I'm going to kick this off by saying I do have a huge amount of sympathy for the organisers of this event; they had to make a last minute change to the swim venue because of algae in the original lake, which in turn meant a split transition and hefty changes to the bike route. I'm sure this will have played a part in some of the issues on the day, but I can only review based on my experience.

I'll cover the good points first:

- communication in the build up to the race, with the change of venue was great

- registration on the day before was a breeze

- there was a nice, relaxed feel at the start

- the bike course was honest, with a few short sharp climbs

- there was a guy before the aid station on the bike warning that it was coming up, so you didn't arrive too fast and miss it

- the transportation of bags from T1 to the finish worked really smoothly

- there was plenty of Erdinger Alkoholfrei at the finish

Now for the not so good side of things:

- the lake was too shallow to swim in at two points on each lap. I was in the first wave, so we all walked it, but I heard of later waves being told they would be DQ'd if they did, so essentially ended up crawling

- the buoys either hadn't been put out correctly, or hadn't been well-anchored, as the swim course was about 250-300m long, judging by times and people's watches

- we were told beforehand that there would be 5 draft-busting motos on the course. I didn't see a single one, despite being towards the front, so there was a fair amount of drafting

- signage and marshalling on both the bike and run courses left a lot to be desired. At a lot of points it wasn't very clear which direction to go (most of the leading men ended up DNF-ing because of missing a turn on the run), and marshals were lacking at some key points (such as right hand turn junctions on the bike, where there was no forewarning, which could have ended in disaster). 

- there was very little atmosphere anywhere on the course. I saw maybe half a dozen people cheering on the bike route, no one on the run, and even the stadium was a bit of a damp squib, despite the best efforts of the MC.

- logistics of getting between the start and finish were a bit of a ball-ache, with them being 20 miles apart. A 16 seater minibus was originally all they had planned for, which was never going to be enough, though they did get hold of a larger coach last minute, albeit with quite a wait for a lot of disappointed people who just wanted to get home

So, overall, not an event I'll be rushing back to do again, but nor was it a 'never again' race