The Nike+ Human Race 10KHere's how RW members rated this race in the past (156 votes). 2008 race reviewed by: Amanda Rajkumar
 | | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 20% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 20% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: 'Just don't do it'........
In full: The Nike 10K left me disappointed and frustrated....Okay, Nike can't take responsibility for the weather but here are the things we can blame them for:
1) Crappiest location I have ever had the misfortune to race at - at one point we were running through a Tesco Petrol station and IKEA. Then how can we forget the grim business units, a meat packing firm and plastics company and of course, the enjoyable initial underground car park leg 2) The 2hr wait to get the race started was frustrating, especially as wave 1 wave 2 didn't have seats - that was an endurance test in itself 3) The music bands were great, but playing 5 songs each is far too ambitious - would have been better to have one band or indeed no bands! 4) The website this year was difficult to navigate and linked into many other sites which annoyingly I got navigated too - plus no photos of the race itself..what's the point of race numbers of T-shirts then? 5) The pre and post race t-shirts were cute but much smaller then before - are they trying to make us feel fat? 6) The post race vibe was the worst I have ever experienced and not even a banana to raise the blood sugar! Therefore, in summary I was pretty cheezed off with the whole affair. Would I do it again? Perhaps, but would definitely check the proposed venue before committing.
Date of review: September 4, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: Johanna Holt 2
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 20% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 20% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Clearly not organised by anyone who has ever done a run before
In full: I was so excited by this but it was possibly the worst organised race ever-WHY would you ask people to stand around in the rain watching a concert for 21/2 hours before they run. I nearly fell asleep! It was far too late on a Sunday, there was no car park so our already long trip home after the race was made even longer. I felt really sorry for the bands-Pendulum were AWESOME! But just in a totally different time and place!!! The tops were great, the texts were great, the fact I got to see Wembley for the first time BUT too many downsides to even consider doing this again, or recommending it to others.
Date of review: September 4, 2008
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2007 race reviewed by: Mouldy
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 20% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 20% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Not got over the disappiontment yet
In full: Am trying hard to think of positive things about last Sunday's run. OK the t-shirts were nice (although a little snug). Seeing Paula and Seb was great, and the mobile text was a nice touch - and that's just about it. Looking on the website it says "See your Run". OK I thought, at least there's a video clip to watch .... Wrong, it's a silly little mapping chart which didn't mean anything. Does anyone know how to interpret it? I for one will steer clear of Nike runs from now on, the value for money is terrible.
Date of review: September 4, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: Laura Ford
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 20% |
In short: Glad I didn't bother to make the trek to Wembley!
In full: I was humming and hawing about going up to Wembley as I paid for my entry, but when I found out that it was at 7pm at Wembley and no opportunity for car parking nearby (living an hour and a half away on public transport in Surrey) and the weather was pretty poor, I had second thoughts.
My husband thought it was best if I didn't go and I felt quite guilty for staying home to do my run. I think that it was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time looking at the responses.
I would have liked to participate in a big London event, but I guess I will have my opportunity with run to the beat in October!
Date of review: September 4, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: Chris Phillips 4
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 20% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 20% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Just wanted to run, not be subjected to a concert I had no interest in.
Date of review: September 4, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: www.justgiving.com/superwoman63
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 40% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: No Medal
In full: The running tops looked great in red. l was in Wave 2 and my feet were aching from standing around waiting to run. Presenter Andy was good and the group Pendulum weren't bad either. Moby who ?? l wasn't impressed. Seb Coe used to be my idol years ago and so l was pleased to see him. I'm not bothered about running in the rain and welcomed the dry white tops at the finish, which was a bit confusing l wasn't sure where to walk after l had finished. Very disappointed no medal or even goody bag of any kind.
However a BIG thank you to the marshalls they were really cheery.
Oh and it was my first time in Wembly Stadium which looked superb.
Date of review: September 3, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: Gaius Hammond
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 20% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: As Pendulum said, what have we gotten ourselves into?
Date of review: September 3, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: Lara Kazakos
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 40% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: wind, rain and waiting but a london triumpf
In full: shame about the waiting but it was advertised as a concert with fun run.. its a shame that londons music didnt live up to the kanye west that LA's human race got but if you know drum and base pendulum got me well and truely reved. incredible when we got going those 30,000 people looked amazing and the comraderie was inspiring.fast but boring course, and a little too narrow for the numbers. thought the race timing and text was genious, and the nike+ site with all 1 million results and city comparisons was novel. great race tops. id do it again.
Date of review: September 3, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: Vicky Bateman
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 40% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: mixed bag! Boring beginning fabulous finale
In full: I echo ALL of the comments given below.
