Your first Ironman race-swim. You've come so far and now the big day is here. The beach is so crowded. You look around with apprehension, self-doubt and possibly just plain fear. Your heart is racing and you wonder if you even belong here.

Of course you do. You've worked long and hard for this. There need not be self-doubt or fear. What you need is a solid plan for the swim and then you can enjoy it.

Ask 100 triathletes which of the three events is most important in determining your final result and this is what you will most likely hear.

--about 80% will say the marathon. The reasoning is that if you have a really poor day on the Ironman marathon course it will determine if and how you finish the race.

--around 18% will say the bike leg because it is the longest in distance.

--the other 2% will say it is the swim....and I am in that 2%.

The energy you can use up through inefficient swimming and fighting your way through the pack is lost for the day. You will not get it back for the bike and the run. Its almost impossible to calculate how important a stress-free, efficient swim will be to your final result.

After much trial and error, I've come to the realization that the swim is the most important leg of the Ironman. It goes a long way toward deciding the outcome of the next two events.

Most first time Ironmen have similar race-swim plans. Usually navigating in the open water is an issue for them so they decide they will just follow the buoy(swim markers)all the way to the big marker indicating the turn. Or else they plan to wait for 50 or 60 seconds and then follow the markers.

Trust me when I say----this is the biggest mistake you can make and it will make your swim miserable and will dictate how the rest of your day goes. If you are fast enough to get out with the leaders then start where you want. That means you can do the course in around 55 minutes. That will not be most of you.

I tried the lane marker thing and believe me, it is NOT the way to go. Waiting for a minute doesn't help much either. Look around you and you will see hundreds of other first timers waiting with you. Either way you will be kicked, punched, shoved under water, swam over and nearly drowned. And thats in just the first 10 minutes. It can go on for a long time. It's no way to start your first Ironman race-swim.

Several years ago I was looking at an overhead picture of an Ironman swim start and it suddenly dawned on me where I should have been swimming all those years. At the same time I was working on a long, smooth, relaxed stroke and wasn't thrashing in the water anymore.

My next Ironman I tried my theory out and I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed the swim. I felt relaxed the whole time. I never got kicked or punched or run into once and I came out of the water feeling like I'd hardly worked. AND, I had a personal best by 5 minutes.

Now I'll tell you how to have a pressure free, relaxed Ironman race-swim.

First, make sure you have worked on your swim stroke to make it smooth, efficient and relaxed. Its a needless waste of energy to thrash your arms and legs as fast as you can for 2.4 miles.

Before the swim start, make your way far, far to the left. As far as you can go. You want to the last person out there to the left. You don't want anyone on your right. Well, maybe one or two people, but not dozens. The marker buoys should be way over on your right.

When the gun signals the start of the race-swim, wait 10 or 15 seconds(that's all)and pick your outside line, keeping everyone to your right.

Start relaxed and smooth. Keep your heart rate down as much as possible. You most likely breathe to your right. That's perfect. Everytime you breathe you will see the thrashing arms and legs and everyone else getting knocked silly.

The beauty of this system is that you hardly ever have to look up and try and find the big turn marker. The entire field will eventually collapse toward the lane markers as the turn nears. You just collapse right along with them, always staying on the outside. When you are coming up on the marker, stay away from it!!!

Make a circle around it---12 or 15 feet away from it if you have to. STAY AWAY FROM IT!! It will get just as deadly around that marker as it was at the start. The few seconds extra you take to swim wide around the marker will be paid back 5 times. If you get in that crush at the beginning or at the turns, you lose TONS of time and it makes you waste energy that you will need later in the day.

Use this system for the entire swim. Doesn't matter if its out and back or out and back twice. You'll find that as you get further into the race, the swimmers will be more spread out and you will probably be closer to the markers. That's ok, as long as nobody is on your left.

Use this system and trust me that it works, and I guarantee it will take a lot of the worry and stress away from your first Ironman race-swim.

You will feel great when you get out of the water and excited about getting on your bike.