I'd watched from the sidelines the previous year and finally plucked up the courage to do it myself this year. Registration was straight forward, you basically picked a day and a time you wanted to do it - which was great as I got to pick the day and time the same as my partner and some of his family. Registration packs arrived in the post so there was no worries about registering or picking up packs on the day.

It was windy and drizzly on the day, we parked in a garden center about a mile down the road, Im not entirely sure what carparking nearer to the event. 

It's very busy down at the event start and that made it extra muddy, partly due to the weather. 

The one downside for the day was the changing rooms, it was heated changing rooms but a very small area to get changed, making it VERY packed and VERY hot which made it all the more difficult to get into a wetsuit.

Baggage area was fine, everyone had their own labels for their bag and had their number written on their hand for collection so there was no way you could have your bag taken by mistake.

There was a pre-race warm up and then a chance for us to get acclimatized to the water(which was COLD!). I had alittle issue with my chip where it came loose on my ankle and I almost lost it - thankfully not but it made me paranoid it would come off mid race.

Waves started on time and weren't massively busy - however, if you're not as confident a swimmer, it's best to stay towards the back of the pack as there's alot of thrashing, I bashed my toes on people a couple of times.

The water was pretty choppy, but i felt very safe, there were lots of kayaks about in case anyone got stuck or panicked. 

The course layout was easy to navigate with lots of big buoys to sight. The actual race flew by!

At the end, you go under a timing bridge and there are plenty of people waiting to help you up out of the water - you get your chip scanned and taken off you at the end and you receive a medal, cotton t-shirt and a little goodie bag at the end.

Overall a great event, very well organised, would like to see bigger changing facilities - but I'll definitely be doing this race again next year.. and I'll keep my fingers crossed for some better weather!