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 Mike Berry |
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| Posted: 13/06/08 18:07:41 41 |
You can't compare the price of staging a half marathon (and Stratford marathon is just 2 laps of a half) in a place like Stratford, where only small amounts of road closure are made at the start, and a city like Birmingham which is going to be a logistical nightmare with major road closures throughout the race. Compare the price of other City marathons: BRISTOL £29, BATH £30.50, GREAT NORTH RUN £38, etc..
There are plenty of great value half marathons out there out there, Stroud, Gloucester, Lady Godiva to name but a few, which are top events but they are not Big City Half Marathons. I love the buzz of a huge press of people trawling around a city and I love slogging round the hills of Bedford on rainy December mornings but I accept they cost different amounts to stage and £22 still seems like a great deal to me.
The most logical way to approach the travel issues - being as this is being billed as an eco event - would be to offer (lots) of free shuttles from Birmingham New Street to the start. The finish is about 10 minutes walk from the station. Locals could then come in by train, bus and visitors to our city coming by car could either use one of the central car parks or one of the outlying commuter station car parks.
Makes too much sense to ever work though.......... |
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| Mike Berry |
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| Posted: 13/06/08 10:30:35 35 |
I have been looking at the route. There are going to have to be a vast number of very disruptive road closures affecting several of Birmingham's major routes. I can see why they have qualified it with "may be subject to change". I have tried to transcribe the route onto GMAP pedometer. I come up a bit long but I think that is due to my detouring around Victoria square. Here's a link for anyone as boring as me.......http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1984441
All things considered, personally I think £22 is a bargain, having often choked on £10 entrance fees to traffic plagued 10k races. | |
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| Mike Berry |
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| Posted: 01/06/08 17:40:39 39 |
Krissie, the Midlands XC fixtures can be found here.... http://www.birminghamccleague.co.uk/
I admit that Birmingham could not produce a scenic 1/2 route, but with a bit of thought a flat, traffic free, smoothly organised event could be a credit to the City.
Hey organisers - you're not ticking any boxes so far!
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| Mike Berry |
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| Posted: 01/06/08 12:51:46 46 |
| This whole thing is turning into a real let down. There was great excitement when this race was announced and strong support from local club runners and non affiliated runners alike. Many runners will now have made other plans (Stroud a great option) or not be running because the new date clashes with the all league Birmingham cross country race at Senneley's on the day before. What a wasted opportunity to showcase Birmingham and the great enthusiasm for running building up in this city, we had a real chance to put the likes of Bath and Bristol to shame. | |
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| Mike Berry |
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| Posted: 07/09/07 08:59:47 47 |
The entry form is hard to find on the Conductive education web site linked from RW events page so paste this link instead and save yourself some time. http://www.conductive-education.org.uk/2007/pdfs/job%20236_03_07%20race%20poster.pdf | |
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