Did my first Sprint today
So, I finished my first Sprint today. I did pretty well, despite several mishaps. I lost the little ankle GPS they fit us with to keep our time. I took it off when I took my wet suit off and started on the bike ride, before turning back and wasting a ton of time looking for it. It was stuck inside my wet suit! The whole mishap must have cost me 5-7 minutes. I also exited the transition area in the wrong direction on the run leg. So, all in all, I think I wasted about 8-10 minutes figuring stuff out.
But, by far, the most surprising issue was how difficult the swim turned out to be. This was very disappointing, as I've developed into a much better swimmer over the last 5 weeks (I used to swim comparatively.) The swim was only 400 meters, and I regularly swim 1400 to 1700 meters in training with no issues. I can go on much longer at a fairly quick pace (all pool.) I started at the back of the pack, and quickly overtook about 70% of the swimmers, but found myself bumping into people, constantly breaking my stride to look up to see where I was going, slowing and then speeding up. It turned out to be exhausting! The last 100 meters were TORTURE. I started to panic, thinking I would drown. Freaking horrible. I just went into a flat backstroke (elementary stroke) and finished up. I really have to practice swimming in crowded open water if I intend to get good at this stuff. But even with all of that, I did pretty well. What an experience! Thank you to everyone here for all your advice, particularly VegasJen!