My Event Ratings

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

In short: Challenging and scenic, and great organisation.
In full: I have wanted to do this race since 2008, but have had to wait due to having 3 knee operations. It was worth the wait. Great organisation, that Albert Kemp sends some lovely pre-run emails, beautiful run, fantastic support, loads of water,sport drinks,jelly babies, cheerful fellow runners,sponges, cakes and beer! Yes it was challenging, especially with the rain making life slippery underfoot,but the run was always going to be a challenge for all anyway. shame you had to watch the ground so often so as not to slip over instead of looking at the reservoir and its trout fisherman, but you cant blame anyone for that. The race is superb. OK, slight knock backs, abeit slight, the loo's before hand in the college were impossible to get to as the queues were horrendous. Mens loos I mean! I hate to think how bad the ladies must have been. Amd how exactly were we meant to get back to the train station? Great idea having a van pick us up before the start, thanks for that, but after a couple of pints in the greyhound after the run we had a long slow walk back to the train station only guessing which way to go. Didnt see a bus anywhere either. Oh well, did well to stretch anyway. Oh, and also to the others who mentioned low water pressure in the showers and problems with tea in "tasty baps" van afterwards, that was because of a water pipe problem at the college apparently and "tasty bap" van ran out of water for the tea urn. see you next year.
Date of review: July 2, 2012

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Nice day, lovely scenery and good crowd.
In full: Nice day, lovely scenery and good crowd. Resticted by size of park means its 4xlaps, but I didnt really notice it. When I ran past some other runners they actually commended me and urged me on! Fantastic. Signed up on the day and it took about 2 minutes. For £10? and if its not raining, get out of bed and try it. Glad I did. In the rain it would be very muddy though. I know this as I used to walk my woof there.
Date of review: February 26, 2012

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Enjoyable run.
In full: I actually live near the commom and run on it a lot, so it seems weird to pay to do it, but having said that, it makes a big diffrence running with 700 other people. So much more enjoyable. Very good organisation, and it all went smoothly. Only criticism would be that with the whole common to run on, why was only a fraction of the run on it, the rest on pavements besides fairly busy roads away from the nice scenery. Nice medal with some freebies, and the marshalls did a very good job, especially at road crossings. Well done. The hill, whilst slowing most people down a bit, isn't a terrible hill, and with a little hill practice shouldn't creat too many problems. In fact my mate took 30 seconds off his PB! Cant be bad.
Date of review: November 28, 2011

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Should have been a good one. Should do better.
In full: To start with, the advertised price of £13 turned out to be £17 once you'd paid for administartion etc. Not impressed. The emails before the race were very good, but didnt state exactly where the car parks were, so in the thick fog we couldn't find them. We went into the leisure centre car park, with lots of other lost runners and asked 4 "marshalls" where the car park was, and was promptly told to go in completey the wrong direction!! When we realised this, we all turned around and went our own ways to find parking. I missed the car park again, which is OPPOSITE the start line, not ADJACENT to it, and parked by the river. The warm up, from where we were at the back of the pack was mostly missed, and so we only got to jog around for 2 mins before the start; and the loads of goodies turned out to be one bottle of water, one small ribena, one small wafer and a banana. Dont forget the all important meadal though, which was nice, except it doesnt mention the ODP 10k, so if your running in more than one of these series of runs you'll probably get the same medal 3 times. I had high expectations for this run and was let down a lot. Of course the fog played its part in its downfall, which is not the fault of the organisers, but shoddy marshalls are.
Date of review: November 21, 2011

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Well organised, flat run. Would be nice in September out of the rain.
In full: Good run, and the 3 waves of runners were perfectly set off, making running so much easier for the faster runners. Nice medal and a good tshirt,(much better design than last years)! Weather was a bit of a downer, but at least keep me cool as I was running around. Getting in and out of the car park was a bit slow, but there's not a lot can be done about that. Only downer really was that at £30, and all the knowledge about taking on board protein and carbs after a race, there were no shakes or bananas available to runners at the end and I thought they could at least provide these. Oh, and only 1 lucozade given out in the race to, along with 2 waters.
Date of review: October 26, 2008

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Tough, but very good race.
In full: Very good organisation and very well marked in the wooded areas. The marshalls who seemed to appear in the wilderness were very encouraging and had plenty of water, and even a box of jelly babies to hand out. Nice views, friendly runners of many abilities and plenty of hills to keep the heart rate pumping. Will def be here again next year.
Date of review: August 3, 2008

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Should come with a health warning!
In full: All those hills!! It certainly was a slog. Very hilly, either up or down, according to my garmin total ascent over 4100 feet, but what goes up must come down, so some lovely long slopes to recharge the muscles before you go up again. The marshalls were excelent and very encouraging,though a few more would have been handy in the woods at times. lots of water and orange juice stops, lovely scenery and a nice sunny day. Good allround organisation. well done to all finishers.
Date of review: July 21, 2008

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Flat, fast and well organised.
In full: Very good morning with a good group of people all intent on having a good time. Very good opportunities for PB's due to flat and fast course, even though the towpath does seem to take it out of you. Love the medal, of which you need 2 to dispaly each side! Must do next year! Nice to run along the Thames in the Summer time.
Date of review: June 29, 2008

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Very good venue and cause, shame that it wasn't too well attended
In full: A lovely day in Battersea park, with a flat as you can get 5k course, which screamed out for PB's, people jogging all around on their own, playing tennis and football and yet maybe only 100-150 people bothered to run with us for a fantastic cause. Shame. Gotta medal, and a tee shirt was yours for an extra £5 meant great value, especially as your entrance fee was only a fiver. Enthusiastic race starter and cheerful helpers made it a good morning. See you next year.
Date of review: June 15, 2008

Report this rating to the moderator

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

In short: Surprisingly hard going. Great value, great cause and well organised.
In full: I was treating this this run as an easy run to get me back into running after an injury, but found it surprisingly hard, The hills though not extreme seemed to go on for ages. The tracks were sometimes too narrow to allow runners to pass me, so slowing them down. Other than that it was very enjoyable with good organisation and some very nice views. For a tenner you get a medal and a good t shirt. All standards ran or walked making this run very welcoming to all. Marshalls were very friendly and the volunteers and BHF staff were excelant. See you next year.
Date of review: June 12, 2008

Report this rating to the moderator