Look Up, Please!

I have never claimed to be a good swimmer. To be honest, I am average at best. Of the three disciplines, it is definitely my worst and I spend most of the day "making up" time for my lack of swimming expertise. Yes, I do practice the drills and skills. I own the fins, hand paddles and pull buoy's too. I have improved over the years but I am still just an average swimmer.

That said, there are so many people who suck at swimming in every race I do. I don't mean they can't swim very fast, but rather, they can't swim in a straight line. I know there are big blue lines in the pool, but for God's sake, practice sight breathing. Is there a reason why they can't peek for the big buoy?

I never knew how bad it was until last year's Ironman. When you have swimmers running into a giant orange buoy, I know there's a problem. I saw someone swim into every buoy on my second loop in Mirror Lake. People, LOOK UP!!!

This year, at Timberman, there was a swimmer (and I use the term loosely) killing the water. He was smashing the water with every stroke and his kick would make a blender jealous. It was crazy. He was putting in so much effort that I was getting tired just watching him. It really was silly.

To make matters worse, he was a "zig-zagger". You know the ones. They swim as hard as they can in one direction, NEVER looking up. Once they do look up, they swim even harder in the other direction to get back on course. I tried everything in my power to get away from the drunk swimmer but no matter what I did, he would inevitable find me, club me and splash like a beached whale. I bet he swam an extra 100-200 yards.

At the Pumpkinman, it happened again. I was minding my own business, swimming my race when a "zig-zagger" swam over me and pushed me down. I went from horizontal to vertical in mere seconds. If you have ever been pushed under, unexpectedly, it is scary. Trust me, I was scared and it took me time to get my bearings again.

I really think some triathletes feel the swim is where anything is legal. That hitting someone, pulling on their feet, knocking off the goggles, pulling down their zipper or whatever is OK. Let me be the first to tell you, it is NOT COOL. It is a way to hurt someone, cause someone to panic and really effect someones well being.

I always hear you can't win a race during the swim, but you can definitely lose it. My guess is the faster swimmers don't have to deal with these swim clowns, but for us Average Joe's, we do. I doubt I will ever be a "fast" swimmer, so I guess I am stuck with a bunch of people who never look up to see where they are going.

So what am I to do? I have no idea at this point. I will keep practicing and continue to work on my sight breathing. I can only hope others will do the same.