My Forum

Results are now pretty much ready and will be posted on www.nice-work.org.uk tomorrow morning. They will also be emailed to all those who supplied us with a legible email address.

The cock up on water has now been fully investigated and we know where and how the problem arose. - however that is probably of no consolation to those who were inconvenienced 

I am happy to respond personally to anybody who would care to comment about the race but I don't really want to air dirty washing in public . Mail me on martin@nice-work.org.uk if you wish.

It is, though, probably worth explaining a couple of things - if for no other reason than to reassure the small band of volunteers who do help puit these events on that their efforts are appreciated.

First of all, thoughhthere is a comment on the Race Rating part of this site about who the beneficiaries of this event are. Nice Work does not organise races for financial gain. That might seem irrelevant to some people but I think it is important that you understand our motivation. We only organise races on behalf of charities, community organsiations or running clubs - and those that we do so for will vouch for our integrity - it is nothing more than a labour of love honestly! At present we organise about 8 or 9 races and, in the main, they are well received and those organisations we do them for seem to be happy with what we do. Whenever we do agree to organise a race we do so on one condition - that we will bring together the organisational skills if they will bring along the bodies to marshal. In the main that seems to work OK - and you can seek out the comments about our other races if you wish to and you'll find that it works OK.

Sometimes though, with the best will in the world, things can go wrong. The race we did today was to support the Mayor of Lydd's charity fund and we were promised marshalls - and a number of those promised to us simply didn't turn up - that caused us problems and, more importantly, left us seriously short of support on the course. I fully accept that the responsibility lies fairly and squarely with us - but in defence would say that we can only work with the tools we are given. Unfortunately it means that if things go wrong (and when things go right, of course), it's us that gets the criticism/praise.

Our water stops werre inadequate today - we know that and we now know what went wrong - and for what its worth it wont happen again. All I would ask of you is that you aprreciate that we do this stuff to support the community organisations, to help put events on for the running communityy - and that, as runners ourselves, we know that when things go wrong it has the potential to spolil a cracking day out.

So - lessons will be learnt from today and I can assure you the problems you experienced today will not happen again.

At the moment the small team behind today's event is feeling very battered and bruised and for that reason it may well be that this race has run its course after just two years.

But maybe we need time to reflect.

Well frankly I dont know what this wind problem is all about!!

 I sat in that hall and let me tell you there was a heck of a draft - so just spare a thought for me!!

 A huge thank you to everybody who turned out today. I think everything seeemd to work OK - apart from one crucial area and that is of great concern to us. The water stops were nowhere near what they should have been. One stop was missing completely and one apparently ran out of fluid at one point. I know how important it is to make sure there is plenty of water - and we're not happy with the way water stops were managed this year. We are looking into what went wrong so please bear with us whilst we find out what happened.

Otherwise I think everything else went OK - a bit of a run (!) on loo rolls about 9.30 but we managed to overcome that. But that wind on the way home was ordered specially, so I won't hear any criticism of that if you dont mind!

We are just sorting out the results now and these should be posted very shortly - I'll come back to the forum and let you know when they are ready.

re the comments about the mile markers - they were all there apart from Mile 4. They were all put up this morning but Mile 4 has disappeared - if anybody finds it etc etc. We also had a comment or two about Mile 10 - it was there but had been blown over!!

 Back soon with the results.

Congratulations go to our race winners Josh Guilmant and Rona Loubser and to all the race category winners.

From an organisational point of view, we're always keen to hear your feedback. We did receive a couple of comments about including better directions to the start in the race pack - and we'll take this on board for next year. In addition, there was an issue with the race clock which meant it was showing a time approximately 20 seconds different to the actual time - which, apparently, was the reason for the coat obscuring the seconds on the clock at the finish!!

If there are any particular issues you feel should be brought to our attention - please don't hold back!! Indeed, if you do have any comments about the race or its organisation, we'd love to know. And if you think the race was good enough to deserve a rating, please register your opinion here.

The results have been sent to all those for whom we hold a legible email address - if you'd like a copy, email me at martin@nice-work.org.uk - or visit www.nice-work.org.uk. If your name does not appear, we have three runners whose numbers were obscured/missing - if you think you may be one of those three, please let us have your name and approximate finishing time and we'll amend the results accordingly.

Martin Burke

Just thought I'd pop in and say Hi!

So Hi!

Its been ages since I posted probably a year but that doesn't mean I've not been running. Had a mixed start to the year with an injury to my hip keeping me out for what seemed like forever. Each time I tried coming back I would aggravate it. Finally found someone to sort the problem out - actually my back was out of alignment and once that was sorted the hip has behaved itself. Have struggled to get the mileage back to anything reasonable but have just come back from completing the Himalaya 100 mile stage race. An absolutely amazing experience. Probably the toughest thing I've ever done but for a mere road runner obviously quite a challenge. I hadn't got my training above 35 miles a week which is even less than I usually do for a marathon and never done back to back runs like we had to do. My legs were screaming at me after day two but still managed to get up each day to complete each stage.  Altitude played its part too, really struggled to get breath at 12000 feet although didn't suffer any sickness.

For you guys who like to run the fells I'm sure you'd love the event.

Anyway I'm running the Hastings marathon in a couple of weeks. Its local to me so have to take part and I got a ballot place for London (though swore I wouldn't do it again after 2007) but my husband sent in an entry for me. I got a place and he was rejected.

So I'll try and keep up to date with what everybody is doing

Hi we are booked on this trip this year. Have been talking about it for four years and now its happening. Our places and flights are booked. Very scary. Training is not quite as planned I am a bit behind schedule but did a sponsored walk at the weekend which saw us walking 9 miles on Saturday, 16 on Sunday and 10 on Monday. Trouble is walking always seems to hurt my back - I can run for miles without any ill effects but walking and my back aches for days. We have plenty of hills to train on although much of my running is on roads. Looks like I need to practice the off road stuff, running with a rucksack and invest in different shoes.

Thanks for your comments Womble - will take your advice on board 

MKW are you booked on too, if so we'll see you there.