10K Helping Heroes 'Festival of Running'

Thanks to all those who entered the race and supported the cause.  Grateful for your feedback as I am one of the organisers.  There are many lessons to be learned as this was the first time we had organised the event and your comments are all valid and will be noted.  Some were given consideration before hand - confectionery and medals at the finish for example.  It was agreed that we  should not rob the cause of money and will try harder next year to secure sponsorship for this aspect of the event.  I think we could have stretched to water at the finish though.  A good point!  10K results will be posted on  http://www.theresults.co.uk/running_results.html courtesy of HS Sports.  We have requested that provisional results appear tomorrow, so please keep checking.  We took £3000 in entry fees yesterday and believe we are set to  raise £20,000 for the appeal.  The relatives of injured service personnel will really benefit from our efforts and your support.  Please send any sponsorship (asap) in the form of a cheque made payable to 4 Div Welfare fund,  to SSAFA Helping Heroes and their Families HQ Aldershot Garrison, Wellington House, St Omer Bks, Aldershot GU11 2BG.

The measurement of the course will be corrected next year.  It was originally driven by the need to have one start and finish point for the 3k and 10k races - due to the cost of electronically timing both races.   I apologise to all those who thought they had achieved a PB.  You are welcome to return to run a very slightly longer route next year!  Details and dates of next year's event to follow.  Please let your friends know that this is one to keep an eye open for next year.  We are thinking of staging it in May/June any thoughts on that? Thank you again for your positive comments and suggestions about how the event can be improved and developed. 

Thanks for coming on here and posting Kate. I think  having water at the finish and an accurately measured course will make this a superb race. The route is excellent, parking was no problem (and free!!!) and the encouragement from marshalls was great. To be honest, I'm not really bothered about a medal as I would sooner the money went to the appropriate cause and it looks as if a really great amount was raised. As for moving the race to May/June. It would be a little bit warmer then, but within 5 minutes of the race starting I was sweating like a sweaty thing on a hot sweaty day. You don't get many 10K's around February time so it was a bit of a novelty really.

Keep posting on here. It's always good to involve runners and get their thoughts when organising races.

Thanks, Kate, for the feedback.. Please don't change too much of the event, because in essence, it was great. My top priorities would be a properly measured course, water at the end, quickly available results (I'm not bothered about chip timing) and a few more signs around the race HQ. I don't want medals, and if I feel like food/sweets afterwards, I'm happy to pay for them.

(I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned what to my mind was one of the best things about Sunday  - the delicious irony of the non-functioning starter's pistol. )

Please keep the comments coming.  I am tracking with interest.  We are meeting on Monday to discuss the future of this race and your suggestions (including having a working starter's pistol!) will be raised. 

Kate

Apart from measured route and water at the end the race was just about perfect.

On moving the date,  May and June are already pretty busy months in the racing calendar and I'd agree with Richards comment about the potential to find a niche as it is.

Agree theres no need for a medal. But I think most runners quite like chip timing - especially if the course is accurate in future. Of course am in favour of reducing costs if timing can be done by other means, you'd probably get more entrants from the wider community too.

The results are now up and look fine except they missed out that I'm over 40 (which is a good thing I suppose!)

Very well organised event Kate and glad to hear that it's going to happen again. I'm the bloke from SSAFA Aldershot by the way!!

My daughter ran in the 3k event and although she knows her time, she doesn't know her position and she is keen to find out

 Is there any intention to report the 3k results anywhere?

Andy West - The 3k results are up on here too: http://www.ssafa.org.uk/fundraising.html

also the 10k results are there...

Yep - the most important thing (essential) to revise would be for the distance to be correctly measured for 10K (and then the shorter distances to be advertised for whatever they turn out to be  - even if same finish point required for logistics etc.).    

 Also, what 'count meout ' and 'blacktoenails' say above.

Just an observation really , I notice from the results that there didn't appear to be many club runners, although I saw a few shirts around the course.  I was wondering why this was ? (was it due to lay out of entry form? e.g.  asking for unit etc. but  not club  - I can't remember.  )  Either way, it might just be worth changing the form if so that that eveyone knows that everyone is welcome (club runners and 'unattached', as well as regulars and reservists etc) so that 'civilians' don't get put off by wrongly assuming that it is essentially an 'army event' (and so more entries) and so whoever colates the results can put the names of clubs in etc. (so runners can compare how they are doing to other clubs / to clubs etc.). Anyway, just a thought.

Look forwar to it next year. Cheers, Richard. 

I noticed the apparent lack of club runners, too, but I'm pretty sure I put my club name on the entry form. It just didn't get added to the list of results.

The form did have a space for that but it was a small form so as fees weren't lower here for club members I probably just skipped it.