There isn't much to fault here, it's a good bog standard triathlon.

Offering two options of sprint and standard and also Triathlon and Aquabike of which the Triathlon sprint option was 1,000m/25km/5km, it's held on an area just over the Dartford crossing which isn't host to a lot of traffic. Parking was ample and I arrived early with no issues in registration, those arrive a bit closer to their start were however queuing for a bit, however that can't be faulted of the event.

The waves are sent off roughly in order with Standard participants going first, then Aquabike, then the sprint you start off first by having to climb down into the lake which must be noted as having a gentle pungent whiff, certainly not disgusting but neither was it pleasant.

As above, the swim was long, about 1,000m, upon exiting the water there's a short run to transition to get on your bike. The bike consists of 6km loops which you have to cycle a short way to get to, of which in the sprint you complete 4 laps. There's two things to note on the bike course, one, the turning points are quite tight U-turns, these aren't exactly great when you consider the second point which is the race is non-drafting, however, with laps being over 6km, by the time we got onto the bike as the 4th wave, it was almost impossible not to draft! The course felt quite crowded and it other than intentionally drafting off the same person, I'm not sure how you could be punished for drafting. Fortunately, I don't think anyone was punished for it, like I say, unless it was intentionally off the same person, it wouldn't be fair.

The Run was nothing special, a bit more exciting than a dual carriage way but still along some roads with a bit of greenery. The run for the sprint was 2x 2.5km laps which had its only turn around point, the Standard had its own turn around point and consisted of 3 larger laps. water was provided at the start of each lap in cups, which is always a frustration however understandable the reasoning, it's sadly always a logical infuriation.

The finish was a welcome affair, not because the race was bad but because it was so hot! Print outs of your times were available giving instantaneous results which is always a nice touch!

Overall, back to the beginning, it's a very good bog standard Triathlon, just look out for the slightly smelly lake, the tight turns and unavoidable drafting on the bike and account for heat and you'll enjoy this race as much as any others!

On the race notes transition closure was not mentioned so my partner and I arrived 90 minutes before our wave, 60 before the first wave so we could actually sort out our racking. 

Registration for a lot of people was a nightmare: there were very long queues and someone ocassionally called out, 'If you're numbers 1-190 then there's another queue to get into but not many people heard this or knew what number they were so there was one massive, slow moving forward, queue which meant all the start waves were late. 

So we had over 2 hours until we started which was annoying as we had to wake up before 5am to get there with time up our sleeves. 

I talked to 4 officials and no one could answer me how we were to get a final time for the aquabike event. I talked to the timing guy and he said to probably run over the finish line, none of the officials had said this so like last year I wouldn't have been given a bike split! 

We waited 2.5 hours in 30 degree heat for the awards and that was only after I asked for them twice. Both my partner and I won overall but he nearly left because he was so sick and tired of waiting around.  

The course was safe but management poor which really was unfortunately as last year I had a great time. 

If you are all about riding about looking at the sights and that's all then this isn't for you.

If, however you're all about PB's and getting into a good rhythm then fill your boots.

This is the second time I've raced this event, closed roads and nice and flat it's a PB territory.  

Road is decent quality, easy to get to and the parking was no issue. It's not a pretty course but your timing printout will look very pretty at the end!