Events

Overall score		100%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		100%
PB potential		40%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		60%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: Great, but was it really 5k?
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		100%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		60%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: Dodging tourists made my week!
In full: I actually enjoyed the difference of this race of dodging tourists, running up and down subwaya. Its actually more fun than a normal race round a park or on roads. Will be back next year. Oh and the medal was lush!
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		100%
PB potential		20%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		80%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Great run for fun but not one to break your PB
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		40%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: Nice area to run but would have been better without the tourist dodging
In full: This was only my second 5k race. I did not find it competitive, which was good for me, but the small number of people running (I think it was just over 100) made it harder for me to pace myself. I ended up starting too fast and having to walk parts of it. I also got lost at one point because of lack of signs. I would also have found it helpful to have 1km markers. Overall though, the organisers were great and welcoming and I did not feel a fraud for joing in.
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		40%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		60%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: A mind-the-tourist run!
In full: This was a friendly run and although I found it hard dodging tourists and people walking around the area (it was a gorgeous day to be out) plus going up and down stairs I did have a laugh. Despite the fact that this run could have a max of 1500 runners only a 100 or so turned up, shame..
From the beginning I decided not to take this run too seriously and certainly was not looking to do a pb.
Marshalls were very friendly and the fact that Christine Ohuruogu was there giving the medals made it extra special... she was also kind enough to pose for pictures with runners!
Even if there was no goody bag or t-shirt at the end we had water, protein shakes, bananas and cereal snacks available.
Portaloos were also available (shame no antiseptic gel inside).
Might consider doing again next year although not one of my favourite runs. Perhaps if this run is advertised a bit more and we get more people doing it it might get the recognition and publicity it deserves to help its cause!!
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		60%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		40%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: Good for beginners, poor signing, but it was nice to meet Christine Ohuruogu
In full: Should have more signs - I went the wrong way twice, where there were no marshals and signs at near beginning/end of the course. The worst was when we were told to go down a subway but weren't told where to go up from there, a group of us ended up way off
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		40%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		60%
PB potential		20%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		40%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: A great cause, but a poor course.
Date of review: September 28, 2009

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		100%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		80%
Value		100%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Friendly atmosphere, challenging race with steps and lots of tourist-dodging!
In full: This was a challenging race for me because it was small so we all started off together, regardless of ability; this meant that I started off running at a faster pace than I would normally have done. But although that made it especially challenging, I did also achieve a pb, which was great. Getting my medal from Christine Ohuruogo was an honour.
Date of review: September 27, 2009

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		80%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Great fun!
In full: I got lost once so did others too and I was not aiming my PB that is why it was enjoyable.
Date of review: September 27, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		40%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		60%
Value		100%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: Very friendly, but conditions did not favour PBs!
In full: Very friendly race, nice and small. Only downside was as it was being run on public, unclosed-off areas, there was a fair bit of pedestrian dodging at times. The worst bit was wading through the tourists on the South Bank, and getting sarky comments from a few other passers-by unconnected with the race, but that's no different from a normal training run ;-) Lots of people were very supportive though, and the marshalls were great and friendly!

The stairs were a killer and it was a hard push coming up the subway stairs and the final hill. And there was one point where it was not signposted and there was no marshall and I ran the wrong way and lost 20 seconds before I realised. Mostly though it was well signed.

My Garmin put it at 3.48 miles which is probably not true due to the high buildings messing with it, but nevertheless I was very disappointed with my time (1:45 off my PB) as I thought and felt I'd run my fastest 5K ever despite the obstacles - which makes me think it was possibly longer than 5K. There was a last minute adjustment of the course so maybe it wasn't quite right.

Lovely medal though, and a great atmosphere! Nice drinks at the end too!
Date of review: September 26, 2009

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