Project 2017 and beyond.......: June 2016

Shambles. Worst organised event I've ever done.

Arrival at Leeds was presented with no signage to where registration was, so I had to google the university and found it due to the Expo, this was the same to find T2. there was no signage at all.

Registration found, but the bloke behind the desk didn't know where T2 was.

I then walked to T2 and was shocked to find it in building site. There was some blue carpet so I assumed they there was going to be blue carpet for all athletes. I later found this to be wrong. During the race the dismount line was approx 300m before the entrance to T2 and then only corporate athletes got blue carpet, we had to run barefoot on stones, glass and nails.

I then Got to T1 the day of the race. I walked to the entrance to T1 only be told that the green bag were 400 m in the other direction, this angered a lot on athletes.

Whilst I was setting up in T1 we were told that our helmets had to be in the blue bag, if they weren't there would be a 2 minute time penalty. This was told be an official. This is absolutely crazy - apparently this was so people didn't have an advantage, where is that stated in the BTF rules or pre race brief?

I then had to queue for 20 minutes for 12 portaloos that were at the start. I feel like this wasn't enough.

The swim penning system worked really well. and the swim was marked out well and was really good. Great swim 25:50ish

Then transition was absolutely unacceptable. I ran bare foot on tarmac for 0.6 of a mile and same back with my bike and my wetsuit in the blue bag, this was dropped off right at the mount line. then it was an immediate hill, I personally saw 3 athletes fall off because how to mount line position and the hill. Why not let us mount straight out of T1? Madness. 9min T1!!!

The cycle was great, well marshaled, supported and ran perfectly. 2 mile climb, 6 mile ish decent and then turn around back up hill for 7 miles before final decent into Leeds. Averaged 19.5mph and 1:10:XX ish.

Then into T2 as mentioned above.

Onto the run it was so congested you couldn't run freely. the aid station was good and the people were great. Support was fantastic but just too many people. 49:40ish

Through the finish and you were rushed through and handed a medal in an area similar to my front room! then we had to cross the run course and had half a banana and a piece of orange. No race T-Shirt!!

Dry bag collect at the end was a joke. We were promised everything would be waiting. Mine took 5hrs from when I finished!!

I want to say that the volunteers were all absolutely awesome, they saved the day and I think they saved people going to hospital with cold related injuries.

The 3 separate events were great, route wise and support, but everything else was unacceptable, it felt like we were 3rd class citizens after the Pros and corporate athletes.