Kept in the dark about timings/exact event details. If they had been more honest then I prob wouldn't have done this run.
Got there at 6pm (they told us we had to, like little children) and didn't start running until 8:15pm. Forced to listen to music that is not mine (or most other people's judging by their faces) cup of tea. Told to get ready to race, but what they meant was stand here whilst it chuck it down for 15 mins, just to make sure you get really wet. Everyone in waves 3 and 4 booed the starters and the warm up people because we had been waiting long enough and wanted to warm ourselves up BY RUNNING. Oh misery.
Then the race turned around, as I was already soaked through by the time I started running I didn't mind/quite enjoyed the cooling effects of the rain. Was quite cool running at night, past around a lit-up Wembley stadium, during the day the industrial scape would have depressed me. Great atmos, missed Paula Radcliffe who must have run past me though. Marshalls were super and really enthusiastically cheering us on and I felt great when I finished.
Got two great quality running shirts (well it was organised by Nike). Was texted my time as soon as I finished which was another great thing.
Bad start, great run only a shame it started so late after waiting around. I didn't get home till 11:30pm (bad for a Sunday night).
I would only do it again if they trusted us to get there 15 mins before we were supposed to run instead of 2 1/2 hours, and it wasn't quite so late, and they didn't inflict their music on me.
Date of review: September 3, 2008
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2008 race reviewed by: TheBeetroot
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 20% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 20% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Nice shirt, shame about the race!
In full: Previous reviewers have summed it up quite fairly; the race seemed like an afterthought compared to a concert that would probably have been fine had it taken place after the run (I felt sorry for the bands who had a very unenthusiastic audience). The marshals were cheerful and encouraging – thanks guys if you’re reading this! - but there was not the atmosphere of the previous two Nike runs I've done (2005 and 2006). I'm sure the team responsible for those must have moved on as they would have done far better than this. Like everyone else I was tired, bored and hungry before the race even began (I was in wave 3). I'd eaten my last banana/sandwich far too early thinking we'd be starting at least an hour before we actually got under way; I’ve done quite a few races and this one was certainly unique in that we had no idea of precise start times - completely unacceptable! I didn't fancy the greasy food from the only open food place in the stadium and we even had to beg for water to be handed over the fence to us, they had some on the pitch for waves 1 and 2 but nothing for people in the stands - were we supposed to buy it (with many people having no money on them by then)? As we had no bags to hand in (they had tried to discourage people by saying it was 'limited' so we had taken them at their word) we had not been to Wembley Arena first, but apparently this was where the Lucozade Sport was….too late now, you’re locked in with only one way out….thanks very much Nike!
The most inexcusable aspect was the safety, or rather lack of, which was horrific. The course twisted around too much and was far too narrow in places for the numbers - which is amazing as it seems a lot less entered than they were expecting - and it was badly lit/completely unlit in places. I saw a few people running into barriers in the dark or tripping over other people who’d stopped to avoid the huge lakes of water across half the course – no one hurt that I saw, but I'm sad though not surprised to hear that some did suffer injuries. I didn't mind the weather, in fact the rain was quite nice once you were running (NOT standing around in it beforehand though, why couldn’t they have closed the roof or would that have cost them extra!) and I did like the music on the way round. Also appreciated the nice old open-top Routemaster bus, but couldn't they have had some cardboard cut-outs of Tower Bridge, the Eye and Big Ben to show the rest of the world what we could/should have been running through? Yes, Wembley arch looked nice lit up but not nearly enough to compensate for the rest of the grim surroundings. The finish was cunningly concealed and I’m grateful to have got there in one piece, no thanks to the spectators or runners who’d already finished pushing across in front of us! Nice shirt, shame some did not even get a wearable one as they were soaking wet (like my husband got) and they had run out of larger sizes by the time poor old wave 4 got there. I saw a few people who'd taken more than one top and thought they were selfish, but surely Nike had enough extra to cover for this? And where was the medal we were promised in the FAQ? There were no signs to toilets etc. after the finish and even the two people holding up handwritten signs directing people to the baggage area and tube stations were clearly an afterthought. To cap off the disappointing evening, I wandered around for more than an hour trying to find my husband who'd finished about 5 minutes before me as there was no proper reunion area with letters for surnames and the stadium was shut (even greasy food would have been good then as there was no goody bag or Lucozade Sport). Great on aching legs and I was freezing/starving/desperate for the loo by then. I have no illusions about these events being a Nike publicity stunt, but this was very poor compared to their usual standard.
Date of review: September 3, 2008
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