My Event Ratings

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

In short: Decent fast course but bottle necking and some underfoot sections made it harder
In full: A well organised event with enough toilets and well marked starting places. Decent scenery taking in some of the Cardiff sites such as the parliament building, the castle, and a fairly flat course. A lot of the course was through a large park that weaved up and down and seemed to last a good while but all in all a well planned course (with last minute changes). A part of the course was run on plastic and further along on cobbles so a quite tough last couple of miles.

Water provided in 330ml plastic bottles approx every three miles and plenty of volunteers handing them out.

A nice custom designed medal was given to all finishers along with a goody bag that contained a nice Cardiff Half Marathon sweat towel, a Powerade, a granola bar, a Nivea ladies pack (containing some cream, deoderant and some make-up wipes) and a small men and ladies anti-perspirant. So not too bad especially if you are a lady or knew one who would appreciate the NIVEA stuff.


Date of review: October 19, 2008

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

In short: Quick course and well organised, just a large rabble at the start line thoughh
In full: Nice race, t-shirt as a prize at the end. Good facilities and use of showers, food, etc.


Date of review: November 25, 2007

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

In short: Well organised, I'm surprised more people don't do it
In full: Nice route, mostly along a cycle/footpath and very little along a quiet road. A little depressing at the end with an added loop to make the distance.

Nice medal and four water stations (in plastic cups and a little mean with the water)

Well worth doing

R
Date of review: October 21, 2007

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

In short: Beautiful scenery and course let down by poor organisation
In full: This was my first 10k run so naturally set a PB of 58 mins, sadly I could have knocked five minutes off this time if not for poor organisation of the event.

They tried to organise it marathon style with 30 min runners at the front, right down to 70m entrants. The MC made it clear that anyone who was doing it in 60 or 70 mins would be walking round hence everyone who intended to run set themselves up at the 40m start.

I stood at a modest 60m line with my companions based on a genuine estimate of what we could do.

When the race started it took me 5km to overtake everyone who had overestimated, one large group of about 15 people decided to give up running at the 1km mark and blocked the road.

All because the organisers had not set it up correctly at the start. I know its a charity event and all but a lot of people put in a lot of genuine hard graft to be able to run it in a decent time.

Aside from that rant the course was lovely, you went past the house and lake. It was very hilly and I think describing it as a little hilly was an understatement.

Very few toilets and not a lot of facilities for spectators aside from a burger van. There was free water before the event and very few toilets, for men there were urinals so not much queueing but a lot of ladies queued a long time.

The event had clearly (for want of a better expression) whored itself to Tesco. Logo was everywhere, including rather craslly on the medals.

A great beginner event as there are many beginners on it, can't see myself doing it again though. When I'm training for marathons it seems a little much to ask people for sponsorship for a 10k!

R
Date of review: October 20, 2007

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

In short: Great first half, much worse second half!
In full: The first half of the race was excellent and took in some nice Nottingham landmarks and scenery. I wasn't such a fan of the second half of the race as about 90% of the runners ended at the half marathon stage so a lot of atmosphere was lost. Also the route ran around the national watersports centre, which is just a large square lake, which you had to run around for what seemed like forever. Aside from this minor route problem it was a great event and well organised.
Date of review: September 17, 2007

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