Sussex Beacon Half MarathonHere's how RW members rated this race in the past (483 votes). 2010 race reviewed by: Chris Nicholas 2
 | | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Mass race organisation on the cheap
In full: Probs:
- route- bunching up front, benches etc etc, passing the start/ end numerous times
- parking a nightmare
- mile markers invisible
Pros:
- bananas and refreshments great
Date of review: March 1, 2010
|
|
2010 race reviewed by: Snapstinget
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Perhaps too many runners
In full: The marshals were friendly and just great for standing there in those conditions. I really enjoyed the enforced course change: I like seeing the faster and slower runners. Shambles at the finish, yes: the race seems to have crossed the line from nice friendly lcoal event to big mass participation event without adjusting accordingly. It didn't bother me because I knew I was never going to get a good result. But if I'd been determined to get a specific result I'd have been gutted to lose 2 or 3 minutes waiting to cross the line.
Date of review: February 27, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: RICHARD Byrne 3
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Weather and some poor organisation made this a race to get over and done with asap
In full: The build-up didn't start well when the route had be to changed due to safety concerns - a dissapointment as I was looking forward to a cliff-top run. As it turned out the weather meant that any delusions of taking in the scenery were put to bed swiftly. It was soon clear this was a race to get round asap and get out of the driving rain and winds. The dampening of the spirit was heightened by some aspects of poor organisation: most mile markers were absent, and the start/finish area was chaotic at best.
Date of review: February 27, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: VikW
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: enjoyed it- but a bit shambolic
In full: Can't really add much to the other comments but the marshalls deserve a big thank you!! I did enjoy it but maybe thats becuae I missed the queue to finish and didn't check in a bag- and in my opninion no race ever has enough toilets. Might be back next year if I was to get more for my money than just the medal....
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: stookesy
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: |
In short: Rubbish… The great city of Brighton is not conducive for marathons. Half or Full
In full: Mr Hutchings comments do not withstand scrutiny and one could argue that he is being somewhat disingenuous, distancing himself from the spectacle that was the Beacon Half. Both organisations will most certainly have had input from Brighton & Hove District Council and will be very much guided by the authority. The inaugural Brighton Marathon would not be happening were it not for the approval of the District Council, to that end Grounded Events Company has great deal in common with organisers of the Beacon Half. Good luck to all those running on the 18th.
From what I saw on Sunday Brighton is a Health & Safety Half/Marathon Nightmare. I helped up a fellow runner who had ran into and over unmarked cast iron bollard at crutch height, (Ouch!) just past TK Max. Pedestrians and moving traffic was very much a feature on Sunday. There are far too many twists, turns and curbs through the streets of Brighton to establish any real sense rhythm or pace. The iron bollards along the seafront are also very hazardous and were inadequately marked. Despite running a half marathon pb, Sunday was quite simply very poor, I concur with the previous comments about baggage storage, parking and toilets.
As for the weather… well we’ve all been out in the rain again this week, its part of a runners lot!
If you want a truly remarkable Half Marathon Experience take a look at the London Parks Half. Well organised, safe and spectacular.
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: tim hutchings
| | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: |
In short: Comment from Race Director of Brighton Marathon 2010
In full: As Race Director of the Brighton Marathon, I would like to make it clear that our company, The Grounded Events Company, are organising the inaugural Brighton Marathon, taking place on Sunday 18th April and that our company had nothing to do with the organisation of the Sussex Beacon Half Marathon which took place last Sunday, 21st February 2010, in Brighton.
There has been some speculation on this site and elsewhere, that the organisers of the half marathon event in Brighton on 21st February were associated with the Brighton Marathon 2010, or even were the same organisation. We would like to emphasise that this is not the case. Tim Hutchings (comments please to info@brightonmarathon.co.uk)
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: Tracey G
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: Great mashalls, finishes and toilets need sorting.
In full: The loo and baggage queues ment a lot of runners starting the race late. Lucky I did have to hand in baggage as the toilet queue was bad enough. A great big thank you to all the mashalls, the weather was horrible to run in let along stand there like you did. The medal was nicer as that is what a lot of first time runner want more and this is a begineers friendly marathon. Just move the removal of chips further back and that should help the finishing problems. Another problem at the finish is runners trying to open the space blankets. Hopefully we will get better weather next year. See you then.
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: Nick Kirby
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Please don't let one bad experience stop you coming back
In full: I'm so upset to have read the reviews of many of the runners. I was fortunate enough to be near the front and have a Garmin, so issues of overcrowding were not a problem (although I do wish slow runners would learn to start further back!)
As always the marshals I saw were very enthusiastic as were the crowds, even with the terrible weather.
But it is clear that there were some real issues for many runners. Part of this may have been because of the last minute changes to the course and the fact that the marina wouldn't give parking space. Also it may have been because of the size of the field.
I feel very sorry for those runners who either didn't register a time or their time was wrong because of the crowding at the end. Maybe it is time to pay some of the volunteers, because it must have been miserable to have to stand there all day in that weather.
But as I say, it does upset me that the day didn't go smoothly because I know many of the people involved on the day and I know they have worked really hard this year. I have no doubt that they are devastated by what happened and by your comments. But you only have to look at a lot of the comments to know that this is not the norm and that this race is normally a lot smoother.
Whilst I understand people saying they are not going to come back, please do give this race another chance.
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: Dom Keenor
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Poor marshalling ruined what could've been a quick race
In full: Having run this race in 2009 and then recommended it to friends for 2010 I was pretty embarrassed as the level of organisation was poor.
Starting off, there weren't enough baggage handlers and the one that I encountered clearly didn't want to be there. A queue qickly formed and he picked people to serve seemingly at random.
When looking for the relevant finish time groups at the start of the race there didn't seem to be any separation of runners so people of vastly differing paces were mingled leading to bottlenecks later in the course.
The course itself takes you up into Brighton town but some of the roads selected to route through back to the seafront are just too narrow for the volume of runners on the day. This needs to be addressed because it meant that at a number of pinch points we came to a complete standstill.
The last thing though, the absolute killer which everyone seems to have complained about, was the absolute shambles at the finish line. The timing mat wasn't directly below the Start/Finish banner, so you had to cross the line and then try to get to the matt to stop your chip accruing time. However, the poor volunteers assigned to cut the timing chips off were positioned too close to the finish line so runners were backed up and couldn't cross the matt. It took a full two minutes from me stopping my Nike+ under the Start/Finish banner to actually crossing the matt. Awful, and could've been avoided if the volunteers had been positioned with a little more thought.
Lastly, in 2009 finishers got a medal and a tshirt. This year, seemingly to cash in on the 20th annniversary, there were no tshirts available but you were more than welcome to pay for their commemorative technical tshirt. Rip off!
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
2010 race reviewed by: Janice Woolley
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: The bottleneck at the finish line rendered this outing a waste of time given the appalling conditions and risk of pneumonia. Enough said!
Date of review: February 25, 2010
|
| |
denotes Subscriber-only content | 
