Any tips for a FIRST time OW swim?

Doing the CB Swim for the very first time (1 miler). Can you give me some tips? Just anything...I am in the dark when it comes to OW!:dunno: THANKS!!!! Learn to love drafting: find a pack of swimmers, get nestled in there and "trust" that the pack is going in the right direction. While sighting is necessary, it takes a lot of energy and I think most people sight too often versus too little. I've done a few (2 to 4) OW swims (1m to 3m) each summer for the last 5 or so years and always ended them just wiped out, with muscle fatigue in places I never felt from a pool swim. I'm pretty sure that was mainly from excessive sighting. Terry Laughlin of TI gave me the "trust the pack" mantra before I did the 3 mile Gatorman at La Jolla last summer. It took me a bit, but I did find a pack probably 5 minutes into the race and was able to reduce my energy output to keep the same pace both by drafting and doing very little head-lifting for sighting. I did almost all my sighting off the pack's feet and bodies. I think if you watch the winners from the Beijing 10K, you'll see that they, too, tended to follow the pack until the end of race sprint.

Doing the CB Swim for the very first time (1 miler). Can you give me some tips? Just anything...I am in the dark when it comes to OW!:dunno: THANKS!!!! Learn to love drafting: find a pack of swimmers, get nestled in there and "trust" that the pack is going in the right direction. While sighting is necessary, it takes a lot of energy and I think most people sight too often versus too little. I've done a few (2 to 4) OW swims (1m to 3m) each summer for the last 5 or so years and always ended them just wiped out, with muscle fatigue in places I never felt from a pool swim. I'm pretty sure that was mainly from excessive sighting. Terry Laughlin of TI gave me the "trust the pack" mantra before I did the 3 mile Gatorman at La Jolla last summer. It took me a bit, but I did find a pack probably 5 minutes into the race and was able to reduce my energy output to keep the same pace both by drafting and doing very little head-lifting for sighting. I did almost all my sighting off the pack's feet and bodies. I think if you watch the winners from the Beijing 10K, you'll see that they, too, tended to follow the pack until the end of race sprint.