Don't get fooled by the un-fit people look. If they're swimming sub 1:30, they've got good pull power and an efficient body position. Even if they've got a gut and plenty of flab.

You don't have to 'look' fit in swimming to go fast. 9-month pregnant ex-competitive D1 swimmers who look like they're going to explode will still crush 99% of triathletes including the lean and mean top AGers in swim challenges.

Plenty of videos on youtube showing top elite world-class freestyle swimmers making sub 1:00/100 paces look easy. Don't look at that and conclude it's all technique and no power. I'd argue the nearly the complete opposite - these guys/girls are so powerful, they'd be nearly that speed even if they had to do YOUR (or my) stroke, complete with our errors. In fact, I'll guarantee that you could have them swim in a drag suit, one-armed tied to their waist, and even have them pop their entire head clear out of the water to their chin on every other stroke to further kill their great body position, and they'll STILL easily go sub 1:30/100yds, if not sub 1:20.

Yes, mostly short course (Olympic/INTL) that said, my HIM in Madison was 1:35 pace. No currents that I've noticed or aware of, most areas I race in are smaller lakes (MN). So I do attribute a lot of the speed to wetsuit, also attribute a lot to race mentality. Admittedly, I have a hard time getting excited to swim back and forth, tracing the black line back to the "+"

Not sure where you got your 1:35 pace from. I looked you up in the 2017 results and the results say 35:31 with a 1:50/100 m pace. Converting to yards, that would be about a 1:41/100 yd pace. However, you are correct about being 385/2452 so your pace did get you in top 16% of the race in the swim. Also, that race was a legit 1.2 mi/1930 m swim, with no current assist, as the fastest swim of the day was a 25:45 by a 35-39 male age grouper.

Super odd... but I have the exact opposite issue. I am a 1:30 OWS and a 1:45-1:50 pool swimmer. I'm going to blame the excess speed on wetsuits though. I've not had to race in a swimskin in either of the last two years.

like most people having trouble in open water don't do it as often as the pool, .....I usually only swim in open water during races and I know that I'm a lot more tense and have adrenaline going in races.....I just feel more comfortable and able to focus on my form. In OWS I struggle to find a good breathing rhythm and a good stroke rhythm. Therefore I'd argue that a lot of my tension and difficultly finding good rhythm and mechanics is because of the adrenaline and tension from the race.

This isn't an OWS vs rarely swimming OWS situation. This situation which plagues many triathletes is partly a failure to address specific issues in training and partly a failure in one's OWS skill set.

Most triathletes waste their time when they go OWS. They swim from point A to point B and back. If they really wanted to become better OWS swimmers they should work on their OWS specific skill set. Now that still may get you from Point A to point B and back but it would rarely involve just swimming there and back.

I got my pace from my garmin file, link provided below.
https://connect.garmin.com/...ctivity/1791925043/1

Please don't laugh at my run... it was REALLY hot that day :p

Well, I don't think it is legit to say you swam 1:35/100 yd b/c you swam an extra 80 yd, e.g. your file says you went 2192 yd vs 2112 yd which would be an exact 1.2 miles. Also, your file gives your time as 34:47 vs your "official time" of 35:31. In sum, I'd still argue you're going around 1:40 in this swim vs 1:45 in the pool, which is easily accounted for by the wetsuit. In any case, your swim is clearly your strong suit, at least as compared to triathletes.

Oh well, suppose I can't satisfy everyone, guess I wasn't really trying anyway; nor was I trying to make some outlandish claim. I looked at my garmin, compared that result to other results consistent with it, made an observation which resulted in my response to this thread.

I swam in high school, but running is usually my strength all things being relative. Did I mention it was hot that day?