Royal Parks Foundation Half-MarathonHere's how RW members rated this race in the past (203 votes). 2009 race reviewed by: Gareth Rees-John
 | | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Great half marathon great first half scenery round London landmarks
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
|
2009 race reviewed by: BecB
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: Fantastic organisation, gorgeous route
In full: What could be better than a run meandering around the Royal Parks? Plus great organisation from the charities and from the event organisers, the festival is fab with loads of freebies, I will do this one year after year.
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: Amanda Rencontre
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Superb scenery and wonderful atmostpher and great organisation
In full: Like last year slick organisation and I love running through bits of London that are closed just for me to run through (well and the 10000 others joining me for my Sunday run!). Then running in the park with all the supporters lifts you and so nice to be running in greenery so a great mix.
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: the bobbin
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 100% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: fab day out for runners and non runners too.
In full: cons; baggage queues were a bit long. in the end i gave my bag to a mate and legged it to the starting pen. lots of different coloured runners bibs in the front pen.
pros: fantastic route through central london. food festival was brilliant - so much free stuff to take home. families well catered for. easy for spectators to view runners at more than one point.
running through hyde park for so long was a bit tough but the fact that i had nell mcandrew to focus on a yard in front of me as i crossed the line made up for that!
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: Kazumi Ozawa
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 100% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: "Excellent half marathon with wonderful sight-seeing course in London"
In full: It is very difficult for me to participate in London Marathon in April, so this half marathon is, as it were, "London Marathon" for me. I am very satisfied!
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: Chesilboy
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: A great experience with fabulous scenery, dare I say a 'fun run'?
In full: I ran this event with my wife and we very much enjoyed it, the scenery is obviously brilliant and it's a great way to see the city.
Having said this there were a few negatives (and this is very hypocritical on my part given what I have said above!):
I found it a bit more like a giant fun-run, the start was awful and there was quite a bit of congestion in places - particularly the twisty bits in the parks and the frequent sharp turns. I alone saw 4 people take nasty falls.
There seemed a much higher percentage of people walking in this event (even after a mile or so!) and this didn't help the flow. That may sound mean, but this is a running event and the places are hotly-contested.
The mile markers - they were a bit random, eapecially the first one at 1.1 miles. The course measured 13.21 on my GPS which is worrying for a major event.
Overall I wouldn't do this again because there will always be compromises to accommodate that number of people, and I prefer smaller focussed running events. However for a fun event and a great experience I very much recommend it!
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: Alistair Miller
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 100% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 100% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Brilliant half marathon through the centre of London
In full: This is a fantastic half marathon that I would recommend to any level of runner. It's an excellent course, through some of the best tourist sites of London. The atmosphere is superb as well. I'll definitely do this again next year. Only minor problem was that the checking in my bag took ages!
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: BigDave
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: A great day out. Like a mini -London marathon
In full: Felt good all day after that. Very well organised. Great to run round the sights that i missed on the London marathon. More enjoyable. I started with my friends much further back than the pen i was allocated which although, was great to be with mates at the start, did cost me a lot of time. I was still weaving through and zigzagging at 8 miles. Next time sticking to my own pen, but no real regrets. I liked the unusual medal. At first i thought it was cheap but i suppose the idea of whole race was eco-friendly . The children I teach all thinks its a great medal. Well worth it.
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: Marjory Bluer
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Not bad at all considering the sheer numbers
In full: Loo queues were rather on the long side; first water stop a bit disorganised. But other than that, a lovely race - great route - the first half with lots of interesting sights to see; the second half not nearly as bad as anticipated - winding round the park and seeing others ahead and behind actually helped me get through by breaking it into bearable chunks. And I got a PB.
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
2009 race reviewed by: Kate Sandall
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: Superb race, well done on improving the toilet faciltiies
In full: Fantastic race again - I love the course. The horrendous queues for the toilets last year were much reduced (though still worse than at many other races) and if I had one gripe about the organisation it's that the meeting points were not only incredibly small and close together, but also bang in the middle of people coming out of the finish and tryiong to get to the baggage tent. Also, having read other reviews, I see the goody bag wasn't meant to be empty - I could have filled it! Nowhere was that indicated that I could see, I just thought it was a weird idea to give you a bag to put your banana in!
Date of review: October 13, 2009
|
| |
denotes Subscriber-only content | 
