Completed my first Tri today, Napa His Tri

I don't post often on this site, but quietly over the last few months I have been reading and training and preparing for my first triathlon. Here is a recap of the day.
I live in San Ramon, CA and decided to drive up the morning of the race. We left the house at 5:10am and arrived at Lake Berryessa at 7:10am. I set up, my transition area was super neat. I knew I wouldn't win my age group or anything, but I swear, if they were handing out medals for most organized transition area I would have been in the running.
The whole way up in the car the thermostat never got above 45 degrees for the outside temperature and it really freaked me out to think that I would be getting into a lake and swimming a half mile.
I wandered around before the race, checked out the super fancy bikes of some of the other guys and tried to calm my mind, almost impossible. I just wanted to get the swim over with so I could enjoy the bike and the run.
The swim finally started at 9am. I was in the second wave, there were only two waves. I had heard so much about how it was brutal starting the swim and to be prepared for punches and kicks. I would say it was more like a pillow fight in the water. The swim went very well, it only took me 14 minutes to finish and I thought to myself, this is going to be a great day. I'd never swam that fast at the pool or in my open water practices. Well, for good reason, by the time i ran up the hill to the bike area I was in trouble. My heart rate was super high and even though I tried to be slow though the transition it did not set a good tone for the bike. The bike course was hilly and I just didn't ever feel great on it. I huffed and puffed and managed to somehow not notice the turn around, I know, space case here. Luckily I only made it about 2 minutes down the road when I heard someone yell, turn around. I also managed to knock my chain off at about mile 11. Luckily I was able to pedal it back on. I finsished the 15 mile course in 63 minutes. Slower than I had hoped, but I didn't get a flat so my biggest fear on the bike was never realized.
The run was just alright, nothing great. It was a real challenge and again had a couple of hills. It was a 4 mile out and back course. I took a few walk breaks when i could feel my heart rate getting really high and also when my achilles started to ache. I'm not quite 100% from that injury and I wanted to make sure that this event didn't leave me worse with the injury.
I finished the run and my time for the day was 2:06. I had it in my head that I really wanted to finish in under two hours, but reflecting back to where I was a few months ago I'm really happy with my day. Triathlon has already given me a lot.
I've lost 15 lbs,
learned to swim, I could swim before, but it was not pretty
ridden a bike for the first time in 18 years
& Wore spandex in public
4 months ago I was just sitting on the couch kind of discouraged about my weight gain, my sore achilles and needing direction. Now I'm motivated, found a sport that I am really enjoying and have the rest of the fall and winter to drop the rest of my excess lbs and compete in more triathlons.
Oh, and I almost forgot, I wanted to thank all of the posters on this site. I picked up some good tips here and always found it interesting to read what other people were doing.
I'm taking a week off and then starting back to my diet and some new exercise goals for the rest of 07.
Cheers,
Christopher