This was my first ever open water race (and actually first ever lake swim.) As such it was a significant step up for me as I have previously only done pool based sprint Tri's and only started doing front crawl 3 months before. Compared to the pool based Tri's there were very few novices and most people were strong swimmers and many people had Tri Bikes. As such, it felt like a big step up in terms of the other people taking part but still very friendly.

Marshalls and racing briefing were excellent and so was pre race emailed info. Swim was a triangle course and water seemed clean to me and pretty clear compared to how I imagine other OW races might be! It's a nice lake and the run route is two laps of a path that goes around it so very nice.

Bike is fast and flat although on a fairly busy main road. There are also several speed bumps to negotiate getting onto bike route (the nasty raised rubber kind) and this means it's pretty hard to pick up much speed getting out of the park.

Very well organised and a slick operation including chip timing and a baggage area. No medals though and everyone likes a bit of bling! I would have happily paid another £10 for a medal! Anyway, very well organised and good course.