It would be churlish to say that the London Triathlon had not learned from some of the mistakes of last year. It would also be foolish to pretend that it is anything like a polished and professional event. Registration on the Saturday saw queues of over an hour with further waits to rack the bike. Transition was still a vast concrete slab studded with lumps and metallic protrusions. The bike course was significantly improved although the dreadful shortage of marshals (21 of 93 actually turned up!!!) meant that the first sprint waves went seriously awry with the bike course inadequately coned or signed at that stage.

The distances were accurate this year, the finish was better, the swims were better controlled and the BTA sent eight top referees along to assist at a technical level in all areas of the event. Sadly, most of us ended up acting as marshals simply because we were the only people in yellow jackets...

The majority of the competitors (apart from the sprint distance) seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves. It is also true that most of them had no previous experience of triathlon or had only ever done a London Triathlon before. Which is interesting in itself. If they had been inspired to do London, perhaps more than once, why did they not feel inspired to do other events like Ellesmere, Windsor, Bournemouth, Brighton or Salford? I suspect that the simple answer is because they only get to hear about London: they are not the sort of people who read 220, they don't get on the mailing lists for other events and, for all I know, think London is the only triathlon in the UK! The BTA has a job to do here, I think.

Oh, and the elite wave was won by Simon Lessing and Leanda Cave but most people had gone long before they started...