THE SWIM: Crazy horrid swim. Fairly cold water, biggish swells, big current. Got off the beach pretty good. Had trouble getting a breath and finding my rhythm. Definitely a mass start. Had trouble spotting the buoys due to the big swells. The course definitely felt way longer than 1500m. Following other swimmers just led us way off course. Would love to see a helicopter shot of the zig zagging! Checked my watch at the 2/3 buoy: 23 min! Yikes. Final swim time ~37 min. Crap! T1: Quick jog to the transition area. Uneventful T1. Time ~2:30. Cool by me. Bike: Shorter than 40k at 23.2 miles (no idea why!) Flat, but windy. Aero position 90% of the time. Tried to focus on eating, drinking. First loop went well after I got into it ~3 miles in. Flew past a good amount of other riders (yay!) Second loop took it up a notch in effort to make up for the horrid swim (which was the talk of the day amongst most of my friends who also raced!) Got off the bike in 1:07:38 - very stoked with the 20.6 mph effort in pretty windy conditions and of course not drafting! T2: Uneventful as well! Time: ~ 40 seconds. Run: Felt pretty bad right out of the gate, but was surprised to see my pace at 8:23 for the first mile! Then 8:53, then 8:58. Fading fast and am not such a fan of loop courses...9:05. Holding on by a string! I knew if I walked it was over. And I knew if I tried to stay with it I could still go sub 2:45 despite a disastrous start. Mile 5: 9:23. Finish line in sites....gasping....last mile 8:48. Run time 55:10. (Yikes as well!) Total time ~ 2:44:27. Mission accomplished despite the adversity. (PR!)