Beautiful course, much hillier than I expected!  Really straight forward and covid safe registration and start.  Marshalls were lovely.  My only issues were: the pre-race info said headphones ok as closed course. It wasn't a closed course, there were several roads open to cars and I had to get up onto verges to let them past.  The second was that the last couple of miles are a long a VERY bust river path, maybe running the course in reverse would get this bit done before all the families are out  for their sunday walk?

Overall a great event though. Just a medal and water at the end, no nack. I guess this is going to be the wway now with organisors trying to recoup loses from the last year, but I had expected a ceral bar or something for £35, especially after a half marathon. 

Overall the event was fantastic as it was my first time, however, on parking my car the marshall was very rude to me and shouted at me saying why haven't I parked closer to the car next to me, which I thought I did. He never said Good Morning and was very harsh on arrival. Not the best way to start the event but thankfully I really enjoyed the Half Marathon. 

First COVID safe race for me so not entirely sure what to expect.  We were set off individually 15 seconds apart which was fine. The route is stunningly picturesque but be aware goes through a lot of kissing gates and stiles which do break your rhythm especially on the out and back section.  Mostly well sign posted and friendly marshalls.  One area to improve was the water stations.  Totally COVID safe but a couple of black bags on the floor does not constitute a litter bin.  These should have been set up a few hundred metres after water stations to minimise littering.  Enjoyed the race and glad to be back out there

I have just completed the Henley Half Trail Marathon for the first time and TBH I have mixed feelings about the event. Some of it I really enjoyed and some of it I didn’t. 

Starting from the Beginning. 

Easy enough to find with parking in a field right next to the start line. Registration process was easy enough. Give them your name, they give you your number, collect the number from the tent, timing chip attached to the bib, so far so good.

Toilets - Not remotely enough for the amount of people there and queues were bordering on ridiculous. In the end a lot of people male and female were just peeing by bushes and trees.

Race got away about 15 minutes late. Not sure if that was due to toilet queues or the excessive amount of talking done by the staff in the race briefing. In the end there were a few shouts of ‘can we just get started’ by a few frustrated runners.

The course was pretty enjoyable. A good introduction to trail running. Pretty flat for the first half of the race down by the river, second half was more hilly up and down through the woods but fairly enjoyable. The only part of it that was annoying is that 1) it was not well marked and 2) there were lots of gates to get through that we’re shared by the public... now getting to the point that really peed me off. At about the 10 mile mark I was about 10-15 yards behind the leading pack but some way in front of the next runners behind me. I approach one of the field gates and a lady walking two dogs decided she didn’t want to let me run through first and was going ahead of me. She stopped me to a standstill and cut me off from the pack in front. When I got through the other side of the gate there were no stewards and I didn’t know which way to go. There were about 3-4 ways I could have gone. So I had to stop, wait for about 3 runners to catch me up so we could guess the route together. I probably lost about 3 minutes off my time and completely lost momentum. Killed my morale and took me about a mile to give a damn again.

Did eventually get over the line in 51st in about 1 hour 42. 

Was handed a little finishes medal, a bottle of water and a banana. For £33 that I paid for the race it was really disappointing. Can’t help but feel companies are completely ripping off runners these days with the cost of it.

dont want to be completely downbeat because it was a nice day and parts of it I enjoyed. That being said for the price, I’ve done it now and it’s not a race I would be in a hurry to do again.

after reading many of the reviews I am shocked that more haven't complained. F3 events should not be able to run these kind of events as they always make mistakes and don't learn from them. Where do I start.....

• firstly delayed start (40mins)
• 5 portaloos - then blaming the supplier.... lies! Just admit you stuffed up! 
• Advertises as great for families?? Lucky that there are ducks to feed as nothing to do.
• no commercial stands or massage offered 
• baggage area was a small corner in the marquee - nearly fell over laughing!
• no megaphone for race briefing - no one could hear what was going on!
• water in cups .... why?? Small bottles are much easier to drink out of
• not enough volunteers everywhere, even the ambulance woman turned into a Marshall as there were not enough!!
• poor finishing crowd - that's because there is nothing to do for them whilst waiting
• poor sound system - 2 x Alto 400 watt speakers just doesn't cut it. Make  some atmosphere not a damp squib! 
• My chip didn't register when crossing the line
• The finishing goody bag! PMSL ...... really! A crappy medal which I had to wait 2 minutes to get as they were still in the box........... and a bottle of water!!

i paid 35 quid and if the race was something that I had purchased from a shop then I would be demanding my money back! 

On a positive - lovely scenery!

F3 have strangled the hell out of the event to make as much profit as possible. Greedy doesn't even come close! Give me the event to run next year as I could do a better job with my eyes closed.

never again .....

This is a very pretty route and it was a lovely day for it. It was also one of my first forays into trail racing and probably a good accesible introduction to trail racing, but a couple of issues let it down:

- no signage to race hq/ start on the day and postcode for sat nav took my taxi driver and quite a few others to a dead end and signs at fork in road would have stopped that. Though the map with final instructions did prove helpful

- only five portaloos - I know the organisers were let down by the provider but they could have tried to manage it a bit better as the queues were enormous and stressful re making the start in time

- queues for race number pick up - I didn't have a problem because I was there early but the queues a bit later were massive suggesting they didn't have enough volunteers on

- start delayed by over half an hour due to the large toilet and number pick up queues - whilst this was absolutely the right decision it was communicated very poorly and resulted in loads of people standing around getting cold - I was lucky a lovely spectator took pity on me and gave me his coat!

- a couple of the marshals were very disinterested and couldn't be bothered to offer any encouragement- by no means representative of most of the marshals who were lovely but not what you want when you're having a tough race

- you only get a medal and a bottle of water at the end - an apple / banana or something would have been nice and not added massively to the cost

There were a couple of other things not really in the organisers control but which also would have bothered me if I'd been a fast runner - there are a couple of out and back points where runners are going in both directions but the path is narrow with gates to traverse so only let's one through at a time. The route also follows a busy footpath so there were lots of other users to weave in between including quite a few inconsiderate dog walkers!

For £25, you might think there would be more than four portaloos, a time chip that worked, clear course guide and a lead bike that by his own admission had been dumped in it.

It's a great course but it gets very difficult to keep up your pace whilst dodging pedestrians, bikes and dogs near to Henley Bridge.

I'd rate this as fun for beginners but too amateur for anyone with higher aspirations.

Shame.