My Event Ratings

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

In short: Great race but it's no London or Edinburgh...yet
In full: I liked the race, I really did, from the start when I parked up on the outskirts of the city for a bargin price and was whisked off the start line with no fuss I was impressed. That said this race is not on par with London or Edinburgh yet. The route needs improvement, far too many out and back sections thorugh souless places with no support and there should be more food/energy drinks on the course. The price is very high for such an event but the organisation is very good, swings and roundabouts I guess. I hear that 5000 places went to charities, who returned half their allocation so many runners who could not commit to raiseing £1000+ missed out. I hope this won't happen next year?
Date of review: May 3, 2011

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Great race, great scenery, great event!
In full: This is the first time I have done this race but I hope it won't be the last. The scenery was fantastic and thought the hills were tough the support was great! £11 for a 20 mile race is great value and for something this well run it is a positive bargin! Keep up the good work.
Date of review: May 3, 2011

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Great start to the year and good organisation
In full: This is the first year I have done this race but I can tell I have been missing out. It was a good route and great scenery and very, very well organised (the park and ride scheme was a great idea that was run perfectly). The medal vas nice and the buff was worth the entry fee by itself. The only slight niggle I had was that the start was far too narrow and crowded, meaning it was slow to get going. This is only a minor niggle though. Overall this was a really good event and a great start to the 2011 season.
Date of review: January 24, 2011

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: OK race, not the best but not the worst
In full: This is the 2nd year I have run this race. It's not bad, scenery not so great and this year was a total washout weatherwise but it's quite well organised. Medal is not great though.
Date of review: November 9, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Nice race dispite the weather
In full: I did the winter ballbuster in Box Hill the day before this race so was still tired. Great organiasation and friendly course marshals made up for the bad weather. Great medal and T-shirt. There were cakes to but I couldn't have them as I am vegan. Normally I don't like lap races but this one was OK.
Date of review: November 9, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Great race with a few hills thrown in for good measure
In full: I ran this on the back of a great experience in the 20k organised a few months back. I though it was great with good organisation and good scenery. Great value for money as well.
Date of review: May 2, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Good race but why no chip time?
In full: This was a really nice race. Bag storage was not so great (just a room where you left your stuff) but I thought they pretty much had what you needed around the course, lots of water stations but I think more energy drink stops would have been good and why oh why on such a flat course with such PB potential were there no chip times?? Instead they wrote your time down when you crossed the line. According to my watch I got round in 3:22.38 which is about two minutes of my personal best (set in Berlin last year) of 3:24.07 so I am quite happy with that but an proper chip time would have been better. Overall quite a good race though.
Date of review: April 6, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Great race and great weather, what more could you want
In full: I've run Reading a few times now and got a new PB for this race (if not race distance) yesterday. I agree with the other comments on this page (basically it's a great race). The only issue I had was that right at the start when the commentator was trying to get people to the start he actually told people to push there way through. This was in my mind a very silly thing to say when you have 16000 people on one stretch of road! Also, as a Vegan I could not eat any of the generous amount of goodies in the goody bag, a banana or other fruit would have been good but not essential. I'll be back next year.
Date of review: March 30, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: good race but poor organisation
In full: Not the most well organised race in the world. For a big event of about 4000 people and sponsorship from Nike I wasn’t that impressed. The car park was OK on the way in but I gather that was only as I got there early and on the way out it was just a big log jam. In the end several people went out the wrong way along a one way system just to get out!! While others took nearly an hour to leave. This could have been avoided if somebody had been directing traffic.

The baggage storage was just a big room in the race HQ where you just left your bag, nobody was really watching them and there were no labels with the race pack, I made my own but seeing as there was nobody checking them I suppose it was unnecessary. My bag was moved and I know other people lost money out of theirs. Again, this was unnecessary!

The race start was just one big queue in a narrow road with no time zones and the finish funnel, while OK when I went through, apparently got very crowded later on as it was too narrow to cope with the number of people coming along at about 2 hours, which was potentially dangerous.

Still with a new PB for the distance and finishing before the rain came I’m fairly happy but all the above are things you would expect experienced race organisers to have foreseen. There was no bag at the end and no cereal bar etc which would have been nice considering the cost. It is a shame because although I am always appreciative for the hard (and often thankless work) that marshals do at races this could be a great race if the organisers got the detail right.
Date of review: March 9, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Nice route (even as it laps), good organisation make for an fun race
In full: My first Draycote 35 and the furthest I have ever run. I am pretty tired today but the race was really well organised and the race marshals did a great job. The goody bag was nice too (although I think a medal would have been good for such a long race but I do like the T-shirt). Great race.
Date of review: February 23, 2009

Report this rating to the moderator