With the below average temperatures we've been having across BC, the lakes in the lower mainland have not had a chance to warm up at all. Therefor, my first open water swim was at the race location the day prior to the race .

For the warm-up I pretty much just got into the water to allow water to get into my wetsuit and to get used to the cold water so it wouldn't be such a shock to my body once the race started.

After passing the first buoy, which must have been at around 150m or so, the combination of the cold water and my inexperience in open water must have caused me to have a small panic attack or something of the sorts. I had a very hard time breathing and it felt like my wetsuit was really tightening up on my chest. At that 150m point I looked up to see where the turn around buoy was and said to myself "what the heck have I got myself into" and the thought of swimming to the shore and ending my day crossed my mind. I really didn't think I was going to be able to finish the first half of the first lap.

The first 375 meters we're horrible. I did the first 375m primarily doing the breaststroke as I couldn't get a good freestyle rhythm due to my breathing. At the turn around buoy, I was able to stand up as the water was only about 3-4' deep, and cleaned my goggles as they had fogged up a bit. At this point, I'm not sure had happened, but my breathing had completely relaxed and I was able to finish the first lap and the rest of the swim in a very comfortable freestyle swim and pace.

I got my swim cap, goggles, and top half of the wetsuit off on the way to transition. The only issue I ran into was that my hands were a little bit numb and I couldn't pull wetsuits over my ankles the first couple of times. Once the wetsuit was off, I dried my feet, put socks, shoes, tri top, glasses, and helmet on and was off.

It was a very quick in and out and overall, I'm very happy with my T1 and the way everything went.

My first triathlon.