Getting up at four in the morning is not my idea of fun at the best of times, but getting up this early for a race well…

I had heard lots about the Sunrise 5k, so was willing to give it ago! Along with hundreds of other people! As it was early in the morning it was easy to find a parking spot along the streets of Nottingham.

We were all grouped together and as soon as you noticed the people ahead of you were off, no race briefing? Unless you were lucky enough to be at the front. Now I am not one of the faster runners, hardly! I was more or less at the back!! There weren’t many marshals around but when it came to crossing some of the main roads in Nottingham we were herded across traffic lights with people stopping the minimal early morning traffic into Nottingham.

From those closer to the front they faced bottle necks as everyone tried to get around the corner at once! Though this route was unique because of the earliness of it, I am pretty sure the Nottingham 10k’s follow much of the same route.

Though there was plenty of signage, parkrun felt better marshalled! As I came towards the end of the race and it was just a case of following those in front of you. Had all the marshalls given up or were they poorly staffed? From a businesses I expected more!

The registration for the process was pretty easy, with the option of picking your t-shirt up the day before. But again if anyone had an issue during the race of collapsed how would they know who I was with no number assigned to me. Yes we all filled in the registration process but think lone person at the back no marshals around? Like I said Parkrun is better marshalled!

Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the experience and will most certainly sign up next year, I just worry more about what could have gone wrong!