swim earlier if you were waiting by the starter. Kind of like "stand by".
In Masters meets I've worked in before, there were some gamesmanship that seemed harmless but was abused. Motivations were to either be able to swim in the first possible heat (to be able to finish the meet earlier) or to swim in the last possible heat (to gauge the minimal effort needed to produce a win).
If the meet is scored/awarded, the guys should be able to swim against their peers that they are competing against.
Later - whoops, read your post about the Mixed seeding later. Problem solved.
Thanks all for very positive responses for both scenarios. :)
The meet director emailed me last night to say that by the way, the 1000/ 500 FR and 400 IM will all be seeded as MIXED even though the psych sheets have us separated out in the 500 FR and 400 IM.
Swim with the guys. Race 500, have some small serving of a recovery drink, hydrate, warm down, hydrate, pee, rest, pee, race again...you can fit it all into 30 minutes.
Sadly I won't be on hand to rub shoulders pre race...it's been PROVEN to help get PB times.
:blush:
Our Zone championships feature the 1000 free, last event, last day. I've had a couple of my best 1000 swims after 5 relays and 6 prior individual events during that three day format. :cool:
I'll see you there...not in the 1000 though.
I say swim against the women for two reasons
the first, how often do you get to swim the 500fr with out looking where the other swimmers are. this will giveyou a chance to swim the race and know if you can swim your race, or if you are effected by those around you.
the other thing...i'd say make a game of it. since you know #2 is more than a 50 behind you, see if you can catch her by the 300 mark, see if you can lap someone twice. if you get to about 75-85yds ahead of #2 before the 400 mark you might feel the extra energy to try to lap her a second time.
I just swam the 800, seeded after time, so in lane 4 was a 26yr old with a made up time. he entered with 10:06, I had 10:26 (from the only time I swam i 1 yr ago). He hit the wall at 9:38 and I got under 10 at 9:54. for me it turned into swimming faster so he didn't pass me, but at or around 650 I started to pass people and it was enough to get me to swim harder.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Jim. I don't know. . . for some reason I seem to really like the 5:11 range but I'm going to just try and have fun, race and not worry about the time - particularly with 4 events being swum the previous day. It is true that on occasion the more I swim, the better I do towards the end. . .
Our Zone championships feature the 1000 free, last event, last day. I've had a couple of my best 1000 swims after 5 relays and 6 prior individual events during that three day format. :cool:
Nancy, I still appreciate the info in the event that future meets are not mixed. Thank you!
Stud, I'm sorry I won't be able to experience the shoulder rub!
Oz, I will report back; however, plze keep in mind that I'll be doing a marathon 8 events in 2 days (I think), so it's more a kick off to my getting in shape for LCM as opposed to being able to knock out fast times. But who knows right? Need to keep a positive attitude. :)
Thanks Winnie! I still wish I lived in Colorado even with all the snow and altitude! Sounds like you are having a blast up there. Swims @ 9000 feet, sounds AWESOME (once in a while!)
Thanks for the vote of confidence Jim. I don't know. . . for some reason I seem to really like the 5:11 range but I'm going to just try and have fun, race and not worry about the time - particularly with 4 events being swum the previous day. It is true that on occasion the more I swim, the better I do towards the end. . .
Well we swam this with the men. I wish I were in a lane on the other side of the pool where Jay and Kristen had a great race but no I got stuck in lane 1 on the other side of a ten lane pool with no head to head competition. Too hard to see lanes 9 and 10. Oh well maybe next time, that's my story and I'm sticking too it.
