My Event Ratings

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

In short: Great multiterrain race in beautiful countryside
In full: It makes a change to be able to do a multiterrain race in the summer, and what a fantastic course this is. It's without doubt one of the most difficult 10ks I've completed, but I had a fantastic morning out yesterday. I only decided to enter on the morning of the race and am so pleased I did.

It's very undulating, with around 75% offroad. That said, as it was dry, racing flats sufficed fine and there was no need for trail shoes - even in the rutted woodland.

Great organisation (they'd even laid on suncream!) and nice prizes too.

My garmin measured the course as 10.33km BUT what does it matter on a course like this when times aren't an issue anyway?

Expect your time to be 1.5 - 2 mins slower than your road 10k pb.
Date of review: June 4, 2007

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

In short: Excellent, well organised race
In full: There aren't many road 5ks about to take part in, but this one should be part of your annual calendar.

A very well organised race with a high quality field, but enough of a mix of runners not to let beginners feel at all intimidated. A nice paperweight momento this year too. Not quite as flat as I was expecting, but undulations are minor and there are enough downhills to compensate for the ups.

Only slight quarm was that there was only one ladies' loo. Other than that though, a great evening out.
Date of review: May 23, 2007

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

In short: Fast course with good PB potential
In full: I was pleased to finish 1st lady here in a new PB of 37:57. Despite the foul weather (heavy rain) and mild undulations, this is a very fast course and GREAT PB potential. Organisation was brilliant and loads of water stations for those who needed them. I could have done with a few more marshalls as I nearly went wrong a couple of times (including stopping before the finish line as I thought it finished exactly where we started - cue a 30 metre sprint to get that sub-38!). I also got the 8th km as as slightly long, and would like to know where this was made up in the rest of the course.

BUT an excellent race, friendly people and free tea and coffee for runners was a nice touch.
Date of review: May 14, 2007

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

In short: Great Saturday morning awakener!
In full: The newer and (currently) smaller version of the highly successful Bushy Park TT. A fantastic (free) event and the "just turn up and run" cuts out a lot of the pre-race worries for someone like me who finds races a little stressful. Results are up online quickly and great cafe afterwards for post-race refreshment.

I've done this race twice and the course was very muddy both times and was slippery even with trail shoes on. Therefore times are slower than on a road 5k. It'll be faster in the summer when the course dries out. Nevertheless, it's a great race to do.
Date of review: March 12, 2007

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

In short: Well organised race on a reasonably challenging course
In full: A three-lap course of Aylesbury town centre may not make for the most interesting race, but the organisation was great and having race HQ in a pub made for excellent facilties before and after the race. The course is not the easiest: 3-laps over a twisting and undulating route, but I still managed to PB which I was very pleased about. No momento, but race entry was cheap enough not to worry about this. Only slight concern was almost going the wrong way on the last lap in the square owing to a lack of marshals, but only a very very small blip on an otherwise superbly organised race.
Date of review: December 26, 2006

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

In short: Well organised and challenging XC race
In full: A great XC race - challenging but not too difficult to make it impossible to run most of the time. A few streams, trees to vault, hills and soft muddy ground made for an excellent XC course.

Very well marshaled, a friendly bunch of runners and soup was a lovely touch at the end. Will definitely be back this year.

(only slight organisational concern was signing for the car park coming from the west - it took us about 15 minutes to find it and meant one of our club missed the start owing to the rush. Probably our fault for not starting early enough though!)
Date of review: December 11, 2006

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

In short: Great race, shame about the weather...
In full: My first half marathon and my first race after a few weeks off injured, and couldn't wish for a better race to start on my doorstep. Very well organised (although there MUST have been more ladies loos somewhere in the school?!), mostly flat and field size was just right. Good support from the villages too. The wind was a killer from mile 7 onwards, but we were all affected by it. Will be back next year - hopefully for a windless race!
Date of review: April 3, 2006

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

In short: A small but speedy field on a pleasant (but undulating) course
In full: A great race that was well marshaled - shame it was so freezing cold! A relatively undulating race, so PB potential not great. A small field in 2006 (just over 200). Fast finishing times and a rather clubby atmosphere means I've rated it quite low for beginner-friendliness. No finishers mementos or prizes, but any profits went to charity and given the very reasonable price of the race I didn't mind at all.
Date of review: January 12, 2006

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

In short: Fast, flat and well-organised
In full: A definite PB course. Running around the airfield is slightly energy-zapping, although it helped not being able to see more than 5 metres ahead because of the fog this year. Great race with fantastic organisation. Will be back next year - can someone order some less freezing weather plenty of time in advance though?!
Date of review: December 11, 2005

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

In short: Great race, will be back next year!
In full: A fast and flat course makes it a good for PB potential. Very well organised - only slight niggle was that I missed out on the water because there weren't enough marshalls at the drinks station. Despite this though, I thought the organisers did a fab job - it's not easy organising a group of 500-odd runners to run along the A40 when it's not closed to traffic!
Date of review: November 27, 2005

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