My Event Ratings

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

In short: Mix of Pavements, Trails, Fields, Lanes, Road
In full: 30K course: Not as "off-road" as we would have preferred. Hills weren't steep, but the amount of hills suprised us. One section seemed a long time between water stops. A very enjoyable run. Shame about having to run through the city crossing roads towards the finish. Nice atmosphere at the end. Weather was kind too :0)
Date of review: August 15, 2011

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

In short: Tough, Hilly, Peat Boggy, Stony Paths, Fantastic Views, Pure Countryside Trail Running, Superb Sunny Weather
In full: Race starts with couple of mile climb up through wooded hills on stony ground, interspersed with a few short fast downhills, on tracks with mud and loose rocks/stones. Start is about 100ft and this 1st section peaks at nearly 950 ft at 3ish miles. You get fantastic views of Wootton Courtney and the Dunkery Beacon, before going into woods again for a very steep drop on muddy/stony tracks, over a stile and down a steep grassy hill to the village at 400ft/4.5 miles. Through Wootton Courtney a short road section and onto a track undulating for a while until starting the long climb to the Beacon. The track is mainly hard with lots of stones/rocks with the odd peat mud hole. The climb isn't particularly steep from Wootton to the Beacon, but goes on for about 3 miles, ending at 1700 ft. At the top it's off to the right and a tricky steep descent on Peat Bog down to the Aller Coombe tree line, then a lovely section of switchback tracks, fast down, killing up, generally traversing around the hillside, stony tacks, across some shallow stony streams, a bit more peat bog, crossing a small lane and onto the Dunster Path Trail. Onto a small lane at Brockwell and just over 0.5 miles back into Wootton Courtney. Then the toughest part of this race climbing up the field over a stile and into the woods to climb about 600 ft in only 0.75 miles. Lungs starved of air, legs aching and that is walking, there aren't many heroes running up tracks so steep and awkward under foot. You pop out of the woods, up a short track to the peak of the hill, then the last water station, marking the start of a 2.5 mile down hill section, which if your legs are still functioning, is amazingly beautiful and you can reach impressive speeds for this far into a hard race. Once you reach the mettalled lane, it's a few hundred yards to the finish. My GPS clocked it after trimming, at 16.42 miles, 3562 ft total ascent. Not sure about the Orange T Shirt colour, but the shirt design is better than last years. With this race and the Seaview17, Minehead RC have 2 of the very best races on the Calender.
Date of review: October 26, 2010

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

In short: Not a race for most runners - more like an epic journey!
In full: This was the first race of this disctance(15 miles Exmoor Stagger 2009) for the RC Trail Runners and I don't think we could have picked a harder one! The winner beat us by nearly 2 Hours, but who cares, we finished and it was still Sunday. Met some lovely people on the way too.
Date of review: April 6, 2010

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

In short: Dorset - Charmouth Nov 2009, Half marathon: 1st time at one of these events, great day, very tough course,
Date of review: November 10, 2009

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