This was the first hosting of the Beale Beastie, and the guys from TVT did a great job - if there were any teething problems, they weren't apparent to me.

Registration on the morning was a breeze for me (though I did spot that a bit of a queue built up at peak arrival time), with a decent goody bag provided, including a few freebies and a race t-shirt.

The swim was a fresh 14 degrees, but the lake was calm and clear - an easy inverted V course, with an equally easy swim exit, with transition very close by.

The bike course is great - a couple of relatively steep climbs sandwich a longish (and very fast) false-flat downhill, and the view of the countryside are cracking (if you can spare the time to take them in!). Roads were very quiet too, which definitely helped.

The run course is stunning - almost entirely off road on grass tracks, with a hefty chunk alongside the River Thames, then through some light woodland.

A bottle of water and decent medal awaited at the finish line.

All in all, a great event - only thing that I'd look at is whether a water station is needed on the run; I personally didn't feel like I needed one, but others (particularly the first-timers, of which there were quite a few) might appreciate it.