This is a no frills trail marathon with a small field (around 250 runners), There are no mile markers so you need to rely on your garmin/phone app to check distance and pace. The route follows the Thames path and the running surface is variable. This year on November 5th it was fine to run in road shoes and These would probably always be the favourite option unless conditions had been wet for a prolonged period pre race. Its great value and probably about the cheapest marathon entry fee you will find. On the day I enjoyed the race and found all aspects of the organisation, although minimalist, to work well. The on course support was provided by very efficient and polite army cadets. There were reasonably regular water stations, which also had various nutritional items although I didn't check these out. Navigation was dead easy. Regular arrows on stakes to reassure you, but basically the route just stays on the river path. Only problems I had were : Being a slower runner I found in the second half I was quite often running out of sight of runners in front of me. In the first half the marathon was livened up with the later starting half marathon runners coming past. With the 10.00 start we hit a number of other path users as it got later. Plus the fact that we hit a lot of people in the Barnes area who had come to spectate at a rowing race. And a lot of Rugby supporters in Richmond on their way fro local pubs to Twickenham rugby ground. I did have a number of brushes or hold ups with pedestrian, cyclists, dogs and even kids on scooters, but probably overall this cost no more time than getting blocked by slower runners in a big city marathon. My time of 4hours 52 was under the 5 hours I was targetting and the only reason for not hitting 4hours 30 was down to my performance, with some particulary slow miles over the 20 -22 priod of the race losing me 10 minutes. If you want a big buzzing marathon with lots of razzamataz and lots of people to run with, this race is not for you. If you want a decent low cost event in a very pleasant setting, go for it,