My Event Ratings

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

In short: Not good enough for a big city marathon
In full: The Expo was just rubbish and so far out of town! Poor sign posting from Ocean Terminal. Cramped and useless stalls, just a waste of time. Please just post out the running numbers and chips.

The start was badly laid out with the loo queues hampering those getting to the start.

We were proudly told that the number of runners had increased from 5,000 to 1300 but I don't think the course could handle that many. I was sruggking to get a free run at many points.

The course was advertised heavily as great PB potential but the threat of winds coming off the sea was not mentioned. The course profile I thought was a bit suspect. There seemed to be much more uphill from Mussleborough to mile 18 than we were led to believe.

The mile markers were a joke. I missed a few near the start they were that bad. Compare this to London!!

Atmosphere on the course was patchy and its relavence to Edinburgh minimal. It should perhaps be renamed "The North Sea Marathon"!

The shuttle buses at the finish were just not up to the job - really dissapointing after such a hard run.

Not publishing the results until Wednesday morning is nothing short of criminal in this modern era - just unbelievable!

Two main questions:

1) Do the organisers want it to be a nice local city race or are they trying to turn it into a big city marathon because if it is the latter they really need to make it feel bigger - mile markers being a good example and just ramp up the organisation big time.

2) Does Edinburgh want a marathon of this scale? There was no sense during my stay that was a marathon about to happen. Complete apathy. Few spectators and little link between the City and the Race. My wife tried to get a train to part of the course. There was only one an hour and that of course was packed.

In short Edinburgh, make your mind up - what sort of marathon do you really want?
Date of review: May 27, 2008

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

In short: Quite a fast flatish course. Silly system of filling your own goody bags with a long queue to do so. Took ages to get out of the car park.
Date of review: May 15, 2007

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

In short: Undulations make it quite a challenge but it's worth it.
In full: Good preparation for London. The hills make it a real challenge. The organisation was superb and the marshalls excellent. Clear mile markers whuch is not always the case on even big events. Much better momento than two years ago. I would have liked a chip timing system as it took me a minute to cross the start but that is nit picking. A great event.
Date of review: April 2, 2007

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

In short: Start needs organising better, very poor luggage drop.
In full: The luggage drop off was appalling. There was a huge queue to leave bags and it was very slow. It was so slow that they had to delay the start of the race. I was left with no time to warm up properly. Then the race start was too congested with a very slow first km. The km markers were totally inadequate. Why dont race organisers get this right. It important for serious runners to pace properly.

Apart from that it was great!
Date of review: March 11, 2007

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

In short: Much improved course this year, but needs more visible mile markers.
In full: No treacherous grassy mudslide this year. There was one very steep downhill which was not good on the knees. My Garmin said 13.44 miles! I did not realise there was a problem until mile 3 because there were mo mile markers at mile 1 and 2. For a serious race each mile must be clearly signed. They all seemed to bea ground level which meant you couldn't see them from a distance and were prone to being obscured by spectators. Also not sure how accurate and reliable the new timing system was.
Date of review: February 22, 2007

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

In short: Very well organised event, the marshalls were great.
In full: Didn't quite see all the distance markers and not sure how accurate they were! The 9k marker definitely seemed to be too early. Everything else though was very good and I'll definitely run it again if I get the chance.
Date of review: October 1, 2006

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Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		No
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		40%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: Too narrow for too long. The grass section was positively dangerous in the rain a real mud bath.
Date of review: February 22, 2006

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

In short: Lovely race, well organised
Date of review: September 19, 2005

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