My Forum

Looks like a "No" to my previous remark then . . .  . I am actually staggered at the persistence of people who turn up to an event that has a name and a telephone number as the sole information.

It was my fourth time in four years at Vyrnwy and although in previous years the start has been busy, this was the first time that I have noticed people blatantly take the Mickey in terms of the starting zones. There was ample opportunity for people to get in the correct place, I was watching this very carefully (I'm tall enough to see). An issue that I will be getting in touch with Janet about was that the start zone markers were not in their usual place up on the fence the right and some people did appear to be looking in vain for them but being unobtrusive poles about 5 feet high on the left there was absolutely no chance of seeing them once the area started to fill up.

The other issue that needs addressing is a loud klaxon or similar to indicate the race has started.

Once we did get going I must have had to dodge 200 plus people who were never (judging by their pace and girth) going to break 2:15, I'm not concerned about this in terms of my time but rather the danger involved and sure enough one man hit the floor very hard trying to get around a mobile chicane and got up bleeding profusely from the head.

Make no mistake, I think Lake Vyrnwy is the best half marathon I've experienced and I'd be amazed if there was a road race of its equal anywhere but selfish, thoughtless people did not do the race credit this year.

Hopefully they know how long a Marathon really is

The whole thing is a shame, but if you are new at anything or even if you have seen it all and done it all, you should never be above taking advice from people who know what they are talking about. That is what caused red flags right from the start, really experienced people from Les Croupiers, Fairwater Runners, Chepstow Harriers, Caerleon RC, Islwyn RC and Welsh Athletics all related things to me which were indicative of problems. Sadly some people think there is some kind of conspiracy from running clubs here, as usual with conspiracy theorists you couldn't be more wrong.

Gosh, hasn't the year flown by, in the meantime more experienced race directors/runners/actual participants have spoken to me about this event. I'm not going to say anything that can be traced back to individuals but very little appears to have changed.

In fairness I guess a lot comes down to expectations and if you don't have the expectations for example that a Marathon is a specified, exact, Jones Counter measured distance of 26.2 Miles then fair enough.