Well... I am alive. The race was extremely fun and full of surprises. I am glad to have the first one under my belt with a lot of room for improvement. I have broken my recap down below by event.
The Swim
A better title for this may be "You are never too old to make a complete fool of yourself in front of hundreds of people". The distance was 1/2 mile and I have completed this distance in the pool under 20 minutes consistently. Going in, I figured that since I have never raced in open water, I would be smart to pad this time by 5 minutes or so, based on unknown factors. 
After hearing the starting gun go off, and quickly wading into the brown water over my head with the group, I promptly began swimming at about a 12 minute pace and immediately began hyperventilating, unable to catch my breath.
Another notable fact... swimming in Florida Lake water is similar to dunking your head into a mop bucket with less that 1 foot visibility and then being sprayed in the face with the mop water every time that you lift your head to breath.
About 1/4 of the way into the swim, I had to roll over onto my back and just kick as I tried to catch my breath and basically, stayed in this position for the remainder of the swim.
One last notable fact, when laying on your back, it is nearly impossible to see the direction you are going and because of this:
Instead of taking the recommended path through the course:
I sort of blazed my own trail: 
In the end, I walked out of the water after 33 minutes, completely exhausted and ready to lose my breakfast.
The Bike
During my training, I enjoyed my bike the most and during the 12 miles on the bike, I was able to get a bit of a second wind and actually move out of last place and gain about 10 spots (note the lack of bicycles in transition area as I prepare to mount). Again, I had completed this distance in about 35 minutes during training, but because I had unexpectedly done nothing but kick during the swim, I came into the second transition area in a blazing 44 minutes.
The Run and Finish
At this point, I am just making sure that I don't hurt myself and pulled the final 2.8 miles in about 36 minutes. I was able to pass a few folks who had began to walk: many of them were doing a combined event which included a shorter swim... I probably should have been among them in hind sight. After crossing the finish line, 
I noticed my friend John was lying nearby asleep because he had finished about 25 minutes before me and tired of waiting. And as I reached down to gently tap his shoulder (waking John, a former Marine is always a bit dangerous), I noticed what was undoubtedly a small but potentially lethal Gator bite on my thumb that must have occurred during the 1/2 hour on my back in the lake.
In the end, the race was a blast and I look forward to a few more events and a lot more fun through the rest of the summer... please stay tuned for future adventures.
