SWIM (WITH THE CROCS)
The Cairns swim course is quite unique in that the temperature is warm and it would typically be a non wetsuit swim but thanks to the likelihood of jelly-fish making the swim uncomfortable the race is wetsuit compulsory. The warm air plus warm water can make this a hot swim and at the beginning of a 4-17hr day of exercising this needs to be considered in the hydration strategy
Discuss this with your Coach and have a plan in place pre swim and in T1/early stages of the bike to allow for the losses incurred during the swim. Not doing so can and will have an affect on performance in the latter stages of the race
Other than that, the swim for both the IRONMAN and the 70.3 is relatively straightforward and can be easily segmented. The back straight is the longest single segment (once for 70.3 & twice for the IM). Often this is current assisted – be sure to concentrate and maximise speed here. When swimming into the current/chop stay relaxed, sight often, shorten your stroke and increase stroke rate to stay efficient and minimise loss in speed. With the chop you can lengthen your stroke and allow more rotation