Number 4 - Bedford Half Marathon 09/12/07

Another one completed and am getting back towards my race pace.

I love doing this race, it is just before the Christmas mayhem starts and is a great way to work of some stress.
The race is very rural and is challenging in the first 7-8 miles, but then is mainly down hill to the finish. It is really well organised and everything is provided for.

The only downside was the state of the car park, some people were having trouble getting out.

Great race, highly recommended

9/10

Number 3 - Norwich City Half-Marathon

Well here it is race number 3 at last.
It has only taken me 6 months to get here.

I did enjoy this race, it is a nice course (2 laps) and is flat except for a sharp rise at the end of each lap to get back into the stadium.

It is very well organised and there is plenty of water stations and marshals.

The only thing I would say is that access to the changing areas got exceedingly muddy and boggy.

7/10

Number 2 - Brandon Forest Half Marathon 28/05/07

Well apart from suffering from shin splints, wearing my husbands every day socks and it feeling more like the depths of January than nearly June, I did like the run.

It was well organised, even though it is a small race, there were plenty of water stations and because the course is a set of three loops which you do twice it breaks the race up into nice chunks.

It was really muddy so the trail running felt more like a cross country and we all got very wet and muddy.

The only down side was that there were no toilets at the start/finish (it was about a 10 minute drive away, which they did tell you about). This meant that even though I had driven to the toilets, when I got to the start I needed to go again. Being female meant this is harder said than done and meant a long trek in to the undergrowth to try and protect my dignity.

I think if you can get a nice day, when it had not been raining this could be a fast course and a potential PB is achievable.

8/10

Number 1 - Flora London Marathon 22/04/07

I am starting my Challenge 40 with the Flora London Marathon race this year.

I quite enjoyed the race, I was not affected that much by the heat, I think due to running in Australia, I did however get slowed down by the start and continually having to run around other runners.

I do appreciate that the London Marathon is a sociable marathon, rather than a runners marathon, however I do feel the organisers could do more to ensure that those who do wish to run the marathon and achieve a target time are given an opportunity to do so, considering it is such a flat fast course.

This could be achieved by more staggering of the start times and also anyone who peels of their pen number are automatically sent to the last pen. Remember I really do not think the stickers, which are stuck on the number, can come off with out outside intervention. Also maybe it is possible to do more to ensure predicted times of people in the fast pens are based on either marathon times or calculated from half-marathon times. I can't believe anyone thinking they can run a 3:30 marathon has never completed at least a half marathon.

Anyway I could go on, but on the whole I enjoyed the race, would I do it again.... Only if they could improve the start or if I was doing it for fun and not to achieve a good time.

Am I the only runner out there that gets frustrated with the FLM...

Rating : 7/10