My Event Ratings

Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		20%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		80%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: Tough but excellent and rewarding event
In full: After failing to finish last year (2008) was determined to come back and get the medal this time around.

Organisation was good, map books were OK, staff at check-points were encouraging and supportive.

It was clear from our experiences last year that a major part of the challenge would be navigating our way, and although we had run the final 20 miles in training and knew that part of the run, of course we went wrong on the earlier sections and lost a fair bit of time and added some extra miles getting back on track.

My only gripe would be the availability of food at the CPs - fortunately we had a supporter so were able to stock up in between, but as one of runners towards the back of the pack there was very little food available as we went through the CPs.

Congratulations to all who finished the race, in whatever time and state!

Well done also to the organisers for putting on a tough and rewarding run which seemed to run more smoothly than last year. Many thanks for staying around & supporting those of us who finished after the 'official' 13 hour cutoff time.
Date of review: September 22, 2009

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

In short: Great ultra, challenging course, well planned & organised
In full: Wonderful event - well organised and marshalled throughout (great job Steve & team!) The atrocious weather at the start almost threatened to end my race before it began, but thanks to Steve's powers of persuasion I headed off with the other crazy runners into the driving rain and muddy fields.

An excellenet but tough circular course, great camaraderie amongst the runners and regular, well-stocked checkpoints and friendly marshalls got us around with smiles on our faces at the end. I even made the flight back to Prague OK with 20 minutes to spare, even with M1 queues!

Well done to all that ran it (great organisation in tough conditions) and well done to all that ran it (hope the legs are OK) ;-)
Date of review: June 8, 2009

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

In short: Great first foray into multi-day ultra running!
In full: Many thanks to Rory, Andy and all of the support crew for putting on a quality race. Flat course alongside canal, which although somewhat dull in places was made special by the friendly atmosphere, banter between the runners and the work by organisers & support team. Thanks also to Andy and Rory for Desert Running chat and general ultra advice on Saturday night - really enjoyed learning more about MDS, Namibia, etc. and may one day pluck up the courage to give one of them a go!
Date of review: March 3, 2009

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

In short: Great scenery, good marshalling let down somewhat by flaky organisation
In full: Applications: Application process easy via RW website; info. sheet received by post from the organisers was sufficient, however, I'm sure organisation will definitely benefit once website (and forum to post questions / comments) is up and running.
Registration: Straightforward, efficient set-up at the hall and well organised.
Pre-race: A fair amount of confusion about where to meet and how we'd get to the 50K start - approx 1 mile away from Registration (some 50K runners mistakenly headed off with Marathon runners to their start and joined those of us heading to 50K by chance!)
Race: Great, friendly marshalling and good atmosphere and chat between runners. Enough drinks for me, no food available though. Course was tougher and more 'undulating' = hilly than I was expecting, but enough to keep the interest even for 4 laps. Everyone seemed to cope OK with the bands used to count the laps, although I had trouble getting 1st one off was helped by kind marshall with strong fingers! :-)
Post-race: Didn't enjoy the walk back to the hall after finishing (my choice as bus would have taken too long and I needed to hit the road). Join the others posting comments for 50K and Marathon that medals should be given out at finish - having to ask around to locate medal and t-shirt back at the hall was dissapointing after running so far.
Overall: Many thanks to all involved in organising and marshalling this event - lots of hard work involved and much appreciated.
PS: On a final note, would like to join others in sending condolences to the family of the runner that died. Very sad.
Date of review: January 26, 2009

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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%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Great marathon, challenging course, well planned & organised
In full: Thanks to all involved! Excellent day out, beautiful scenery for most of the course and new experience for me of running a course entirely following instructions with no signs/directions set-up along the route. Added an extra dimension to the challenge of running an off-road marathon and added to the sense of achievement at the finish. Also agree with previous comments that it was refreshing to just enjoy the run without the need to focus on a finish time. Great support throughout - plenty of drinks, sweets, biscuits and bread pudding available from friendly marshals. My only gripe, echoing the comments from Cameron Ross from 2007 event was the lack of a clear finish line - in it's absence there was a slight anti-climax at the end after running for 5 hours. This was forgotten fairly quickly though as sat admiring my new medal and munching my way through the delicious BBQ burger!
Date of review: July 21, 2008

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

In short: Great race organisation, amazing views and HILLS!
In full: Wonderful event - well organised and marshalled throughout (great job Mike & team!) First off-road marathon for me (yes I'm counting it as a PB!) and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge - yes even those hills which seemed top go on forever. Great to chat to other runners along the way and great atmospeher throughout. Well done to all that ran it (hope the clearing up was OK) and well done to all that ran it (hope the legs are OK) ;-)
Date of review: June 16, 2008

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