Richmond Tri Club Sprint Presented by Bon Secours : Official Thread

This event changed venues last year and swimmers were privy to an awesome, olympic-caliber, 50-meter pool during the first leg. For those of you who did it with me last year, I'm wondering if the RTC is planning to utilize the same swim start format as last year. Anyone heard any rumors?

For those of you who weren't there, the swim consisted of 4 long-course laps for a total of 400 yards. Racers completed a hairpin turn around an open water buoy anchored about 5 meters from the end of each lane allowing for an 8-times-up-and-back snake from one side of the pool to the other. That was well and good, but the start format created a chaotic churn for the duration that rivaled anything I've ever experienced in an open-water wave. 10 racers at a time performed a deepwater start every 30 seconds. 10 racers scratched and clawed their way for the holeshot only to be stymied by slower swimmers in the group ahead who were themselves stymied. I crawled over people (and was crawled all over) for 400 yards. It was easily the least civilized pool swim I've ever experienced and as much as I'm looking forward to the event itself I'm dreading the swim.

That said, given what a great swim venue it is it has the potential to be awesome if they rethink the start. So how about it, RTC? What's the word on the swim start this year?