Did anyone find their first tri so unexpectedly hard? I mean, I looked at the times from the previous year and thought, "Gee, I could do that swim time, and oh! That bike time is easy...and hey, I can run that fast (if I was being chased down by rabid wolverines during the apocalypse, that is...)" But I didn't realise just how hard it is to put it all together in one single event. After the swim, your legs feel heavy. After the bike, those same legs can't figure out what it is you want them to do. It might just help if people new to triathlons could keep finishing well as an initial objective -- finishing well in terms of their own individual capabilities.

Oh, and you might want to mention the porta-potty and sleepless-night-before-thing, too!