My Event Ratings

Overall score		40%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		20%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		40%
Value		40%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: tedious and ugly route based on the glamour of starting in Wembley stadium.
In full: Ugly smelly route past stinking dumpsters, consertina route mainly through the car park of the stadium and petrol stations. Too many hairpins and on a wet day it doesn't make it easier.

Being forced to watch a concert that I really wasn't bothered about and having no room to warm up apart from static stretching.

Medals are always nice but the souvenir tee was good enough, even if dusting off your rugby skills to get one was necessary.

Atmosphere was good but I'm afraid Nike dropped the ball on this one. Hopefully they'll get back up to their usually good standard next year.
Date of review: September 1, 2008

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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		80%

In short: Infinite improvement from last year. Start in waves so less congestion and baggage hold was very quick and easy
In full: Last years race was not great, had bottlenecks on the course and the baggage hold was an absolute disgrace. This year they really picked it up! There were 2 baggage holds per wave, you collected your own bag from a spacious area and they checked it was yours on the way out. The course itself was wide enough and with the structured wave starts it mean I managed start off well within my PB pace and keep it up. Mist showers were great given the warm temperature. Will definitely be back if they do it like this again!
Date of review: July 20, 2008

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

In short: Good atmosphere better. Better for a bit of fun than a race.
In full: Definitely a fun run, there's no timing and they encourage people to take it easy. Course was little more than 9k but had entertainment all the way round. There were the odd commuters crossing the track but it wasn't too bad. A good run for beginners but don't turn up expecting to time yourself over 10k with any kind of accuracy.
Date of review: January 16, 2008

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

In short: When you arrive you'll think you're mad, when you hit the first puddle you'll know it! But you are surrounded by other nutters so you feel ok. Great atmosphere!
Date of review: December 20, 2007

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

In short: Nice circuit and a friendly atmosphere
Date of review: September 4, 2007

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

In short: Great day, great atmosphere. Collecting baggage took an hour after I'd finished though and my bag was caked in mud (it was a dry day)
In full: Hyde park is always a nice place to run an event and this day was no different. Capital radio put on a good atmosphere that made the day thoroughly enjoyable.

Checking in bags was fine. Getting about the place was easy and places you needed to be were easy to find.

Although at around the 1 or 2km mark they bottlenecked the flow and forced many runners to slow down.

The mist shower feature at the 6km point was a nice touch. the 2 water points were well located so you could get a bottle at 3 points around the course (3, 5 and 7km)

The only let down came at the end when you are ushered toward the baggage collection points. It took 40 minutes after joining the queue, which was about 20m long when I joined it, to get to the front to see it was a free-for-all to clamber over other bags in an attempt to find your own. Waterbottles were spilt and the mud was churning up making a mess of the bags that were on the bottom. Anyone with anything breakable in their bags may have been particularly upset. After 20 more minutes of scavenging for my bag I found it caked in mud and clambered out of the tent with my legs now aching to rinse it off with a bottle of water.

Hopefully they learned their lesson from this and will improve the service next year.
Date of review: July 17, 2007

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