The winter half has always been a great event but has always had a mud problem in the event village. That was not an issue this year. A very positive change around the event village meant clean shoes and no danger of falling over. I'm looking forward to running again in December 26

First time running MK Winter Half and I chose an 'interesting' year to do it with Storm Darragh in town. First off, hats off to the organisers for not kowtowing to the snowflake Facebook brigade and still running the event. It was the correct decision as the weather really wasn't that bad. Like they said in the email, 'It's called the Winter Half for a reason'. But... I think the Storm did probably create some additional challenges for the event. Traffic to even get near the venue was complete carnage. All the roundabouts were blocked with queues and that was over an hour before the start. Then when we did get near the venue, there were no signs, no Marshall’s and no parking available. This meant people were abandoning cars on the sides of the carriageway and roundabouts. Once into the venue the bib collection was quick and efficient and the team there were brilliant. There were nowhere near enough toilets and with the delay trying to get parked, this meant no warm up and no chance of a last minute toilet visit. I think maybe a 5-10 minute delay to account for the bad traffic would have helped, but I do also understand that it was cold and not good to keep people waiting longer either. I hopped the barrier and managed to get where I needed to be so not all bad. Onto the race then... The course was a loop of the country park area which had been battered by the storm. There was obviously a lot of puddles, mud and tree branches everywhere but that was only half the problem. The paths were narrow and uneven with potholes everywhere so you had to constantly watch your footing. And don’t even get me started on the river we had to run through near the end!! Plenty of water stations out on course, although with plastic cups unfortunately. No gels. The volunteers I noticed were friendly and enthusiastic. And I'm either blind or wasn't looking, but I rarely saw any mile markers or directions. Maybe they were blown away though! Overall I'd say this is a perfect race for first timers or regular park runners looking for a longer run out. It's a pretty lumpy course so don't expect an easy race, however I PBed as did a lot of other runners around me so it can't be that bad. Oh and the medal was brilliant if you're into that type of thing. Best advice: arrive early, wrap up warm and pray there isn't a storm!

One of my favourites. I was really surprised how nice the course was, as I was expected a lot of concrete, but it was a beautiful path around the town, taking in canals, churches, and lots of grass. There are crossing over the canals, but it never felt like a hassle. There was a big unavoidable puddle, but it was almost at the end of the event. The start area was muddy and windy, but had plenty of toilets, and it was easy enough to get to the start line. I liked the staggered starts, and no issues getting close to the pacer that I wanted.

Good: • Really nice single lap course • Good parking • Great marshalling, volunteers & general support • 5 min toilet queue was not bad at all • Nice chunky medal Could be better: • Pre-race communications and briefing need to tell people that they can and should run through puddles to avoid severe bunching and congestion. • Post-race snack hand out area needs to be further from the finish line and needs to not have a 5-10 min queue whilst you rapidly lose body heat and have no where to really keep moving. • Last 400m or so felt a little dangerous with spectators lining the already narrow path making it really narrow and difficult for those finishing strong to overtake, plus spectators crossing the course, kids running about, dog leads etc etc. Needs reconsidering. • Road crossings were fine and well marshalled, but some signage to pre-warn runners that one was coming up might have been welcome. • Post race snacks were alright, but the volume of fluids on offer seemed low. • T-shirt sizing is off and disappointing - “small” is nowhere near the same size of any of my other small shirts. • Post-race T-shirt collection needs speeding up - it’s too cold and potentially dangerous to have people queuing for 10+mins - why not have the T-shirt order printed on the bib so if you’ve paid for one you just get handed it after and snacks? Having to check names off a list seems very antiquated. Quite a few areas for improvement, but hopefully this is constructive. All in all it was really good, and all in our group were very glad it went ahead despite the weather (which in reality was nowhere near as bad as it might have been been). Will most likely do again, and will be keen to seen if any of these suggestions have been taken on board.