Firstly, please note that I pulled out at the second half of the marathon so that my placement was DNF. Regardless, will try and keep the review as objective as possible. 

Penghu is a small island about 50min flight from Taipei. If you are not accustomed to hot weather or enjoy racing in heat and humidity it will be highly unlikely that you will enjoy this race. We hit a sunny day on race day and course felt like 40 degrees. Even at 4am you felt like you're in a sauna. Most top positions in age groups were taken by local Taiwanese despite some very strong athletes from abroad so take that into account if you feel it may be an easy race for a Kona slot.

Planes flying there are small so if you want to guarantee your bike travels with you I'd advise you go early and leave late. Otherwise you need to rely on the local bike transportation company. This year a typhoon hit a few days before the race (tyhoon season so highly likely this happens again) and due to that a lot of people did not get their bikes in up until Friday or even Saturday (race Sunday).

Registration process fine, logistics a bit of a hassle due to T1 being about 15km away from expo/registration and organisers provided no means to take your bike there which meant you either ride there to rack before race day or have to hire a cab. Highly recommend you rent a scooter for all the back and forth to expo/registration/town etc. Pre-race day you needed to be in 3 different places (T1, T2 and race briefing), all of which are not at a walkable distance from eachother, not ideal when all you want to do is have your feet up and relax. 

Race morning you have to drop off your bike bag to pick up on the way out from the swim. Something I don't really get as you can just leave your bike bag next to the bike and head straight there after the swim rather than having to add an extra thing to do. Water is fantastic at 24-25 degrees (still allowed wetsuits which is beyond me but probably to help out weaker swimmers), course very easy to navigate, really enjoyed that swim. Be prepared for the odd jellyfish, especially if you're allergic.

On to the bike and road surface is great throughout the whole course. For once marshalls were relentless and were stopping people for drafting penalties right left and center. Very good to see. Aid stations were a let down, with one of them running out of water about 3.5hrs into the race which was probably around 11am and extremely hot. Volunteers were overwhelmed by sheer volume of cyclists and by the second lap each aid station resembled a turkish bazaar or a commodity trading pit with people off their bikes trying to find what they need while volunteers scrambling to fill up bottles. Forget picking up a bottle while riding. Hopefully they will improve that process for next year. 

I also found the bike course dangerous at times, roads are open to traffic and going through some very narrow bridges you get cars overtaking from the opposite side and see them heading straight at you.. This can be an extremely dangerous situation if you're not looking up while riding. Also scooters coming out from sidestreets etc, requires a lot of caution and that also drains your energy. 

The run took a lot of courage to even start! At that point temperatures were at the highest of the day, and you were looking at a 2lap course on desolate, endless asphalt roads, no shade or support along the way. Just you, aid station volunteers and your fellow pilgrims. Course is not flat and has some long uphill (albeit not steep) sections. Saw many people collapse due to heat and ambulances seemed quite busy. The last part of the race was all about heat survival and I have a lot of respect for all finishers. Personally the wheels had come off for a number of reasons, ultimately the decision was whether I want to run-walk a 6hr marathon simply to finish or pull the plug, regroup and fight another day. If it were my first attempt at the distance I probably would have but I quickly ran out of arguments on why I should continue so it was game over at 21km. 

To close, I was well aware that this would not be a race to rave about afterwards, I joined purely due to the chance of a Kona slot. There's a lot of amazing events out there that offer a much better experience so I probably won't be coming back. However, if you live in the region then it's probably a convenient spot and if you love racing in the heat then that gives you a definite edge.