I was just looking at the times for the swim at the Demi-Esprit in Montreal. I thought the swim was in a protected (no waves) rowing basin. I would have thought this would lead to fast swims, but the fastest over all swim was a 26:27 for a 1:24/100m average. I know this is still a good swim for most but I split that for the first 1/2 at Lake Placid last year and I would expect an overall swim winner to be faster.
I know there are no pros but I compared Dev’s time from IMLP (1:01) to his time for the 1/2 (30:55). and that seems relatively slow.
If you look at my other half IM times for the year, they are
Muskoka 2000 ~ 33 with > 1 min to transition mat
Tupper 1900 31 flat
Timberman 1900 , just under 31
Canadian 1900, 35 minute, but >2 min run to transition mat with a very sub par swim.
Esprit 2000 m, 31
The extra 100m adds 1.5 minutes so given that Esprit was 2000m it was my fastest swim of the year, which it should be given that you are swimming in what is really a pool that is 2K long and 250m wide.