I frequently find myself having to make a quick decision in open water races - draft off the person in front of me who is drifting slightly off course or give up and go on my own without the draft benefit on the straighter line.
Often I figure that the slight extra distance is worth the draft and just silently hope the lead person in the pack straightens out.
It's very hard to decide which is best in the heat of the swim. It depends on how off course the lead person is, but it's not easy to know that at water level in the middle of the race.
Which would you pick?
I've been in OW races where the start group was 40 up to 300.
I found it hard to draft when there were roughly 300 because it seemed like everyone went out in 200m race pace. I guess they wanted to look good in the eyes of the public. it was a river race, and I would guess that over 200 of them huged the line layed out. since 60% of the race was down stream, I ignored them all and swam in the middle of the river, greatest current as well as swam straight lines between distance markers while the rest swam along the curvy side.
I wound up drafting and being the lead (do you call it drafter and draftee?) for the last 800m, and it help us both, my dad (watching from the side) thinks that the two of us passed 10-15 swimmers the last 400m...
This year I plan on working on being able to start the race faster, and then get into my 1:12/100m pace so i can get out with the lead pack and try to hang on. last year I was 6 minutes behind the winner, going to try to cut that down to 4 minutes this year.
I've been in OW races where the start group was 40 up to 300.
I found it hard to draft when there were roughly 300 because it seemed like everyone went out in 200m race pace. I guess they wanted to look good in the eyes of the public. it was a river race, and I would guess that over 200 of them huged the line layed out. since 60% of the race was down stream, I ignored them all and swam in the middle of the river, greatest current as well as swam straight lines between distance markers while the rest swam along the curvy side.
I wound up drafting and being the lead (do you call it drafter and draftee?) for the last 800m, and it help us both, my dad (watching from the side) thinks that the two of us passed 10-15 swimmers the last 400m...
This year I plan on working on being able to start the race faster, and then get into my 1:12/100m pace so i can get out with the lead pack and try to hang on. last year I was 6 minutes behind the winner, going to try to cut that down to 4 minutes this year.
