Are you a drafter?

I have always struggled with this. I think if it's easy to stay on the person's feet, they are probably too slow. You want to be pushing a bit to try to stay up with them. Someone who passes you is a good candidate. But maybe others have better ideas about this. I should add: if you're a top swimmer and know you're drafting off another top swimmer, then I think your strategy is different. You pace yourself and try to pass the person near the end. For someone like me, though, who has no chance of winning, I'm trying to get the best time I can. I think. (As I said above, I am conflicted about whether I really want to be doing this).

It was a great experience & one I hope I can replicate in the future. Try to pass them every-so-often, that's how you know you're staying honest & not just sitting in. Thanks for your race description! That's really helpful. :) And congrats on your great race!

I've struggled with this drafting thing my entire swimming career. I'm one of those that winds up "in between" groups, tends to mentally drfit at some point during a race & sometimes drifts out to my right but swims generally pretty straight. This has spelled disaster whenever I've really tried it in the past - I'm either smashing into someone's feet or I work hard to hang on for as long as I can & then fade. I had an epiphany this weekend during Big Shoulders! My wave started pretty strong & we were all gunning down the first leg pretty quick. I like to stay out of the fray for the first length of the race just to let things sort out. I was parallel with a pair of people that were already working together well. They were pulling away slightly, but I put my head down & elevated my effort to get over & into their draft train. It never ceases to amaze me how difficult it is for me to stay in someone's draft, I get pushed around a lot & wind up closer than I want to be. No one likes that person that sits behind them & hits their feet when they're swimming fast. I kept my sighting up about every 8-10 strokes just to double-check our line. If I needed to correct I did & they did nearly at the same time. When sitting in it was much easier for me to hold their pace, but not so easy that I could've passed them. Once or twice during each 1/2mi leg both my lead & I pulled over slightly to try to pass. Once out of the draft we both would start to lose pace. THAT's how you know you're in a good draft. When you can probably equal their pace but you can't pass them without putting in a major (read: unsustainable) effort. The lead guy put in a huge surge as we started the second lap & dropped us. Then I got squeezed out on the next to last turn & wound up losing her. I then drifted far right & had to work really hard to get back to where I should've been. Coming home we were just about equal again but she did have about 10sec on me by the time we got to the beach. It was a great experience & one I hope I can replicate in the future. Try to pass them every-so-often, that's how you know you're staying honest & not just sitting in.

I'm a good drafter and never touch feet; however, the person surely knew I was there and I wonder if they found me annoying. ... and curious how others think about it. Transparent waters with good visibility make drafting so much easier ... When I draft in murky waters I will end up exactly the way you described: touching feet and annoying the swimmer in front of me cheers from Vienna, Austria Gerald

I tried some drafting in the 1 mile swim leg of a tri this morning with many of the same problems as AllisonWare described above. Similarly, I like to swim on the outside and tend to drift right (my breathing side). I had moderate success at times drafting for short periods, and it did spur me to swim a little harder to keep up. There were about 800 swimming in a fairly shallow bay with the tide running out and the water got pretty turbid especially in some shallow areas, so it was hard to see anything more than about 2-3 feet away. I agree that makes drafting much harder without becoming annoying. Unfortunately, most of the OW swims in the middle and north Atlantic states are in fairly turbid conditions, including many of the lakes, rivers, bays, and ocean (some lakes are better than others) .