Am I really THAT slow?

Work on your technique, and keep getting to the pool consistently, and you'll get faster.  It happens over years.  

I can swim at your friend's pace, but I can't run faster than 10 min/miles.  So I say the same thing as you when it comes to running.  

1:25/100 m is super fast. 
You're not really that slow. 

Wow, I didn't think I was that slow but I guess I am.  I have never really tried to swim fast for a short distance.  I am training for an Ironman so it is all about longer distances and not using my legs to try and save them.  When I am training I pull 2:20-2:30 for 100m.  My guess is that those fast swim times are for shorter distances like going 100m and stopping.  However, if your friend can hold up that pace over a mile I am extremely jealous!

I'm not sure why one would guess that.  There are plenty of people who can cruise at 1:25 (not me!). 

To OP:  2:20/100 would put you in the back half of the pack in the tris that I've done at least, but not at all DFL.  Keep swimming and you'll probably get faster.

Also understand the point of your workouts...

I can make my pace quicker by cutting things like...
1 - cutting out my kicking portion of my warm-up
2 - cutting out my stroke technique drills
3 - cutting out my more intense intervals that require some more rest.

cutting out everything in a long distance practice that is not freestyle, or a never taking off training fins / hand paddles...

etc.etc.etc.

Hopefully, you get the point.

*I'll* be DFL - I just started swimming a month ago, and I'm doing close to 4:00/100!  I'd love to do 2:20/100, but I knew swimming was going to be my weakest link - by a long shot.


As someone else said (or inferred), "slow" is all relative....

lol.  Yeah, 4:00/100 might get you there.  But I wouldn't worry one iota about pace after just 1 month of swimming.  Just work on swimming better.  I'll bet that if you work hard right ow, then you are poised to enjoy the greatest time gains of your entire swimming career about right now!

I swim ugly slow as well 2:00 to 2:20 per 100.  At Boise 70.3 my swim was 800/1250 ish to let you know where that pacing lands you at the HIM distance.  That puts me at around 1:40:00 ish for the 2.4 mile IM swim.  I have only been swimming one year and had extremely limited pool access all winter, so ya no big surprises there.  My bike and run were closer to 400-450/1250.  So swimming is definately my weakness.  We are kindred spirits 8).  Hopefully I will get faster some day.  Closest masters swim is 100 miles away one way and at bad times.  I would have to leave home at 3am to get to a masters swim class and then probably be late for work on top of that.  

The best of both worlds. Not that slow yet you can see large gains for quite a while as you work at it.

My brother-in-law a former college swimmer got me into tri's... unfortunately I tread water going forward.  In the end I'm a "rock fish", there's lot's of us in the school of swimmers.  It does take years to improve and get confidence but the first race with a wetsuit convinced me that drowning wasn't an option anymore.  Good luck!

In a Splash and Dash a couple weeks ago the winner swam 1500 meters in about 18:30 and that included a short beach run between 2 loops. That's about 1:14/100M. I took about 10 minutes longer on the swim and that put me toward the bottom of the MOP with a pace of about 1:53. The top swimmers at IMs go the 2.4 miles at about the same pace as the winner of my race. In fact he may have gone even faster in Hawaii last October.

I definitely didn't mean to suggest that no one swims that fast. However, if his friend swims that fast it is not because he is slow but that his friend is grease lighting.  All the examples that people are giving of individuals swimming that fast are people who won events or are pros.  That is not the average age grouper pace, at least in my humble limited experience.

That's true, to a point.  I'll just repeat what the swim experts here say a lot:  to get faster, you have to swim faster.  In other words, you have to spend some time (a lot of time, in fact) practicing at a pace that is very fast for you.  You can't just do lots of long slow swimming and expect to get lots faster.