You train, you enter a race, you taper, and then you race.
You give it all you have in the open water swim…and then you have to wait for the results. And wait and wait. Open water swimming is not like pool swimming. Pool swimmers know their split times and the official results that are not only instantaneously posted on the scoreboard, but also made available through all kinds of electronic media.
Unfortunately, it is not that way in the open water swimming community. Around the world, open water swimmers go through this kind of step-by-step process with all kinds of local derivations:
• finish the race
• walk through the finish chute or area with heavy breathing
• hand in your timing chip
• grab a bagel or banana
• take a swig of a sponsor’s drink
• receive a finisher’s award
• chat with your friends or the people who finished near you
• wait for the awards ceremony
Most swimmers catch their breath while standing on shore and gazing out onto the ocean, bay or lake. “The water was cold” … “the waves were rough” … “the start was crazy” … “the guy kept on grabbing my feet” … “I got stung by jellyfish” … are only a sampling of the small talk discussed among the open water swimmers at the end of a race. And then they wait. And wait and wait.
Unlike the pool, many races do not or cannot provide the race results (times and placing) on a timely basis. Awards ceremonies take place sometime after the last swimmer exits the water, but the official times for everyone are many times not immediately available.
SwimPhone changes the equation.
Club Assistant can provide race results – both your finish time and final age-group placing – before you dry off. With SwimPhone, times and placing are delivered within 11 seconds to your mobile device. Whether you use an iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry, by the time you have reached your swim bag and started to check your voice messages, texts or emails, your race results are delivered to your phone. Convenience like no other timing system.
You will experience no more waiting for hours after the last person has finished. There Is no more walking down the beach to read the race results posted on a wall in tiny font. There is no more going home and constantly refreshing your browser to look for your race results.
Now, with SwimPhone, Club Assistant brings your race results immediately to your phone. It’s quick, efficient, easily visible and entirely customized to you.
Club Assistant will provide its timing system to the Swim Across America event in Long Beach, California on September 23rd. Swimmers like Michael Read MBE, president of the Channel Swimming Association, and Craig Dietz, the Limbless Waterman, will be among the luminaries taking part in the swim…and they will enjoy learning their final times within seconds of crossing the finish line.
For more information about SwimPhone by Club Assistant, visit here.
Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source