My Event Ratings

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

In short: good race and atmosphere, but expensive and did anyone find the toilets ??
In full: Very enjoyable, forgot how hilly the course was, not too many of them but they go on and burn a bit the next day. Only gripe was that people were peeing into bushes and anywhere they could at the start of the race, it took some searching to find the toilets (compared to Reading who put 100's of toilets in an obvious place near the start). Perhaps just 1 or 2 more water stations and more accurate mile markers. Race organisers/waterstations/martials etc. did a super job. So great event overall and I will hopefully be there next year...
Date of review: September 14, 2009

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

In short: Brilliant - big, well organised, superb stadium finish...
In full: Loved this run - excellent organisation, and the finish was just awesome. Goodie bag was good and Lucosade supplies were dished out at the start. Support on the streets was brilliant (including the live bands, and someone told me there was a pub handing out lager on the way around !). Plenty of toilts at the start (although there must have been 100+ each with a queue!). Overall excellent day out - well done Reading !
Date of review: May 2, 2009

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

In short: Great.
In full: Great half course, good to include key points of the city (embankment, wollaton park, university lake etc.), more hilly than I expected or trained for. Great atmosphere and really pleased to have been part of it - shame the old legs packed up about 100 yds before the finish line ;-)
Date of review: October 5, 2008

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

In short: Well organised, great scenery, good run.
In full: Great turn-out, well organised, lovely scenery, seemed like long gentle inclines at times, but nothing major. Event big enough for chips rather than clipboards and stopwatch ;-) Really great first organised race for me. Just one complaint - the coffee shop at the end couldn't cope with demand and there weren't that many people waiting. Definitely do this one next year...
Date of review: October 5, 2008

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

In short: Hilly, muddy, wet... fun!
In full: Well organised: turned up, registered, ran! Marshalls good fun, nice atmosphere. Nice touch with the spot prizes at the end for random numbers ;-) Some long hills to deal with and nearly lost a shoe in the mud! (Can't help the weather...) A great challenge overall and organisers were clearly into the event - but don't expect a 10k PB!
Date of review: October 5, 2008

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

In short: Great course, less great organisation
In full: Got to the reg tent just before 09:20, lots of confused (in some cases cross!) people about which queue lanes to join and what the process was.

Queued twice (as did others) for around an hour to be told "entry closed"! - so a bunch of us just ran without numbers or chips which was disappointing after a long drive to get there.

Thoughts for organisers next yr:
1. If you have queue lanes, big signs over each please or a roaming official to make sure everyone knows where they are going
2. Post numbers out in advance (if this doesn't fit in the budget, option to download PDFs to print your own? or some slicker process)
3. Don't rely on one poor bloke with a laptop to type in everyone's details - it's a big bottleneck, particularly when pre-reg people have to wait in the same queue as on-the-day folk.

For runners:
1. Make sure you pre-register and turn up early on the day.

Anyway, smashing course still, nice downhill final km, marshals around the course did a great job, and I got a PB - shame it won't be on the Web site!
Date of review: September 28, 2008

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