I did one once (a club 10). It was awful and I hated every single second of it.
Basically got talked into it by one of the guys in the club who picked me up at stupid o clock in the morning and drove me down to a windswept section of wet A-road somewhere in Kent. Weather was shit, I’d got a clip-on set of tri-bars on loan from another club member that were uncomfortable, I had no idea of pacing or anything.
The weather was so bad I raced in my windproof jacket to the absolute horror of everyone else there – they were all in skinsuits.
All I remember of the day was everything being shit – the weather, the course, the Little Chef breakfast afterwards – and me being stone dead last and getting a puncture more or less as I fell across the finishing line a shivering wreck.
That was about 20 years ago and I swore then I’d never do another one. I’ve stuck with that vow!