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Thanks PP.... it's predominantly flat out there  - just a couple of little dips and rises to contend with.  Nothing is steep really - you'll just go a little slower, but nothing is going to leave you gasping for breath particularly.

About time I joined this thread I think, rather than just reading it.  After all, I've lived in Preston for the last 40 years, cycled the course with official measurer Brian Porter earlier in the year and will be running the marathon itself in October. 

The Great North West Half-Marathon is now on 27th February, having been moved from the 20th February because of very high tides at the time in Blackpool.  I think the course is slightly modified too due to work taking place on modernising the promenade.  It will still be a flat, fast course though....but as always this will be weather permitting so keep your fingers crossed that the wind coming in off the sea isn't too bad on the day.

Entries can be made online at ukresults.net .  Further details are available there too.

Iain Mackie - I'm local too and couldn't see where any hills would be, so entered looking for a PB (more fool me!)

I did the Witton Park 9.4k cross-country race the day before with two big long hills on each of the four laps.  Checking my Garmin, the HILLY cross country had 1200ft of ascent/desent whereas the Anderton Arms 10k mildly undulating ROAD RACE had 1100ft !! (That's over one third the height of Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain!!!)

I can't help feeling we had the wool pulled over our eyes on this one! 

Having said that, it would be quite a nice little run, IF you knew what to expect.

I'd like to see the notorious section around the Cutty Sark removed or at least see some effort to make it less of a bottle-neck. 

Echoing an earlier comment, I'd prefer to see the major sights a little further from the end, maybe looping back for a central finish.  In my first two 'Londons', I can only really remember the first half to Tower Bridge - everything else is just a blur!  I don't recall seeing the London Eye, Big Ben or Buck. Palace due to exhaustion!

Also, having run the Edinburgh marathon twice, finishing in front of a racecourse grandstand full to capacity with highly vocal support from family and friends, I have to say that despite the fantastic support 'en route', the actual finish on The Mall is a major anti-climax for me.   Here we seem to have covered stands full of dignitaries and hospitality guests with polite applause for the finishers.  Don't get me wrong, in this particular money-raising event, I don't begrudge the charity representatives, sponsors and VIP's this special treatment.  However, surely this mass participation event would benefit from a mass spectator finish either at a stadium or in front of custom-built temporary grandstands along a lengthy finishing straight.

From a commercial aspect, I know all my family and friends would pay for a seat there - after all, the weekend costs us hundreds anyway and an extra tenner or so to see me cross the finish line would be money very well spent.   Why not go further and have banked grandstand seating at suitable locations along the route, both to raise extra capital and to provide much-needed boosts to runners?