My Event Ratings

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

In short: Well organised, undulating race in a nice location
In full: On the whole I thought this was an excellent race.
Course was constantly up and down, but the hills were never horrendous, and only one was vaguely long.

Good things:
Lots and lots of marshals, pretty course, plenty of supporters, nice runners village, plenty of water stations, ice lolly at the end.

Bad things:
Massive queue for toilets (although there was another set of toilets which was announced over the tannoy at one point and had a one minute queue...), parking wasn't well signposted and I think may have run out before the event
Date of review: June 12, 2012

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

In short: Potentially great race, but ruined by poor directions and hit and miss marshalling
In full: This race has definite potential to be really really good, but I felt let down by some of the organisation this year.

Communications was OK in the build up, and the start venue was reasonably well managed although small for the number of people there.

The race started off with an interesting climb up two flights of stairs to cross a railway line, then settled down for a relaxing run along the canal. Pretty, tranquil - just what I was looking for. The first 10k went well then things started to go wrong.

From what I know, one drinks station was set up late, so there was a cup of water at 6k, then the next was at the halfway mark more or less. Water every 6k was OK because it was cool, but on a hot day that would have been bad.

Unfortunately a large number of runners (including me) took a wrong turn and ended up cutting 5k out of the race :(. Talking to other runners I found out about at least three other wrong turnings that happened and I have no doubts there were others. There weren't enough marshals, but the real irony was that they'd drawn arrows on the ground which were really good, just not frequent enough. Around the 37k mark there was a marshal missing from a turning and no arrow marked, but fortunately I could just make out the runner ahead of me and took the correct turning.

The finish was a little bit quiet in spite of a 10k race finishing at the same time, and the goody bag consisted of an energy gel, a bottle of water and a tiny medal (plus some advertising).

I then went and ran a 5k lap around the fields in order to make up for the shortcut :(

To summarise, this race had the potential to be great, but it seems like most people who ran it hit real problems. All those problems though are fixable, so I would consider entering it again, but definitely would train on the route so that I could run it without direction.
Date of review: September 12, 2010

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

In short: Perfect London course for setting a PB
In full: If you're looking for a regular race to benchmark yourself then this is a great opportunity, with a run every month (there's a corresponding Winter Series).

It's a flat three lap course, so perfect for getting a PB. The marshalls are pretty good at getting slower people to stay to one side, although if you're looking for a sub 40 pace you will start catching the back markers.

Regents Park is easy to get to by public transport, there's parking nearby and it's a pretty enough place to run around.
Date of review: August 26, 2010

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