I have run VERY many races, including lots of half marathons. This had by far THE BEST ever toilets. The block arrangement rather than a long, long line worked well, but what made it work was that there were many staff guiding people to blocks which had shorter queues and advising men to use the urinals rather than a cubicle. It was lovely to have female only loos (I'm afraid mixed ones generally mean wee all over the floor and seat), with plenty of loo roll, & sanitary stuff. I used them once before and once after the race and both times were perfect. Please do not increase the number of participants (see Cambridge....) as you will lose the efficiency of bag drop/collect, filtering to the start and general congestion at event village. It's perfect as it is. My only suggestion would be to put on a park and ride for runners outside of the town, or list car parks which are outside the road closures so runners don't get stuck inside when they want to drive home. Marshals were supportive. I didn't have any water, but I could see the stations were well manned. I loved the finish through the Cathedral.

Everything was excellent. The toilets were really plentiful and queues very short, plenty of volunteers at the water stations handing out water, medal was nice as usual plus a shoe bag with goodies inside. The start was among the best of any race: runners went into pens according to their estimated times and the pens were released one by one. There was no congestion. All in all, that is how a race should be organised! Done this 3 times now and will probably be back next year, though I did say never again, to doing a half marathon again that is, but I finally got that PB. It’s a fast course.

The race guide was inaccurate in places and appeared to be a cut and paste from previous years and filled with adverts. The opening paragraph referred to the race coming back after a break of 4 years, which was obviously wrong and unprofessional. On the way to the event Boongate was closed at the junction of the A1139 despite this not being on the list of road closures. This made it impossible to access Wellington Street car park despite it being on the list of car parks in the race guide. Marshalls at Road closures could not explain the closure or provide any alternative route to the car park. The starting pens were a bit confusing and not adequately signposted. When I finished there was nobody in the finishing area checking runners were ok or providing any information about where to go to get medals engraved, buy finishers T-shirts etc. otherwise, ok.

Ths is a brilliantly organised event which has real PB potential as the course is relatively flat. The atmosphere and support is brilliant. The goody bag at the end seems so wasteful though, thousands upon thousands of nylon bags which will never be used again, I would rather not have one at all, or have free event photography instead. The amount of plastic waste was awful with the water stations, perhaps smaller bottles would make sense as runners were literally taking one sip then launching almost full bottles into the skips so they were ending up all over the road. I saw people tripping over bottles including myself. The course did become congested coming back into the city closer to the finish and some of the mile markers seemed to be way off. Not the end of the world though. Parking was a nightmare, the carpark at Pleasurefair was being manned by 2 very slow people taking payments, the planning here was a joke and caused mile long queues. I imagine this wasn't anything to do with the race organisers but perhaps so co-ordination with the car park operators would have avoided this as it didn't happen last year? Lastly the event photography was poor with badly composed pictures, no finish line pics and the packages were very expensive. It seemed there were only photographers in around 4 locations over 13 miles which was pretty disappointing. Of around 20 or so club members, only one or 2 bought any pics and the feedback was they weren't of good quality in terms of photographic skill. Pictures taken by amateurs around the course were frankly better.

First time doing the Great Eastern Run and I have to say I was thoroughly impressed. Very well organised, from bag drop off, plenty of toilet facilities, big shout out to the volunteers who were all amazing and friendly. The course itself was brilliant, super flat. Loads of support from the community. This event i am shocked doesnt get more recognition. Most certainly will be back!