Contacts during a Tri

[Trigress]

I wear contacts in triathlons. My goggles leak, but I'm not too bothered. However, if this is part of the healing process after eye surgery I think I'd listen to the doctor... And you are most certainly going to meet a foot or an arm out there, I've never not been kicked or hit, but fortunately I've never had the goggles kicked in my eyes, the nearest has been my chin. It's waiting to happen though!

[ginny]

I wear contacts when I swim. I was also going to get laser surgery before my tri, and the whole healing thing got me thinking that I should probably wait until after the race... thanks for bringing this up

[RoadBunner]

Okay, I'm going to chime in here (puts on optometrist hat)...

You should NOT swim in contact lenses. My recommendation would be for someone who does a lot of swimming to get prescription goggles. Okay, I know that isn't always practical (especially for tris when you need to bike/run after) so if you HAVE to wear your contacts I'd get some daily disposables that you can chuck immediately after the event. Also, be sure to wear goggles to minimize the contact with the water.

Water (especially fresh water, hot tubs, pools) has a lot of nasty bugs in it that can get into your contacts and cause really, really bad eye infections. I emphasize the REALLY BAD part of that statement.

Kelownagirl, if you'd just had PRK and the front of your cornea hasn't fully healed yet, you might have little abrasions on your cornea which are portals of entry for these bugs. I'd call your eye doc up and be honest that you have this event and would like to wear CL's during the swim. See what he says. Maybe your eyes are healed enough that he'd reluctantly agree for a one time deal (get a pair of daily disposables). Maybe your eyes aren't healed enough and he's the one who would know.

[Over50Newbie]

During triathlons, I wear prescription goggles when I swim (-800 prescription) so, as you can tell, I am very, very nearsighted).

Then I put my glasses on during T1 for the bike and run.

This has worked beautifully for me every time. The nice thing about prescription goggles is that you can see whether you are in the water or out of the water.

Lynette