In my experience, you end up with a bag (very poor quality for 70.3s and a bit better for IMs) which you are unliely to want or need, a couple of food/drink items (maybe a Redbull and a cereal bar) and a load of pretty useless brochures and other promotional nonsense.

They're not goody bags that offset the exorbitant fees. They're garbage that you have to carry from their registration tent before it eventually ends up split between recycling and land fill. I presume it's intended to make you think you're getting more than a race for your money. You're not.

I'd much rather they ditched the goody bag entirely. Alternatively just hand out some sort of momento for those interested. A mug, a fridge magnet, a badge for your training bag, whatever. Anything would be better than a bag full of promotional brochures.