Latest Ratings
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2012 Bedford Harriers Half Marathon
 | | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: great race
In full: great race, great marshalls, great everything really - just one gripe. please put more staff on the refreshments bar at the end in the hall. having to wait half an hour for a sausage sandwich and a coffee is a bit disheartening, especially when this is the time that you wish to spend with mates discussing the race, not frustrated in a queue!
Date of review: December 9, 2012
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2012 Clowne Half Marathon
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 100% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 40% |
In short: best half sround
In full: my 2nd clowne half marathon, and for me it still remains the best on the half marathon circuit. well organised, well marshalled, great water stations, good parking, good community centre at the start providing all you could want for pre and post race hospitality. free lucozade and flapjacks outside, very reasonably priced (and massively portioned) cakes and bacon sandwiches inside. i am not being sarcastic when i think that the price for entry to this race should go up - its one of the cheapest around at the moment, and clowne road runners deserve the extra couple of quid per person for the super efforts they put in to making the simple things work so well - and no, i'm not their treasurer! Even the mementos are great - shirt last year, good quality water bottle this!!!
Date of review: November 25, 2012
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2011 Clowne Half Marathon
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 100% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 40% |
In short: my first and will definitely be back again
In full: in short a superb race. yes probably biased as i did get a pb, but the organisation was excellent. great marshalling, water stations, start, finish, toilets, and a t-shirt i will use again in trainig! ok some of the course did have traffic in both directions, but a bit of common sense on the parts of pedestrians and runners is all that is needed in these circumstances, and that's what happened here - indeed its actually quite nice to know that the health and safety do-gooders havent spoiled this. And thanks to the community centre (especially the lovely polite young boys at the counter!) for their post race bacon butties, flapjacks and coffee...probably not the ideal post race nosh, but after pb in gail force conditions, i deserved it!!!
Date of review: November 27, 2011
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2011 Coventry Half Marathon
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: great race, despite the organisers best efforts to ruin it
In full: this is my 6th cov half, and the course is the best its been, great re-routing round keresley/allesley. also superb local support throughout - the people of the city clearly got behind the whole occasion and have really grown to love this day. Organisers - learn the basics first before going down the road of fancy price differentiation!!!! Toilets??? THINK!!!! in baking heat, people will be drinking lots in the morning and it needs to be released. water stations? ok, 3 may be a legal minimum, but with a week's notice of record october temperatures, more would have been very welcome - thanks here to local supporters who appreciate what organisers clearly couldnt. And a final well done for the worst finish line for any race ive ever done - even my local club has a 'FINISH' sign for its 5K handicap - this created something of an anti-climax! Also, why was the goody bag TIED UP? Having just ran 13.1 miles in baking heat, i couldnt actually open the thing!!! Mind you, not that there was that much in it, when the marshall eventually ripped open the bag (i could have done that myself!!) - anyone need a spare credit card holder??!?!
Date of review: October 3, 2011
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2011 Kenilworth Half-Marathon
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 100% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: great race as always!
In full: as ever, kenilworth delivers the goods! nice touch collecting the number and chip on the day, although maybe need to look at increasing the staffing here. water stations brilliant!!! the kids deserve medals - indeed, why not give them the ones the runners didnt receive??? managed a pb, and decided i'd celebrate by stuffing my face on cakes and biscuits in the sports hall...unfortunately had to endure a fairly cringeworthy presentation to the elites. ok, i can understand that the ceremony needs to take place, but its hardly fair asking people to shush when 2 mice nibbling on a biscuit in the corner would have drowned out the main speaker - this kind of venue is NOTORIOUSLY bad for acoustic presentations, outside seems much more sensible...perhaps podiums in the playground, national anthems and all?!?!
Date of review: September 4, 2011
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2010 Coventry Half-Marathon
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: May we have it in october please?
In full: As usual, a very well organised race. Toilets especially are a bonus, no need to queue for 30mins with a bursting bladder. Bit tight with having to buy a T-Shirt though, surely the registration fee can stretch to include this. More importantly, why the change from October? I know it was an extremely hot one today, but May is always likely to produce warmer weather. Mind you, as there was no date printed on the medal (come on Cov, stop cutting corners), I can always pen in 'October 2010' on the ribbon...
Date of review: May 23, 2010
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2010 GDF Suez Leeds Half-Marathon
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: sorry leeds, learn from sheffield
In full: overall a good, though not spectacular event. Yes, the start area is way too crowded...queues for toilets were almost as long as the course! As for mile markers...hmmm..i suspect that some of the volunteers allocated that job were hungover following Saturday's football result! And as for the 'goody' bag...well 'averagy' bag may be more apropriate! Well done for running 13.1 miles - have a medal, a t-shirt and, er, a selection of retro confectionary!! Sheffield beats Leeds in the 2010 hm battle methinks!
Date of review: May 9, 2010
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2010 Sheffield Half-Marathon
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 100% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: a lesson to other cities - a big stadium event that was smoothly run and managed an intimate atmosphere
In full: my first half marathon in sheffield, and quite simply the best out of the big city events. Very well organised, without the corporate oppression of many others of its size. Fantastic local support, great course, great goody bag. Weather a bit hot, but cant blame the organisers for that. To be fair to other cities, Sheff is lucky having 2 non-football stadium venues within a stone's throw of each other, but the fact that it has the snooker on as well only adds to its organisational excellence! Is there any event you cant stage????? Well done sheff, see you in 2011!
Date of review: April 25, 2010
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2009 The Coventry Half Marathon
| | 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: simply the best
In full: yet again, coventry comes out on top for half marathon organisation - friendly, plenty of toilets, great family entertainment at the start (moshing to a rock band - superb!), well organised time pens for the runners, drinks stations good. Birmingham take note! If there was one whinge, didnt know that the T-shirt was for sale at the start of the race - having said that it was pointed out when i used my magnifying class to check the small print in the pre-race magazine afterwards. But overall, another excellent half mara. It's growing in stature and numbers, and hopefully will not succumb to the numbing commercialism of the monster that is Birmingham! See you in May!!
Date of review: October 25, 2009
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2009 EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon - 'The Race Against Climate Change'
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 40% |
In short: a race that's becoming sooooo big there will always be niggles
In full: ok the negatives out of the way first - when i crossed the finished line, i was really hoping that there wouldn't be any fruit/chocolate/malt loaf in the goody bag. You know what I was really desperate for? CRANBERRY SAUCE!! And guess what was in the goody bag - YIPPEEEE!!!!
Well done done to the Mr Jobsworth who said to some bloke's wife that she couldn't come in with him to collect his baggage at the N1A - very friendly! As for the announcer who referred to the massive crush at the NIA at the end...well, words fail me, other than to say he should have seen the NIA toilets 10 mins before the start - now that's what you call a crush! Would've got to my correct colour area, but had to spend 35 mins in the toilet queue instead.
Positives? Woman's microphone being cut off - shame it came back on again. Fantastic support. Route great - good to see it taking in the heartlands of the real city. If runers are so desperate for grass and hills, go cross country!! And well organised finish! To be fair managing 15,000 exhausted runners is never going to be easy, but the staggered gift approach worked for me - by the time i got my goody back i was nearly back home in cov...with my cranberry sauce...
Date of review: October 11, 2009
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