My Event Ratings

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

In short: Glad I did it, but won't be back
In full: I love trail running, especially costal trail running, but this race didn't really do it for me - too much running round muddy fields and long off camber sections, and too many people on the course - many were trying to run in road shoes. Marshalls were fantastic on what was a freezing cold day - they were all cheerful and had jelly babies and cake! There should have been foil blankets at the finish though on such a cold day. and although there was plenty of water at the end, bottles would have been better - it was way too cold to stand round refilling a cup. The race website also need sorting out - it's not the easiest to navigate, too much information that's not needed making it tricky to find the information you do need. Great that the organisers allow name changes though, more races should allow this.
Date of review: March 13, 2013

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

In short: Probably the Multi terrainest race ever!
In full: Lived up to it's billing as a multi terrain race, went from tarmac to forest singletrack, to cinder track, to concrete, to beach to sand dunes! A few puddles but surprisingly little mud given the amount of rain we had before (and after - but luckily not so much during!) the race made it all very runable - it was amazing when you got onto the beach to see runners stretched out in front into the distance! Really enjoyed the race, will be back next year!
Date of review: November 26, 2012

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

In short: My first Snowdonia marathon but not my last!
In full: What a fantastic day for a marathon in Snowdonia - the views were amazing! The hardest marathon I have done by far - but that what makes it so rewarding to finish - that cup of coffee at the end was just what I needed! Don't think I got the proper Snowdonia experience though as it wasn't wet and horrible, so I'll be back next year, it can't be that nice two years running!
Date of review: October 29, 2012

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

In short: That's more like it!
In full: Didn't do last year as 2010 put me off. Really enjoyed the course this year, view if the bay, Millennium Centre and Roath Park were great! Start still needs sorting out, was in pink start, not obvious how to get there and white start looked huge - should have split this into two or three. Also leaving a gap between waves might have spread the field more - was quite crowded for first few miles, though nowhere near as bad as 2012. Bag drop hugely improved too. It's now getting very close to getting on par with the Reading Half as one of the best in the UK - certainly much more scenic! It even managed to stay dry!
Date of review: October 14, 2012

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

In short: Lovely Scenery. fast course
In full: A few bottlenecks at the start (subway, park entrance and some of the steet furnature caused problems) but this will always be a problem starting where it does. Surprisingly scenic route - Maidenhead doesn't exactly sound like an inspiring place to a run a half marathon! Queue to pick up bags was long, but moved quickly - I was getting cold though. A bottle of water at the end rather than cups would have been nice, and maybe some apple/orange segments for those of us who don't like bananas! Otherwise well organised and not too crowded - definate PB potential, especially of the start can be sorted out.
Date of review: September 17, 2012

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

In short: Fantastic scenery, fab crowd support and marshalling
In full: First time doing this race, fantastic crowd support and marshalling, plenty of water stops for what turned out to be a hot day! Compared to other trail races the hills weren't as bad as I was expecting, especially being so close to Snowdon, running round the side of hills means a lot of off camber sections though! Return leg was harder but much more fun than the outward leg, loved seeing the train, and hearing the cheers from the passengers. Only downsides were the parking (an extra £4 we weren't told about before hand) and the pasta party was overpriced for what you got, and seemed to be largely for the Rotary club.
Date of review: August 21, 2012

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Overall score		100%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		100%
PB potential		20%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		80%
Value		100%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: The clue is in the name!
In full: You need to like hills for this one - it's brutal! Great challenge though, even if I did have to walk some of it, and the view from the top is fantastic!
Date of review: August 13, 2012

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

In short: Lovely way to spend a Wednesday evening!
In full: Does what it says on the tin - a Scenic seven mile run round the Scenic drive! Hills weren't as bad as I was expecting, love the looooooong downhill at the end!
Date of review: July 5, 2012

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Overall score		40%
Would you do it again?		No
Details:
Scenery		40%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		20%
Value		40%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: Weather is no excuse
In full: OK the wether didn't help matters, but it does rain in the UK in April, so shouldn't have taken the organisers by surprise. There were no signs to the car park (which I'd pre booked) and when found it, sat in a queue for 10 mins until the marshal told us it was full adn teh additional parking was back teh way we had just come (there were three more marshalls standing round who could have been telling us whilst we were sat in the queue) got to the additional car park with 20 mins to spare, no buses (even though there were 3 parked at the original car park doing nothing) so decided there wasn't time to use the bag drop and left everything in the car.

I thought using the redways for so much of the course was a joke - the course was so conjested, it was worse than NYC, it was also flooded in quite a few places. A road marathon should be on the road! Marshals were friendly enough, but weren't doing a great job of holding the traffic in places, nearly got run over twice. Crowd supposrt was awesome though, was surprised to see so many turn out on such a bad day! There wsa no indication of where teh finish line was apart from timinag mats and I was surprised there were no space blankets, so I had a very, very cold wait for my mate. There were no signs back to where we'd parked the car, we were lucky that we managed to find it reasonably quicky, I think we would have started to get hypothermic had we got lost.
Will not be doing it again, especially if it stays on the redways.
Date of review: May 3, 2012

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

In short: Fun in the Sun
In full: 4th time at Reading, agree with a lot of the comments that it did seem more crowded this year, even got elbowed off the course at one point! Garmin reckoned I'd run an extra quarter of a mile, but I would put a lot of that down to zig zagging round people, which I've never really had to do at Reading before. As ever excellent support and very pleased to take over 3 mins off my PB!
Date of review: April 2, 2012

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