Sorry to hear about your goggles.  I have corrective lenses in my goggles and would be pretty blind without them.  I would invest in a wetsuit.  I had one and the water was perfect with it on.

We got lucky in that the prevailing winds were from the east and not from the west as they normally are.  It would have been a long 10 miles directly into a headwind on the way back which would have been disheartening.

If you have any specific recommendations for next year's race, pot them here.  I work with the wife of one of the organizers and they are looking for feed back.

The only thing I would change would be to include more buoys to mark the swim course. I think if there would have been 3 more between the yellow triangle buoy and the furthest buoy out that would have helped, as well as one more between the yellow buoy and the one where we turned to go back to the transition area. The goggles fogging wouldn't have worried me too much if there were more markers, I was more panicked about drifting too far off course and being disqualified.

I would also work out a deal with the state to allow race participants to enter chain o' lakes park without having to pay another $5 or $7 to enter the park. This should be included in the entry fee.  Also, I didn't include this in the race report, but I apparently was the last swimmer in, since the lifeguards in the kayaks were following me in. However, there was one that stayed too close, sometimes within 3 feet of me, which was distracting. Overall, I think it the first SWAT tri was pretty well organized, hopefully there will be more.  I will definitely invest in a wetsuit before next year 

I forwarded your suggestions.