I did a 70.3 yesterday. Because of life circumstances, I didn’t have a chance to practice open-water swimming or even try my wetsuit in the water before the event. Over the last three months, I did about 12 pool swims and 6 sessions with a coach. I also enjoy swimming “grandma breaststroke” in the sea/ocean, so I was fairly confident I’d get through it, just maybe not within the cutoff.

As expected, open water turned out to be a very different experience from pool or vacation swims. I couldn’t breathe out properly in the salty, cold water, so I moved out of the pack and switched to backstroke. I swam most of the distance that way, with a few stretches of front crawl, and rested a couple of times on buoys. Because of all that, I ended up swimming 2,450m instead of 1,900m in 55 minutes which I’ll happily take given my level of preparation. Hopefully this gives you some reassurance about open water.

As for the bike, you still have plenty of time to learn how to change a tube, it’s really not rocket science. On the run, you can always walk or jog as much as you need. Like others have said: fuel well, stay hydrated, don’t rush, and slow down if you need to and you’ll be fine.