A friend is hosting a 1 mile ocean swim in the Atlantic Ocean next month with approximately 250 swimmers aged 9-90. Since the swim has grown over the years, having a mass start has proven unwieldy and he'd like to break up the swim into different waves.
Does anyone have any ideas how to divide up swimmers into different waves? In this case, we don't know the speed of the majority of the swimmers so sending the fast swimmers off before the slow ones (especially due to the large number of beginners) would be difficult to do in advance. Each wave would be given different colored bathing caps and unique numbers (e.g. Wave 1 is 101-199, Wave 2 is 200-299 etc).
I was going to propose having an under-18 wave and a 19-up wave, which would reduce the number of swimmers in each wave somewhat, but any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!
Peaks to Portland in Maine has a large field and swims 5 waves based on seed time. Swimmers receive a colored cap based on wave, which also corresponds to their number marking. www.ymcaofsouthernmaine.org/p2p
I would try to make sure the younger and older swimmers are somewhat protected from the main groups, especially at the start of the race.
I've done the 1-mile Chesapeake Challenge several times. It is one lap of a triangular course. They allow a total of 500 entries, divided into four waves of 125 swimmers each. The waves are assigned by the order in which the swimmers enter the event (so the first 125 entries are in Wave 1, the next 125 who enter are Wave 2, and so on).
The waves start about five minutes apart.
Pan-Am's was the following:
1st wave - men 49 and under. different color caps for different age groups
2nd wave - women 49 and under, as above
3rd wave - men 50 and up, as above
4th wave - women 50 and up, as above
3 laps of a 1000m course - 450x50x450x50
Primer Lugar
Big Shoulders in Chicago uses a wave start. They have an elite wave that goes off first based on seed times. After that the waves are age based with younger swimmers going first. This start works well for a swim that involves 800+ swimmers.
I just swam an event a couple of weeks ago that started two waves based on seed time with faster seed times going first. I much prefer that method if possible as it prevents faster swimmers from running over / having to pick their way through (depending on one's perspective) slower swimmers.
I also do a swim in which there is a male wave and then a female wave. I don't care for that as I'm sure it penalizes female swimmers who have to navigate slower male swimmers on the course.
I agree with srcoyote - I'd prefer to have the faster swimmers in the first waves. I am a slow swimmer and it's kind of scary to have the faster swimmers approaching from behind.
If you have timing chips that can capture start time and finish time you could consider a "rolling start" with swimmers starting continuously in small groups over a period. You will still want to seed, fastest first. I have participated in 2 races which used this approach (because of large field, constrained starting area) and it worked well. Although it detracts somewhat from head to head competition, similar speed competitors are seeded close to one another and there still tends to be good competition. Here is an example from triathlon www.youtube.com/watch This race has a "rolling start within each wave" www.chillswim.com/.../
I think the Great Chesapeake 1 mile system is a complete disaster. The random mix if fast and slow, in murky water means that fast swimmers in later waves swim over the top of slow ones before they even see them. I think getting a time at registration and doing waves by speed, regardless of age, entry order, etc, works best.
Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk
