My Event Ratings

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

In short: Great atmosphere but too overcrowded to pace properly and what about a technical t-shirt in a variety of sizes.
In full: My first time at London and my 6th marathon overall. I found it so crowded at the start that my pace plan fell by the wayside in the first couple of miles. The lack of ability to run at pace or with my usual gait meant my legs were sore at 6 miles in. So I decided to ignore my time and just enjoy it and after the half way point things eased. The support was fantastic the whole way round. The expo was good but so large I felt I hadn't covered it properly. The goody bag was OK but what about a technical t-shirt or at least a shirt in a variety of sizes. The large size means a small woman like me now has a cotton nightshirt with London Marathon on the front.
Date of review: May 1, 2012

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

In short: Glorius but hilly and one of the best post race buffets ever!
In full: Luckily run in a weather window between sleet/snow showers. Lovely course, good organisation. Pacing required due to some very steep hills but last 3 miles of the course were predominantly downhill. Has to be run for the post race buffet which is free to runners and included sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and scones, tea or coffee and tunnocks caramel wafers. Yum! My friends and I had a fantastic day here.
Date of review: March 5, 2012

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

In short: Not as hard as you might think!
Date of review: October 17, 2011

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

In short: great start to the race year but frustrating mix of abilities in each group. Fantastic marshalling in freezing conditions.
In full: Once again snow disrupted the route. The alternative was fine but the out and back nature of it meant that runners were squeezed into half the road space than normal. I'm not sure how groups are organised but I was in the orange group which was right behind the elite club runners. I was at the back of the group as I was unable to get in the starting pen. This meant I got stuck behind people who had to walk 200m into the race. This was very frustrating. There seemed to be too many runners of an extremely slow pace that I can't imagine all had miscalculated their time that badly. Perhaps Great Run need to look at groupings and place runners based on time. That said, the weather is not there fault and I enjoyed my run despite the frustrations. The alternative route was 5K and kudos to the marshalls who volunteered to assist on such a cold day - they must have been freezing yet they were cheerful and upbeat throughout.
Date of review: January 14, 2011

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

In short: Excellent race but some issues with organisation
In full: I did this half last year, thoroughly enjoyed it and aside from a chaotic registration thought the organisation was very smooth. This year registration was chaotic as before but there were a couple of other niggles. We seemed to mingle briefly with the 10K crowd in the first 2 miles which was a bit disconcerting as they were going straight on and we were trying to cross amongst them. The big hill due to the route change was a bit of a shock and seemed to be about a mile long if I'm not mistaken but the miles of downhill along the road more than made up for it. I managed to shave a minute off my previous best so can't have been too bad. The last problem was at the prize giving as many chips hadn't registered a time. I sat next to the lady who should have been womens supervet prize winner but she had a chip which didn't register so when the results were called her name wasn't there and she had to query. The organisers did manage to find her name and time eventually but this might not have come to light if she, like many winners, had not stayed around for the prize giving. Also my time hadn't registered which was a worry as it's a PB and races often ask for proof of a time when entering. Thankfully it's on the website now.
To their credit organisers were receptive to queries on the day and did their best to sort any problems. none of these quibbles would stop me from entering again but I would hope that organisers learned from feedback and sorted the registration area and the mix with the 10K runners which were both frustrating.
Date of review: October 19, 2010

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

In short: Great race on a nice day but watch for the hill at 6K
In full: Well organised and friendly. Quite undulating with one particularly soul destroying hill. I was much slower than I would normally be in a 10K. Nice medal and water bottle at the end. Plus free bottle of water, banana and tea and cakes made the £10 entrance fee very reasonable. Will definitely be back.
Date of review: June 21, 2010

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

In short: Great run, much improved organisation from last year, decent goody bag.
In full: Head wind for 10 miles and freezing rain for the full thing. Never been so cold in a race, however, despite this came away with a PB. Organisation was much improved on last year and the start went smoothly. Marshalls and spectators did well to stand out in the conditions and cheer people on. Lovely goody bag at the end with technical t-shirt contained in a proper kit bag. A random selection of the usual goodies accompanied this. I think it would have benefitted from the odd spot of entertainment at certain sections although it was so cold and miserable not sure anyone would have been keen to play and to be honest I wasn't really paying attention as I was so focused on finishing and getting warm and dry.
Date of review: April 19, 2010

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

In short: Excellent race despite the reduced course.
In full: Exceptional weather meant the race route was changed to a shorter 4K distance part off road part on but this was stated in an email prior to the event so everyone should have been prepared. The snow up hill on the off road section meant that this was tougher going than normal and meant that my time was not much slower over 4K than it usually is over the 5K distance. Liked the hand warmer in the goody bag. Cheerful marshalling despite the very cold conditions. I think this is the best they could do in the circumstances and cancelling would not really have been an option given the costs.
Date of review: January 21, 2010

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

In short: A better finishing surface and more frequent water/lucozade sport stations from the 16 mile mark.
In full: Very warm weather meant I just missed out on sub 4hours by a few seconds.
I didn't run out of water but still very dehydrated between 16 and 21 miles as I felt there weren't enough water stations in that area given the heat. The Moray marathon in 2005 increased the frequency of their water stations due to the heat that year.
Gosford House section was incredibly hot and stifling particularly with the dusty running surface.The huge toilet queue at the start meant I was nearly late for entering the starting pens.
I thought the finish was a bit shambolic - spongy running surface and then wasn't clear where to pick up goody bags etc. Completely missed out on the free beer.
Good things are the technical t-shirt in the goody bag, plenty of water at the end, helpful marshalls, fabulous support along the whole route and despite the heat I still got a PB though not quite as good as I was hoping for.

Date of review: June 8, 2009

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

In short: Despite organisational nightmare at the start and finish this was a thoroughly ennjoyable race
In full: Race numbers and chips should have been posted out with other info. More information on location of toilets - I waited 25mins in a queue only to find trackside toilets which were empty. Needed marshalls trackside to organise runners - we had no idea where to go and consequently started much further down the field than we should have. Also, I didn't see any pace setters till near the turn around when I saw the 1:45:00 pacer which I'd hoped to be following all the way round. That said, once the race started I wasn't subject to the bottlenecks of last year and so was able to relax into a rhythm much earlier on. The support was good and the water stations were well stocked. Was a bit annoyed at the roofer in the white van who did his utmost to knock over runners on both sides of the road somewhere between Musselburgh and Prestonpans. The road was closed! Was also disappointed at the unclear finish where we were bottlenecked for 5 mins in the cold wind till we got our post race goodies. Thought the t-shirt was a bit poor compared to the last couple of years but they never really fit that well anyway. I complained about the inaugural race in 2006 which had appaling organisation however, the organisers completely turned this around in 2007 after listening to runners complaints so I'm hoping for a similar turn around next year to make this into a great race.
Date of review: April 7, 2009

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