With all the hype I thought I would present a brief summary myself. I have been doing tri’s for about 4 years, most of those 70.3’s with one Ironman all of which I did finish, so am familiar with what goes on during these events. The results of these recent study results are interesting, but they should not be alarming. Let me explain.
USAT keeps record of deaths that occur during its sanctioned races, and a report last fall indicated that 25 deaths had occurred thus far in the sport. Of those, 20 occurred during the swim. So a study that comes out indicating more deaths occur during the swim is not a surprise. We already know that. The more interesting question is why.
Dr. Kevin Harris, the lead investigator for the Minneapolis Heart Institute which sponsored the study and a triathlete himself, recently reported the results of the study at the American College of Cardiology Conference in Florida. It looked at USAT sanctioned events from Jan 2006 through Sept 2008. 922,810 athletes were involved. 14 deaths occurred within that time frame. 13 were in the water. In the end the death rate in this study was double that seen in marathons, 1.5/million versus 0.8/million. Very interesting.
Of course, the immediate assumption is that they drowned. However, autopsies did not show this as the cause of death. An autopsy can discover cause of death by looking at certain changes which occurred in the body. For example, if someone drowned, their lungs would be full of water. But if someone died of cardiac failure prior to going underwater, they would not have nearly the amount of water and the histological changes in the lungs that go along with drowning. These autopsies (and I can only find that 6 were done), as I understand it, showed cardiac death that occurred prior to drowning. Either there were histological changes consistent with myocardial infarction or structural heart disease, or there were normal hearts which could indicate an heart rhythm abnormality as the culprit. But no matter what the condition, as I understand the reports I have had access to, death at least in these six cases was not by drowning.
The open water swim during a triathlon, especially if it is a mass start but even also in wave starts, is a strange thing. I have heard it said that it is a contact sport and that is definitely true. You get kicked and grabbed and do your fair of share of kicking and grabbing. Add in the fact that you usually have very limited visibility in the water and have to sight via buoys or the shoreline and sometimes frigid water, you quickly have a very intense and challenging experience. It can be very very stressful not only physically but emotionally and mentally also. It takes toughness in all three to get this thing completed, especially at endurance distances.
The take home lesson from this is BE PREPARED. And open water triathlon swim even at the sprint distance is not to be under estimated. It is very difficult, and that should be taken into account during training. I have been a decent swimmer all my life not at a competitive level but at least comfortable in the water and decent. My first open water swim was in an olympic distance event with a wave start, and I panicked a bit. It was just all so unnerving. Being kicked. Kicking others. Limited visibility. Inhaling a bit of water. And this was in warm water. I had to turn over and float for about 30 seconds just to calm down. It is not to be taken lightly.
When all that confusion is added to the actual stress of the physical activity, the coldness of the water, your goggles being kicked off by the athlete you just swam up on, somebody else swimming onto your back, and the fact that you were so excited the night before that you didn’t sleep all that good, you have more stress than maybe you have ever felt in your life. So prepare. Make sure you have done some open water swims in your training. Make sure you have done some open water swims in similar water temperature in your wetsuit (if the water temp qualifies) in your training. Make sure you have pushed yourself as hard or harder in training than you will on race day so you know how to handle the stress. And make sure, especially if you are getting into this thing after not taking care of yourself for several years, that you are in good enough shape from a heart and lung standpoint to place yourself under that kind of stress.
Triathlon is a wonderful thing. It has brought uncalculable benefit to me and many others. But it is not for everyone and shouldn’t be. And it is not something to be taken lightly, not something to be taken up on a whim, not something to go into unprepared. Please be safe. And please be prepared.
