Old Deer Park Richmond 10KHere's how RW members rated this race in the past (131 votes). 2009 race reviewed by: Martin Burke
 | | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Everything has been said.
In full: Always loathe to criticise but .....
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: lloyd1970clark
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Amateur organisational skills
In full: I entered this race mostly as Richmond is somewhere I drive through but rarely stop; I wish I'd not stopped to participate at the event.
Personally my race went well but with a very poorly organised start that utilised marshalls with no knowledge of what they were doing, things got progressively worse.
Running along a main London area high street with no traffic control, through areas of pavement reconstruction work and with inadequate levels of marshalls and poor sign-posting, the race was an accident waiting to happen.
The water station at approx 3km was staffed by one person; she was probably very capable of doing a grand job had there been only 10% of the field running. I didn't need water but those that did were left to pour for themselves as the poor girl couldn't cope with the quantity of runners.
The Marshall who stood on a slippery narrow bridge junction, 500m from the finish (which also doubled as the start of a 2km out and back stretch) abandoned his post whilst slower runners were still out.
And as for first aid provision, two people at the start finish line whether with an ambulance or not, were clearly not enough on a cold and damp november morning!
What's more the finish was organised as a bottle neck and runners had to physically push through a snarled up crowd to get across the chip timing line.
Overall this could have been a good race but was ruined by a very clear lack of organisational skills.
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Mark Mulvenna
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Stephanie Zorin
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Terrible organisation - such a shame as beautiful scenery in parts
In full: The main thing I will remember about the ODP 10k is the queues in the freezing cold. Come on guys don't be so stingy on the toilets - 10 portaloos for well over 1000 people. I saw a guy pee on a tree in front of everyone he was so desperate.
Also huge snaking queues to collect timing chips and to check in bags.
No goody bag at the end unless you count a banana and a bottle of water as a 'goody bag'. The t-shirt was entirely disappointing. The point about a race t-shirt is so you can remember the race and the location in years to come. We only got a poor quality white t-shirt with a small 'Energized Sports' logo on it.
These guys must have made heaps of money, but their reputation has taken a HUGE beating. Sort it out people and use your brains, your common sense, and your heart next time.
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: billy lascelles
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: It was not well organised. Water station was useless. There need to be anoucements prior to the race over a loud hailer so people knew what was going on. The start was delayed. Could not cross the finish line due to queing
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Dave bennett 4
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: farcical orginisation
In full: Smelled a rat when I turned up in Richmond Park and saw a huge queue, the solitary marshall informed me that it was for late entries and the timing chips, decided that freezing my knackers off in a line for 30mins wasn't a good idea as I had my Garmin anyway. Mildly amused myself by seeing the timing chip line reduce only to see the toilet and baggage drop lines to swell..
Race eventually started at gone 09:30 but as others have said the course was simply along the main road in Richmond and alongside Kew...interesting when we got to London Welsh rugby ground where cars were queuing for a mini-rugby tournament and we were trying to run through them (not a lot the race organisers could have done about this but it just summed up the race).
Bizarrely the water stop was at 3k as was manned by 1 person who was pouring bottled water into plastic cups, expected another station during the course but never saw one...
Finish line was another farce as the bottleneck for the "goodies" was back past the finish line....glad I didn't use a timing chip in the end....
Seems to me this race wasn't run by runners but by people who are maybe more interested in profits. The race t-shirt was a very poor plain white t-shirt advertising the organiser and the medal was also very poor. I would rather pay more and get proper support and a decent medal....
Lastly, I think I saw 4 marshalls on the whole course and that is simply unacceptable on a safety issue.
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Ventsi Valchev
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Jane Rimmer
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Having not entered any races for awhile this gave me a good feel for competing again.
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Peter Legge
| | Overall score | | 20% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: It would have been alright if there was 500 not 1500 people
In full: Got a PB, god knows how though. What a balls up of a race.
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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2009 race reviewed by: Darren Davey
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 20% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Organisation let down what is actually great route. Good race though as not too crowded!
Date of review: November 9, 2009
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