If you begin with an iconic venue and competitive race fees you should be half way to a winner. Unfortunately, F3 just don’t pull it off.

This event was postponed because of March’s terrible weather. Having been told that we could transfer to the April races, it took several messages and much chasing to get sorted, only being resolved a few days before race day. 

No matter, it was resolved after all. That’s the least of their issues. You cannot access the venue until 11:30 (safety because of the earlier duathlon - fair play) but that does not physically give them enough time to register the amount of runners meaning huge queues and a late start. Speaking of queues, ten toilets for the number present just isn’t sufficient! 

Cars have to park on the route meaning it gets narrow in places and frustrating for faster runners / wheelchair users who are lapping quicker than others. What’s more, it leads to people having to edge their way out, past runners, to get out of the venue. Or are 5k runners - the guy parked next to me had finished in 17mins - expected to wait until the half marathon has completed which could be up to three hours later? The marshalls couldn’t give a consistent or sensible answer so you just had to do your best to be fair and safe for those still running. 

I’ve done this event before and had similar issues then but will give anything a second go. The amount of other runners making the same comments starts to tell a story though. It’s a shame, these events could be really good but they come up short.