IM UK 70.3 Wimbleball - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was going to be my 6th 70.3 finish, I've done timberman (x3, I consider the best 70.3 out there), steelhead (a decent second), kansas (totally disorganized). Leading up to the event, its seemed quite organized; morning of race there was fog over the lake, so start was delayed an hour, which I suppose has been done before, so they had powerbars on hand to give to athletes. Swim was mass start (umm, 1200 athletes doing 1.2 miles? bad idea), I had actually just gotten in the water and didn't reach the start line before they blew the horn, the field never appropriately spread out. I'll first tell you that the bike course is all either up or downhill, there is very little flat. About 1 mile of the entire course is smooth black top, the rest is half "relatively" smooth roads and half downright uncomfortable to be in an aero position its so bumpy. The roads are typical UK countryside, i.e. two narrow lanes with NO shoulder on either side, roads are open to traffic, so all in all can be quite scary. I can't comment on the run course (see below).

So when I got about 30 minutes into the bike, went over an enormous (unmarked) pothole and got a flat. All in all, let's just say I didn't have the proper equiptment to fully fix my flat, so I though I would wait for the support crew, I knew it might take a while, but I just wanted to finish. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally walked back along the road to one of the volunteer marshals. I was starting to shiver, so he gave me his jacket and an extra blanket. He called for support 4 times. Yes, 4 times. A race official stopped long enough to tell me what there was no support crew and reminded me that if I got any outside support (i.e. not from another athlete) I would be disqualified, although someone should be around to take me back to transition. So, after waiting 2 hours, a spectator in a car that had driven past twice stopped to see if I was okay, and he gave me a lift back to the transition area.

All in all, I wasn't all that impressed with the course, and I suppose that many people could have a decent race, but if anything goes wrong, don't expect the race will do ANYTHING for you, rather sad; I will never do in the future and can't recommend it to others.