I have been thinking that the Camp Pendleton sprint today was just about the perfect distance for the average triathlete. After all, most of them really don’t want to swim that much, so 500 yards is about perfect. You get wet but don’t really have to train much.
Then you get to spend 31K riding the really cool bike on which you just spent five grand. Then you have a most flat 5K (though either it was long or I was slow) so you don’t have to run too much.
Voila, the perfect race distances. Forget Ironman and Olympic distance. You get wet, you ride a long time, or draft, like the leading trio today, and then have a short cool-down run afterward. 
Chad
By the way, if there is one thing that really annoys me–though it is a small thing–it is when the Pendleton race series announces in their pre-race brief “today’s race will be run under USAT rules”. That is just gay. The race is not USAT sanctioned that I know of, so it is pointless to reference rules that really don’t apply, nor do you have marshals to enforce them (reference the lead trio on the bike who had a nice little paceline going).