Started way far left as I have the last couple years I've done this. I don't belong in the front here, and wanted to be out of the scrum anyway. It's an angled course to the first pier, so the problem is that people tend to swim straight out and then right, rather than angling left. Have to work your way through/over these folks.

Heading out to the pier was pretty bumpy, but not too crowded at all. Couple years ago they divided the mens and womens waves (and this year added wetsuits to the womens wave), so it was not nearly as violent as years past. In fact, I only got touched or bumped a couple times. Seemed to take forever to get around the pier though, with all the chop.

Not sure if I followed the right line. Just tried to follow the splashes of the guys in front of me, or maybe steal someone's paddler for a while. Only found a draft once, about 1/2 way across, that I couldn't hold for very long.

As with every P2P swim, I found myself looking shoreward at a group of guys, seaward at a group of guys, and me seeimingly alone in the middle. I am not very good at tactical OW racing.....

Wind seemed to die a bit in the middle of the swim and was able to get into a rhythm. Hit the mile house about 31 minutes. Last week I hit it at 29 minutes and swam 56, so I thought the hour was doable. Hit Dirk's old house in 40 minutes, figured it was about 15 minutes from there. Flip flopped back and forth between "just be patient, enjoy being out here" with "hurry the F up or you won't make the hour."

Was taking longer to get to the pier, and I didn't think 60 was gonna happen. Just continued to swim. Hit the end of the pier at 56, swam in hard trying to catch any wave that cam my way, stood up at 59:22, crossed at 59:36.

Train more

Happy with the swim as I was just grateful to be out there again. It's a great event that I hated missing (although last year was super cold, so I guess if I was going to miss one or two....). Thank god shirts were OK this year. Not the best, but not the ugliest.