My Event Ratings

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

In short: Great location, well organised and fun day!
In full: Its always a pleasure to run at Whipsnade. Such a lovely location it makes it all worth it.

I foolishly assumed I could enter my children into the fun run on the day but it was full.

I'll be back again next year
Date of review: June 10, 2011

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Overall score		40%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		80%
Atmosphere		40%
Organisation		20%
Value		40%
Beginner-friendliness		40%

In short: Oh dear Edinburgh Marathon peeps this is just not good enough
In full: Edinburgh is a great city but the Marathon falls way below what I expect from such a prestigious event.

The start went well. There could have been more toilets but that's really a minor problem.

I missed a number of mile markers. The ones I did see were very small and difficult to see. Good job I had my garmin. The water stations and energy drink stations were plentiful and worked really well.
It was a lovely route by the sea, very little wind on the way out.

When I finished I was given a medal that didn't have the year on it...why was this?
My baggage lorry was surrounded by lots of other runners waiting for their bags. There were so many runners arriving at the same time that the baggage team could not cope and some runners were collecting their own bags.

I finished in 3:22 and didn't have a problem getting a T-shirt but I know for those finishing much later many sizes had run out. My wife ran the relay and ended up with marathon and half-marathon T-shirts but not in the sizes she wanted.
My marathon number had my T-shirt size printed on the bottom, could this system be used for the relay runners?

The relay runners were given no shelter from the elements. My wife ran the 4th relay leg and her bus left at 11.30 but she did not run until 3.30. Also the course had changed and the length of the relay legs were different to what was published. The 3rd leg was 9 miles and the 4th leg was 3.9 miles. Its really not worth spending 4 hours waiting in a field for a 3.9 mile run.

But the worst problem, in my mind, was the farcical bus system back into Edinburgh. Why was the rendezvous point and the bus pickup points not in the same place? The bus pickup point was a good 20 mins walk, if not more. Then the queue for the bus appeared to go on for ever. I pre-ordered a bus ticket but no one was checking these. It took me 45mins in the bus queue, I had just run a marathon…this is unacceptable. Then the bus returned us back to the start and a 45 min walk back to my hotel.

To me this could be a great event but you need to think about the runners experience rather than maximising profits.
Date of review: May 24, 2011

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

In short: A great, well organised race
In full: This was my first time running the Robin Hood marathon. The pre-race literature was all very good. The organisation was fantastic. The race village kept my kids happy all day. What more can you ask for.

I arrived at 9:15am and getting into car park A was a little stressful. The 2nd half was tough but then I had not trained fully so was expecting it to be harder than usual.

Thanks to all the marshals and everyone involved you did a great job
Date of review: September 15, 2010

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Overall score		40%
Would you do it again?		Maybe
Details:
Scenery		60%
PB potential		80%
Atmosphere		40%
Organisation		20%
Value		40%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: Good PB potential but let down by bad orginisation
In full: I'll start with the good points
Good fast course with great PB potential, good race pack giving full details, there were ample toilets onc I found them, I thought the marshalling was good but in a few places runners were left to dodge the traffic.

Unfortunately this was let down by the woeful baggage deposit and collection. What was taking so long? Having to wait up to an hour or more is just unacceptable.

The start was not staggered and was completely fenced off making it difficult to start somewhere near where I thought I should without jumping over a barrier.

On finishing I was given a medal and bottle of water, where was the sports drink, chocolate bar and banana?

Lastly Im not sure what Nke did other than put their name to this event.

I think next year I'll try Silverstone
Date of review: March 7, 2010

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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		80%

In short: Great race, well done to everyone.
Date of review: March 30, 2009

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

In short: A windy 20 miles
In full: I found this a well organised race run on fairly flat quite roads.
Date of review: March 3, 2008

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

In short: Congested start but good race otherwise
In full: Sort out the start in that narrow lane and this becomes a real PB breaker. Very flat with a couple of tight bends, good marshals.

I enjoyed it.

Thanks to everyone at St. Albans Striders for putting on this race.
Date of review: January 20, 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: A well organised traffic free race
In full: Fairlands Valley Spartans put on another great event. My thanks go to the organisers and all the superb marshals because without you races like this would not happen.
Date of review: November 5, 2007

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

In short: Well done NHRR
In full: Great race, shame I could not run any quicker. I'll be back next year.
Date of review: October 7, 2007

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

In short: A great traffic free local race
In full: Well done to everyone involved in making this such a great event.
I’m sure that hill gets longer every year.
My kids went on the bouncy slide £1.50 for 4 goes was a bit steep though.
It’s a shame there are no results.

I’ll be back next year.
Date of review: July 2, 2007

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