Bournemouth Marathon 2013

Its aimed at the charity market so may not get the repeat business events like this need. You need year on year growth until you get sustainable level of entry. Road racing on this level is expensive.

The first couple of years will be good for them people locally taking on a new challenge but after 2 maybe 3 years you could find people have been there and done that. Bournemouth is a great place in October its cold windy and pisses with rain the sea front can be grim. 

Its not a pb course, the price will put off a lot of people and the reputation of the organisers doesnt bode well long term

I take it they're using the seafront so they don't have to pay for road closures?  If it is a pleasant October day I would think the seafront would be quite busy.

Barnsley you are right about road closure. Motorist is king round these parts.

Glad I saw this thread, was already thinking that it was a but pricey but was going to email a friend from down that way and suggest that we both did this. The links to the feedback for the other events that these promote are a real eyeopner!

Just looked at this because I too was interested until I realised price and the fact it was not run by a club.  The price for the 10k is nearly £25 too - I know some fancy London ones are that price but here in the Westcountry we are more used to £15 tops.

Also bizarre that they are advertising it and taking bookings when the route isnt even published. 

Another miss from me......

I was looking at this one as well, but may change my mind having heard your comments.  Other options I was looking at are Loch Ness, Abingdon or New Forest.  Can't afford to pay a fortune to travel to event so that may remove Loch Ness from the list.  What's the New Forest like?  I have heard that the lap after the half marathoners leave is more multi terrain?

Loch Ness has a good reputation but is quite hard to get to, especially if you need to be back the next day to take the kids to school etc, it's a good 4 hour drive from Glasgow or, if I recall correctly, you need to be on your toes and back to the airport pretty quickly, the last Birmingham flight for example is 17:30 although there is a London flight after 8pm. Certainly a few years ago you had to be there the day before to regsister too. The flights are that expensive, book now and you'll be under a hundred quid.

For an autumn marathon I'd say Chester is a good race, flat(ish) with a couple of short hills, you'll struggle to find a better organised race, good parking, close enough to the city centre for your family to see you off, have a brew and a wander around and then get back to the finish, pretty reasonably priced for a closed road event too at about 40 quid.

Route announced Here ya go

Won't be that bad on a windy day with all those turnarounds. One mintue the wind will be in your face, the next it'll be at your back.

As a local there is no way i'm going to pay £50 to run that route.  It's not exactley inspiring.

Your not the only one Gertie Abingdon has entries?

I was signing up for this race until I got to the price page and quite quickly closed the page. a big rip off. I am doing the purbeck marathon instead which if I remember correctly came 3rd on runnersworld charts last yr. Well looking forward to it although the hills will probably be in my dreams for an age afterwards

I have signed up to do the half didn't really think of the price as signed up when everyone was going on about the price of the Royal Parks £46.00 so £27 for the half seemed ok.

I suppose it is more expensive than my usual locally based ones.

I am making a weekend of it so if you compare it to theatre tickets or a footy match I don't feel its too bad for a change of scenery.

Unfortunately I jumped in as soon as I saw this, being a local, I thought it would be great to do a local marathon which could be quickish.

Looks like I've lost £50 as there's no way I'm investing 18 weeks of training into running up and down the prom. To quote someone from Twitter: ''it's on my usual training route with punishment loops thrown in''.

I've now entered Abingdon which from experience is well run event with an excellent atmosphere; only wish I'd waited.

Some great photos of the seafront on the website. Doesn't always look like that in October, especially with a SW gale blowing.