Quote Originally Posted by Tri Girl
The only other piece of advice I have is to take off your cycling gloves before the run. I ran with mine on during my first tri.
Ha! I read an article in a tri magazine one time about doofy things people have done. Take off on the run, still wearing the bike helmet...be all ready to start the swim and realize that no one else was there because you were on the wrong side of the lake...put your wet suit on backwards and wonder why everyone elses' zipped up the back, not the front... Hilarious stuff that made me feel better about bringing a hand towel for my transition area.

Regarding the wetsuit--go according to lake temp. It'll probably be posted on the website. The super sprint I did was in Lake Michigan, and took place on the heels of two days of thunderstorms. The lake was so stirred up that it was freezing cold. The "swim" was so close to shore that the water was never deeper than our waists. Nobody in my wave swam. We all ran through the ice cold water, because if we put our faces in it, we couldn't breathe. It was soooo cold! The guy on the loudspeaker was yelling: "C'mon guys! It's not a duathlon! You're supposed to swim!" By contrast, Lake Zurich has always been so warm that you'd overheat wearing a full wetsuit. I wear my sleeveless, shortlegged one mainly to cover my bra and tri shorts.