2.4 Mile Swim
Note: click pics to enlarge them.

A Beautiful Day for a Swim.
I got up at 4:30am, had breakfast, and watched CNN for a while. Around 5:30, I made my way down to the transition area to check my bike, get bodymarked (they write your number all over you), and change into my wetsuit. The few days before the race started out with thick fog in the morning, but the forecast for race day was clear skies and a nice glassy surface. At least they got half of it right. It was a bright beautiful day, but the waves were kicking up a bit and the current was pretty strong, pushing you left to right on the swim course. All 1700 of us started right at 7:00am and the first few hundred yards felt great...

The Swim Course.
I got kicked hard in the face after about 300 yards. The impact pushed the lens of my goggles from the socket. So I did the first loop of the swim (about 1 mile) without goggles. Ouch. During the couple seconds I had on the beach between laps, I pushed the lens back in place, but they leaked pretty bad the whole second lap and I had to pause to empty them often. Needless to say I was glad to get out of the water. From the water you ran up the beach to the wetsuit stripping area, where people unzipped you and yanked you out of your wetsuit. Then through the showers and on to the transition area to change for the bike...