First OWS and Brick today...

As Tricia said.. you will get used to it Just keep going.  Congrats on getting in the water.  Many people it takes months to get from a pool to the OWS.

I was less than stellar during the swim leg of my very first triathlon which was earlier this year.  I only had one OWS before the race and that was the day before the race.  Part of my problem was starting out too fast but as you've stated, swimming in a pool vs. a lake is quite a bit different.  Between that race and the race I just completed a week ago, I only swam in a pool twice but did probably 15 OWS.  I swam 2-3 times a week and only swam in the lake the last 5 weeks before the race.  On the day of the race I remember getting in the water to warm up and feeling very comfortable.  Much more relaxed and I had a plan for how fast I was going to swim at each point in the race so I didn't wear myself out too fast.  The benefit of all the OWS before this race allowed me to practice my plan over and over.  It also allowed me to experience issues like swimming off line, not breathing well etc. and figure out ways to overcome them.  I went from an 18:10 in my first race to a 15:40 in my second race and have another race in 3 weeks where I hope to be around 15.