Notes
Big day of firsts. First triathlon ever. Second open water swim ever. First swim in a wetsuit ever. First competitive swim ever. First swim in a group ever.
Didn't know what to expect so I just jumped in and swam hard. I was totally disoriented so I kept people to my right and just hoped they were going in the correct direction. Bumped into people a couple times. Never got nervous despite feeling terribly claustrophobic and unable to get a good idea of my surroundings. The swim went quickly and I expected lots of people to be ahead. I came out with a small group but there were only about 4 ahead.
This was a great swim for me. In the end I exceeded my swim goal by 3-4 minutes. This is the fastest I've ever swam. I was breathing hard and my heart was pounding but it was only a quarter mile so what does it matter?
Lessons learned: Need to practice open water swimming. Need to practice swimming faster. Need to continue to work on technique. Need to learn how to have better position/location awareness.
Transition to bike was 2:07... slow. Got out of wetsuit fine but forgot to fire up the garmin when I got to the bike and wasted extra time fiddling with it when I realized I needed to get it going. Not much more to say other than I was probably overly through and inefficient in taking care of everything in the transition... drying feet for socks, putting shirt on, etc... sloppy.