My Event Ratings

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

In short: Beats Edinburgh hands down!
In full: I've run Edinburgh 4 times and EVERYTHING about loch ness is better.
Registration-nice and quick
Pasta party-awesome food, great value
The start-we stayed in fort Augustus the night before to transition to the start was quick and easy. They were serving tea at the start-how cool!!??? Good thing there were plenty of bushes to have a wee behind!!!
The course-first few miles was loads of downhill, couple of tough hills mile 18-19, amazing scenery lots of water and lucozade stations and great atmosphere with the other runners. Great crowd support for the last 3miles!
The finish-lots of supporters, nicely organised, easy for your friends/family to see u cross the line.
Great medal, t-shirt and goody bag! All runners got a voucher for free food-v.nice touch!! Massage tent and live music finish-brilliant weekend AND I knocked 34mins off my 2011 Edinburgh time -despite those hills!!!!!
Date of review: October 7, 2011

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

In short: new timing chips dont work-i ran 26.2miles and have no time.
In full: Up until crossing the finish line i really thought edinburgh had improved (this was my 4th edinburgh marathon). toilets at the start seemed better and they got the water and lucozade stations in the right place and they actually had plenty bottles at all. yes the mile markers were difficult to spot and the start line seems to move further down regent road each year but on the whole better than the last 3 years.

after crossing the line there were no marshalls what so ever. i followed other runners down a narrow street was handed a water and energy drink then joined a mass of hundreds of runners and stood for 20 mins. no one had any idea why we were stuck, eventually folk got angry and tried to walk around the blockage-they had run out of t-shirts and goodie bags or something-at this point i was prepared to walk off without either-all i wanted was to find my family and friends. after helping myself to a t-shirt and medal out of a box i then proceeded to try and find the reunion area. what a mucking fess-no signage, had to walk about a mile to this field couldnt find the alphabeticle meeting points (theres no phone signals beause the networks are too busy). eventually collapsed in a sobbing heap on the ground until a fellow runner directed me where to go.

on top of this i had paid £5 for my family to park at the race course, wardens wouldnt let them into the car park, then wouldnt let them them go to the finish line-the had driven down from aberdeen.

to top it off, the new timing chips in the bibs didnt clock me going over the time mats so i have no time!!!!

EDINBURGH THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE-I WILL NOT BE BACK NEXT YEAR AND HAVE SIGNED UP FOR BRIGHTON 2012-I SUGGEST MORE RUNNERS SHOULD BOYCOTT- ITS THE ONLY WAY THEY'LL GET THE MESSAGE.
Date of review: May 23, 2011

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

In short: Thank God there was water this year!
In full: How ironic that most of my training this year took place in snow, rain, snow, hail, snow, more snow and snow. Then on the day its 29oC and baking hot??? Could the organisers look at an earlier date or at the very least an earlier start? Yes, the lie-in on sunday was nice, but running in mid day sun was NOT.

The toilets at the start were better organised than last year but i still ended up queing for 20mins then having to run to my pen as the starting gun went off. PLenty of water this year-thank you very much! although i feel there could have been another station just before that hair pin stretch at 16-17miles, i sure there was one last year....

Great crowd support as always, thank you to those wonderful folk with their garden hoses (i actually wrap my mobile phone in a plastic bag now so that i can safely run into these life savers!!)

Hate that damn mat at the last 500yards as i could barely lift my feet at that point. Finishing point was chaotic. I had friends meeting me, but was in no fit state to be walking around, i ended up first collaping on the pavement against a brick wall for 10 mins, then built up the energy to get into the race course and collapsed in the shade of a tent until my husband found me. Could there be colour coded or numbered meeting points that we are told about in advanced, then that way we could pre-arrange where we will meet our supporters??

V nice medal and goody bag!
Date of review: May 24, 2010

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Overall score		40%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		100%
Organisation		20%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		60%

In short: let down by poor organisation.
In full: I'll start with some good stuff (there IS some):
No expo -thank you for listening to feedback from last year and posting out our runner packs. The supporters - Unbelieveable! felt like a rock god with supporters shouting out my name! The crowds mentally kept me going with their AMAZING support and physically kept me going by providing water from their hosepipes.

The bad stuff:
Portaloos at the start- i didnt use them last year, so i can't say if they were any better, all i can say is this was NOT a good set up. I spent half an hour queing.
WATER- i ran a resonable 4:20 and would say 50% of the water stations were dry by the time i got to them. I had to resort to picking up 'used' bottles off the street to stay re-hydrated. If i end up with herpes i will NOT be happy. On the plus side, i may have run slightly faster in the hopes of getting to the next water station before it ran out. Seeing runners begging for water from the crowds WAS NOT COOL. The finish point- was a bloody shambles. NO stewards around to direct where to go, i saw NOWHERE to 'de-chip' so being 'a little tired' and VERY de-hydrated i ended up coming home with my time chip still attached. Really PISSED off about this.

Honestly, this marathon has been totally let down by its organisers. I LOVED this marathon last year-this year however, i am disappointed.......
Date of review: June 1, 2009

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

In short: I loved every second (and there were at lot!) of the 26.2miles
In full: What an amazing experience,i just had the best day! My first marathon. Spectator support was huge -big thanks to the guy with the garden hose at mile 25ish! Weather was glorious albeit hella windy!

The biggest medal ever-im vowing to were it solidly for a whole week.

Im desperatley trying to fill up my running calender now to keep me occupied until Edinburgh 2009!!
Date of review: May 30, 2008

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

In short: Great little run, good PB potential!
In full: This was my first trip up to peterhead, and ill definetly make the effort to go next year. Course was gentle up hill with some nice flats inbetween for the first 6-7km. Shame that the wind came in to play on the down hill stretch at the end but hey! its NE Scotland. A well organised event! Would have quite liked a medal tho! Oh, and theres 10-15min walk from car park to starting line, i almost missed the start!
Date of review: September 1, 2007

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