I finished my first triathlon today! Final time 3:48:27.
Swim went pretty well, other than a few big hiccups. First, being an open water swim it’s was difficult to stay on course and I ended up swimming nearly 1800m instead of 1500. Also on the leg back into the beach, I was swimming directly into the rising sun. My goggles fogged up and I tried to fix them but made it worse. So naturally I panicked and sent my heart rate from a flat 150bpm up to 170. I struggled to stay above water and ended up having to chill on a buoy for a minute or so. But I finally got back to the beach for a 41 minute swim time (2:18/100m pace). I was hoping to finish in under 40, so close enough.
I had to reset myself mentally for the bike so I lost a couple of minutes in transition and started out a little slower on the bike. Finally got going and found my cadence after a few miles. Ended up finishing the bike leg in 1:41 (15.5mph average), under my 1:45 goal.
The run was not great, but I was tired and ended up walking for a couple of miles throughout. It started getting hotter and I was starting to cramp. Ended up finishing in 1:19.
Congratulations. Pretty good bike pace.