My Event Ratings

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

In short: Very disappointing...
In full: Overall, this race was poorly organised. There were 400 people running, and only 6 toilets and one baggage van at the start, which caused huge queues in the freezing cold. It also meant the start of the race had to be delayed 10 mins to wait for everyone.

The race was billed as "multi terrain", which should have been replaced with the words "muddy, slippery and dangerous". I have not run this route before, but cannot work out why you would try to race 400 people down a muddy, narrow towpath in November. Unsurprisingly, times were poor and some people were injured slipping over.

At the end, the baggage was very late, which meant people were standing around freezing for a long time. There were minimal announcements or explanations (other than one which said the van would be 5 mins, and then it turned up 30 mins later). The van driver told us he "got lost", which for a delivery company (no doubt with GPS etc) isn't good enough.

I understand that in previous years the race runs the opposite direction. This would make more sense, as there is a lot more room to get people spread out at the finishing end. This year, there were hundreds of people trying to fit through one person gates at the very start of the race, which just makes no sense.

The most positive aspects (and unfortunately there were too few) were the pre-race communications, and the marshals. Numerous people, positive and they ran well organised water stations. Well done!

In summary, I expected a lot more thought to have gone into a race that has been running for a number of years.
Date of review: November 9, 2009

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

In short: A nice challenging race
Date of review: October 19, 2009

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