Silly swimming questions

In a tri with a pool swim, do you have your own lane?

What if you're really slow and you're still swimming when they want to start the next wave?

From my vast and wide experience of one TryaTri, there are four people in a lane at one time. Once one gets out another gets in - so in theory, you could start first as the slowest and still be there after everyone else has completed!

it all depends on the organisation of the race.
some races, i.e. stratford,one starts every 15 seconds. you do 4 lengths in the first lane, clockwise, dip under the lane rope then 4 in the next lane and the next, 12 lenthgs of 33 m pool, you then get out at the other corner.
others may have you staying in the one lane doing your 16 lenghts, standard 25m pool, 400m swim. they either start 4 or 6 together depending on size of pool, number of lanes. then maybe start the next wave of 4 or 6 a few minutes later, maybe 3 mins, this way you shouldn't get more than 3 or 4 in a lane,
the other way is to start someone in lane 1, 1 min later someone goews in lane 2, then 3 etc.. up to lane 6, then back to lane 1, i.e you have six mins before the next one gets in your lane, the interval may of course be 30 secs
generally you have plenty of room and i've not seen more than 4 (ish) swimmers in one lane.
is that clear? sorry for rambling.

Hi Redruth,

As mentioned there are several ways of doing it, and all basically mean that you'll not be in anyones way too much. Did you have to give an estimated time? If so then that's used to seed the starts, otherwise then they wil use some other system to make sure everyone has a fair and unhindered race. Don't worry about it, it's for the organiser to sort out, nit for you to feel guily for being too quick or too slow. Which race you doing as that may help us to explain the system if we've perhaps done that race before or anothe rorganised by the same people.

Oh, and the swim abilities in pool swims range from commonwealth swimmers to borderline non swimmers. Really. So if you can do the distance in breaststroke then you'll be fine.

In my vast experience (one) there was me and another chap in our lane. He was pretty slow but I was slower (having had a front crawl panic right at the start) and we both breast stroked it. When I was lining up there was a boy doing what I can describe as the slowest breast stroke I've ever seen - I believe he still best me overall LOL

Before I did this tri I was told (by a ref of considerable experience) that they could slot you in any way so it didn't matter - I'd entered on the day

here in Germany pool swims are organized by estimated finish times. Usually there are 4 to 8 swimmers per lane, fast, medium, slow and v. slow together. Everyone compares speeds when you get into the lane for warmup and decides who goes first. When the gun goes, everyone sets off in the agreed order. All swimmers keep to the right, that way there's room for someone to pass if they are going faster than predicted. Sounds complicated but it works perfectly. Each swimmer is given a different coloured cap so the timekeeper for that lane can keep track easily.