Ironman 70.3 Timberman - Triathlon

During the first 30 seconds, I thought to myself: "today just may not be my day"...I was breathing heavy, I was jostling around a bunch of people, and was just immediately hit with some doubts. Without any thinking about it, I settled down and got into a rhythm.
My swim went well, made the first turn and was feeling fine as the amount of people thinned out. I always have trouble with navigation so I constantly remind myself to pay attention. As I was congratulating myself with knowing where I was, my left hand hit something....it was a buoy, and I was supposed to be n the left side and not the right side. No big deal, I got back in the correct position and did ok. After making the final turn, I started to get the headache I get sometimes during the swim and had to remind myself to breathe right away and not hold onto my breath. I soon forgot about my headache and was just waiting for the swim to be over with.
I was slightly faster than my estimate/goal.

Remind myself to:
navigate
look up
breathe right away

My T1 seemed fine. It was 10 seconds slower than the Patriot and about the same as last year's Timberman.

I need to think through the process a little more clearly in training. Because I was rushed in the morning, I didn't lay it all out to make it quick.

The bike was pretty good. I had a little fear of the hills, but they really weren't nearly as bad as I had made them out to be.
I tried to drink right away using my new Speedfil A2...it worked pretty nicely.
At 30 minutes or so, I had two squares of PB&J then had one every 30 minutes until I figured there was an hour left.
I had 1 gel per hour, so less than I had used previously.
I was hungry so I ate the PB&J, but I ate the gels just because that was my plan.
I also had 2 or 3 salt tablets
I was slightly faster than my estimate/goal. From last year to this year, I've improved 1mph. Stretch goal was to improve more, but feel like I should be happy with a 6% improvement

I had a goal of not being passed on the down hills. This held up for one hill. I'm just not super comfortable riding over 35mph downhill.
I rode at a comfortable pace. I never watched my overall average pace and just rode.
I did watch my cadence and if it got too low, would change gears.
I may need to get tri shorts or cycling shorts. My ass was starting to ache towards the end, and I definitely felt it on the run.
To make it to middle of the age group on the bike, I need to get to 19.8 mph

This was the exact same time as the Patriot and about 10 seconds faster than last year's Timberman.
This year I put a race belt on and not sure if I should do that during T1 or wait to T2.
Again, I was

Practice or think through it in advance

Again, I ran scared from the beginning. I was worried about my right calf and didn't want to blow up. My legs felt ok, but I never sped up. When I saw a 9:40 something on my watch, I felt ok about it, but couldn't maintain the pace although I really wasn't hurting that bad at all.

To get to middle of the pack on the run I need to get to 9:15...which seems totally doable (easier than getting bike to 19.8)

I would recommend it to anyone and I will be likely doing it again next year if I'm able.