Journey from yuppie to triathlete: Danskin Race Report

Today was the day of the big race - and I mean quite literally as there are 4000 women registered for the Danskin triathlon.
Pre-race
Woke up to the sound of thunder and lightening at 4am. My thought was, "Oh no! The Danskin is cursed!" Last year it poured.
I had a bowl of cereal and 1 hard boiled egg for breakfast then left the house at around 4:30am. I had packed everything the night before so I was all set to go.

SWIM: 1/2 mile
This was challenging. The wave was so huge - like at least 100 women. I placed myself too close to the front and when the count down ended, it was madness! I was shoved around, pushed and kicked. Only when the mass of women were ahead of me, could I really start to swim. I passed the first buoy without incident, but then had trouble seeing the next buoy - it was so far away! I felt like I was swimming all over the place. This half mile swim took me 20 minutes - a little longer than I had hoped. After the race, I heard that a lady almost drowned. She was taken to Habourview and put on life support. She is recovering now, thank God!
Time: 00:20:39

T1:
I made it a goal of mine to improve on my transitions from Issaquah. I ripped off my wetsuit coming out of the water and ran to transition. I had used Body Glide on my ankles and my arms so that I could rip off my wetsuit - which helped. I didn't put socks on or gloves for my bike. Still with all that, it took me 3:17 to transition. It was a pretty long run to transition from the water, so most people had poor T1 tmes.

BIKE: 12.4 miles
My bike went really well - they closed off I-90 for our bike portion. I left transition very light, not even a water bottle. Because I was in one of the early waves there weren't many people on the road, so I was able to reach top speeds with not too many issues. The steep climb up to I-90 was open so that was not a bottleneck for me. But coming back, that tiny on ramp was packed. A few people had crashed there. My average speed was 20 MPH.
Time: 00:36:03

T2:
After my good bike, I ran to transition, racked my bike, put on my socks and shoes and took off. I was trying out new nutrition, Nuun tablets...this would end up being a bad decision. You should never try anything new on race day. This transition took just under 3 minutes.

Run: 3.1 miles
The first mile of the run was hard as my quads and hamstrings were tight from all the lactic acid build up from my bike. Not only that, but my tummy was not feeling so well. I realized after the race that carbonated drinks don't do so well for some people. I started off around 10 MPH and eventually speed up to 8 MPH but there was not enough road left to make up for my slow start.
Time: 00:28:26