My Event Ratings

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

In short: Scenic, tough and satisfying. A great change from PB-chasing on the road
In full: Marathon: Lovely race in superb weather. Tough running on hard stony trails but then muddy ones would have have been worse and it's part of the challenge!
Starting as a single wave seemed to work fine. Was surprised so many people walked up the hills, but there did seem to be a lot of ultra runners there; maybe you guys are more relaxed/pragmatic about run-walking than us shorter-distance types!
Overall a well organised and good value race. The goody-bag wasn't exciting but no worse than many more expensive events (though mine seems to be second-hand). Nice to get a choice of shirt sizes. Really would be helpful to have bin bags for drinks further along from the stations; it was hard to drink enough before passing the rubbish point.
Two big thank you's: one to the marshal who ran after me and returned a gel I'd dropped (the marshals were excellent all round) and one to the runner who kindly stopped to check I was ok when I fell running downhill in front of him: hope I didn't affect your time too much!
A very satisfying event, but be warned: it can start you thinking about trying to find even tougher off-road marathons!
Date of review: June 8, 2013

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

In short: Well organised, fast and enjoyable
In full: Well supported with a fast route. It actually has a slight rolling feel (instead of being purely flat) but is still a very good place for a PB.
Most of it isn't in Edinburgh but it's well supported anyway. Personally I'd love it to finish running up the Royal Mile to finish by the castle; but the climb would be a bit brutal!
It really is a full mile's walk to the shuttle buses after the finish but at least you can shower and rest first, and to be fair there were plenty of buses running. I'd like a "400m to go" sign near the finish but the mile markers were clear and there were plenty of drinks stations (and toilets at the start) so no real complaints.
I've signed up to run the Bournemouth Marathon in October which seems to be the same organising group. If it goes as well as this one I'll be happy!
Overall this and Brighton seem to be vying for 2nd place after London in UK big city marathons. Both are good but this just gets my vote for being better value (i.e. not feeling like a rip-off!)
Date of review: May 28, 2013

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

In short: Third time here and again an excellent race.
In full: Not flash but well worthwhile. Good support at teh start/finish area and although the route isn't flat you always feel you get a fair amount of downhill to look forward to after climbing. The last 800m is tough but always memorable. Disappointed to miss out on my 3rd consecutive PB here by 5secs, but that does show it's a pretty fast course. Nice enough medal and one of the few races I make room for each year :)
Date of review: May 19, 2013

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

In short: Flat, fast, well organised, good value, super medal
In full: Unlike some races this one is as flat as it claims. Also some of it is sheltered enough to offer some protection from any headwinds (common on coastal runs).
Good support, lots of club runners but still fine for everyone. No chip timing but a nice wide start means not much time is lost on gun time (and we all have stop-watches anyway don't we?)
Also; one of the nicest medals I've seen. Very classy and actually worth doing the event for on its own!
Date of review: May 12, 2013

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

In short: Excellent value package of three trail races. Well organised and a great intro to multi-day events
In full: A well executed set of two 10 milers and a 10k. The routes actually do get easier so if you do East Grinstead but don't feel you can cope with more keep going!
EG is the most off-road of the 3, with a killer hill a mile from the end. HH is the biggest one and if you can only do one it's probably the best to pick. Lots more road running but enough trails and gradients to make a PB unlikely. Finally BH is a mostly field-based run; bit of a cross between the other two but with an excellent town-centre finish.
All races had plenty of club runners but were still suitable for everyone. In each case the local mayor was on had to give out medals. Plenty to eat afterwards and a chance to earn 4 medals in one weekend! Well worth trying, here's hoping it continues to grow as a event :)
Date of review: May 7, 2013

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

In short: Well organised, good value nice if at times challenging route, friendly marshals. Basically a good race then
In full: Second time here and thankfully much drier than last year, at least for most of the race! On the other hand running on dry rutted trials was a different sort of challene. Also, I've ran four marathons this year but the climb a mile from the end is the closest I've come to walking so far!
Overall a good, well organised race with supportive marshals.
Looking forward to tomorrow's Haywards Heath 10 Mile to compare this one to :)
Date of review: May 4, 2013

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

In short: Fairly tough trail run on good surfaces. Good intro to trail marathons and well worth a look in any case
In full: Nice friendly race in very cold conditions. Good scenery and not over-crowed, though being out in the New Forest does mean close to zero spectators. I'd suggest two improvements: include some distance markers for those of us that aren't garmin-addicts, and put a bin for plastic cups 100 yards after the drinks station so we have a chance to drink while running and not litter the place. This was my first trail marathon (3rd in total) and definitely the hardest. Nice event, decent medal, tasty soup and bread afterwards :) No goody bag but that's not normally a big loss anyway. Not many fun runners but if you want to try an off-road marathon this one's well worth a look: it's on fairly good trails so unless very wet road shoes will do. Not sure if it'll convert me to the muddier side of running, but I've no regrets about having ran it (was only 20mins off my flat road course PB so maybe it wasn't a tough as I thought at the time too!)
Date of review: February 24, 2013

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

In short: Profile described as "Flat"; just plain not true. Good value event with crowds at the end
In full: Bit annoyed the race was described as flat when it was pretty much all undulation. Not steep/long hills but only at most a quarter wasn't going up or down. It's not a bad race anyway but some more honesty would be nice; there's plenty of races that are genuinely flat, and others that aren't but are willing to say that.
Apart from that it's a good value for money run and credit to the organisers for offering a choice of t-shirt sizes; some much bigger races could learn from this! Getting the announcer a loud-speaker for the start would be good but as 99% of runners will follow others it's not vital.
My garmin came up short too but they're not 100% accurate: I've had the same thing happen on courses I'm confident were accurate (e.g. those ran every year). Still if it was wrong then that would be poor. (I'd say there were courses that would suit PB attempts a lot more that this one, but then I'm mainly a road-runner.)
Despite the issues it's still a good value run in nice surroundings: how many other sports enable you to decide to enter on the morning and pay £11 for a medal, t-shirt and nice sense of achievement?
Date of review: February 17, 2013

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

In short: Definitely not flat! Surprisingly tough course but enjoyable regardless.
In full: Nice day out, these race course-based runs always seem to have good facilities. A goody bag with several gels and a nice enough medal at the end. I did enter expecting a flat course ("quick dash" I believe the blurb said) and it's certainly not that. But still a good run to do; then reward yourself in the main show with some new gear :p
Date of review: November 25, 2012

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

In short: Nice route and luxurious race HQ at the race course.
In full: First half was fairly hilly but all downhill (pretty much) from there. Actually set a new PB here beating my time at the (very flat) Great South Run a few weeks earlier. No spectators but friendly enough marshals and a nice mostly tree-lined route. Some more signs directing people to the car park would have been nice and maybe a slightly more impressive finish line would be a nice touch, but not vital. One water stop at 5 miles was a minimum but seemed to do the trick I guess. Nice mug or pen choice as a memento (never thought I'd say this but big events aside I have enough medals now!) Chip timing would be nice as well so there are some ways to improve the event, but it's a nice enough run that's apparently faster than it at first seems!
Date of review: November 18, 2012

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