Great race, Courtney!  And I agree with Dennis....quit beating yourself up...while thoousands of your friends and neighors were still asleep or laying on the couch in front of the TV, you completed a tri!  Good for you!

It was nice to meet you/  Hope to see you at the next one.

Brandt

First of all, great job!  As someone said, you did just complete a triathlon, nothing to be disappointed about there.  I'm not sure if you are looking for advice, and I'm not sure if it would even help, but I'm gonna throw it out there anyway.  My open water swims were disastrous at first, and then I started swimming near the back on the inside.  This way, I can sight off the rest of the wave, and also let all of the traffic get out of the way.  It really made a difference, along with starting out slow, and mentally telling myself that there isn't a wall 25 yards ahead that I can grab on to.  Maybe thats worth something, but if not, just keep gettin' wet.  You'll get there.

Great Job!

The little green thing is an Alpaca...or a cartoon version of an Alpaca.  It cracks me up too when I see it, that's why I use it as my image.  I think maybe I look like this thing when I run.  Lumbering along with a stupid look on my face.

The swim is my toughest event as well.  I force myself to concentrate on the other legs of the race just to get my mind off of the water.

-Michael 

Even though you think you suck, you really don't.  Swimming takes time to master, especially dealing with the crowd.  The more you race the more you'll get used to it.

With biking you need to do hills.  There's no getting around that.

Cycling does impact your running.  The better my cycling gets, the worse my running gets.  You dod lose some of your running speed as you devote more time to cycling.  Some of your running speed will come back as gain more experience, and do a few more bricks.

Good job on the race!