I am doing a 1K swim from Brooklyn to Manhattan under the Brooklyn Bridge tomorrow. There are over 400 people doing this race and they are going to start everyone at once. For arguments sake, say with no shows, etc there are going to be 375 swimmers doing it. This is a lot of people starting at one time I guess. This is my first OW race and I am a little nervous. I am a decent swimmer, so I dont know if I want to stay to the back on the start and I know I dont want to be totally at the front. Does anyone know if they line us up in a certain order or does anyone have any strategies that have worked for them in the past with what I assume is a fairly large race start. Any input would be appreciated.
Parents
Former Member
If you've never started in a crowd there is no way to know how you will respond. So your choices are:
1) start in the front and you will surely get run over. As you said this is not a good idea.
2) Start in the back and swim around the slower swimmers in front of you. You might find this very frustrating. if you chose this just swim for fun. It's your first race and it is suppose to be fun.
3) start in the middle and you are facing a combination of 1) & 2)
4) start on the side. You might swim a bit further, but really it is insignificant in a race of a mile.
I recommend 4). There is no order in where people are suppose to start.. If it is a big crowd sometimes I look around at the people next to me and simply say: "Whose the fast one here?" It really gives me an insight into the swimmers around me. (Once the person next to me said "it must be you" - I am very relaxed at the start) Because I am so relaxed it is obvious who the nervous ones are. I stay in front of them. If they don't look at me and say nothing, typically they are very focused and they are either very fast or will likely to go out to0 fast. I stay away from them. The people who engage me in a conversation I know will not be swimming over me if they are faster and will move out of my way if I am faster.
Most of the time this is very helpful for me. Not sure it would work for everyone.
If you've never started in a crowd there is no way to know how you will respond. So your choices are:
1) start in the front and you will surely get run over. As you said this is not a good idea.
2) Start in the back and swim around the slower swimmers in front of you. You might find this very frustrating. if you chose this just swim for fun. It's your first race and it is suppose to be fun.
3) start in the middle and you are facing a combination of 1) & 2)
4) start on the side. You might swim a bit further, but really it is insignificant in a race of a mile.
I recommend 4). There is no order in where people are suppose to start.. If it is a big crowd sometimes I look around at the people next to me and simply say: "Whose the fast one here?" It really gives me an insight into the swimmers around me. (Once the person next to me said "it must be you" - I am very relaxed at the start) Because I am so relaxed it is obvious who the nervous ones are. I stay in front of them. If they don't look at me and say nothing, typically they are very focused and they are either very fast or will likely to go out to0 fast. I stay away from them. The people who engage me in a conversation I know will not be swimming over me if they are faster and will move out of my way if I am faster.
Most of the time this is very helpful for me. Not sure it would work for everyone.
