I completed the half marathon distance (slightly over) in 2017, and I want to start by saying that I loved it so much that straight away signed up for the Ultra distance in 2018.

Beautiful, Brutal and worth every penny.

There did seem to be some navigation confusion around the 12k checkpoint (where marathon, ultra and half all cross), I remember several ultra distance people being confused about what way to go.

I put together a running video at the time, please check it out if you want to see what the course is like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35EPpMk7PvA

Like mentioned on my other reviews, I cannot recommend Trail Events Co races enough, but I am a bit concerned with the recent increase of prices.

This could have been a truly fantastic race as the landscape was amazing: open moorland, wooded riversides, towering cliffs and magnificent seascapes. Good trails, varied underfoot and some decent challenging climbs. Great. BUT this ultra (which turned out to be not much more than a marathon!) was really let down by Trail Events organisation. Marshals at checkpoint 3 sent us in the wrong direction so chopping off 3 plus miles and one of the most testing climbs on the course - they did not even have a course route map! Split marking for the shorter courses were very poor. A half marathon runner came thundering up behind us well past his split point - not too happy when we pointed this out and he had to turn round and retrace his path back up the hill. Checpoint 5 was not recording race numbers - said he had not been asked to.That was pretty lax and surely a safety issue. Finishing line: no buzz at all. Ok, we were pretty low down the field but it would have been nice to  at least hear your name announced when you crossed the line!

Wow what stunning views.

This was my first ultra race ever. 

Race briefing was pretty short but informative. We were told that it would be well signed. 

Getting to the Moors and through the Moors was hideous, windy, muddy and the signage was shit. I was so grateful to get through that section.

The checkpoint volunteers, grateful and thankful for giving their time but the organisers could have equipped them better with maps, telling them more about what checkpoint they were at, is educate them on the questions that that would probably be asked.

Checkpoint three of the ultra/marathon which was also checkpoint for the half, the two volunteers there had NO IDEA. They sent many Ultra/Mara runners the wrong way. They also had no clue. And had NO map!

The race organisers did a very poor job of clearly signposting the split in the course at checkpoint 3. Lucky for me, there were two other mara runners with me at the checkpoint and we figured out to go the correct route.

Look the views were stunning, the aid stations were a bit light on, the volunteers at certain. Aid stations were not equipped with valuable information and overall I feel that the race can be improved.

They ran out of medals, had two different kind of medals, none of them identifed which course you had done, so those who did the ultra got the same medal as those who did the half marathon. Pretty piss poor if you ask me. If you have people doing various distances, have different medals for each distance and be clear of the distance on the medal. An ultra is a huge deal, like any of the distances.

Can't fault the views. Amazing. Outside of that, I was glad to be done. 1715m elevation over 49.5kms is a lot and it was tough!

First time running a Trail Events race and won't be the last. Beautiful running on Exmoor.

Following a start alongside a stream (including squeezing across a single file bridge) there was a big climb during the first half which then led to a very steep decline to finish. As a first time trail runner that was a bit of a shock to me. Will know better for next time!

Would happily run a longer distance with Trail Events.

I completed this as a first timer on 30th October with a view to getting into trail running to help base training for my Ironmans, having completed numerous long distance running events I thought ths would be easy, how wrong could I be? Make no mistake the beauty and course itself is amazing but those hills, wow they can hurt :-).

Registration was nice and easy and located in a valley on a campsite that runs next to a stream, campsite was basic with toilest, onsite cafe and showerblock but in this setting it didn't matter (I'll be back next year with the family just to camp!), the run itself took you through forests, open moor land high up coastal paths and in between up and down hills, if you take it on please take a camera!

On the same day the guys have 10km, Marathan and Ultra Marathon running and those with dogs do the Canix thing!

Im probably mad but will enter again next year and do the longer event, this time with training.

The half marathon was one of 4 distances.

There was a 10k, a half marathon, a marathon and a 50k ultra, I did the 50k.

All routes start and finish at Cloud Farm and are well signed at the split points, the ultra and the marathon following the same route until close to the end. The route was well signed and good to follow apart from one section which, through no fault of the organisers, had had all the markings removed! As soon as they knew, they went out and sorted it. Too late for those of us that retraced our steps up a massive hill! But that's what trail running is all about and we had a supplied map! 

One of the most beautiful courses I have run. It's tough and maybe the 8 hour cut off made it inaccessible for some. I consider myself a fairly middle of the pack ultra runner and we only had 30 minutes to spare. But I loved it and will be back!