This was an inaugural event so they will learn from any issues that came up this year. I think that’s important to bear in mind when reviewing This is a charity organised event. The HQ was at a local memorial hall (community centre) & the first problem I encountered was, a double door entrance but only one side of it was open. There were people trying to come in & out of this door & it was just too congested. Combine that with the fact the registration desk was slap bang next to this door as you entered people were literally queuing through the door, no one could get in or out & no one thought to open the other half of the door to ease this. Furthermore there was a side door so if that door was used it would be easy to implement a one way system & avoid all this congestion. This was a Santa dash, no Santa suits were posted out in advance (assuming to keep costs down to make more for charity) & as far as I knew there was no local pick up option in the week leading up to it. This meant the already crowded entrance was filled with people who had registered & were getting into Santa suits & dressing the kids. It was freezing outside & no one wanted to go outside so it added to the congestion problems. Inside the actual hall was a superfluous Christmas market. I have no idea why that was there I don’t go to races/running events to shop I go to run. I assume with it being a charity event it was seen as another way to make money for the charity. It would have been far better to put race registration in there & use it as a large hall for changing so everyone had space to change & keep warm. I just felt they were trying to do too much in a small space in an attempt to maximise revenue generation opportunities for the charity rather than make this a functional Santa dash, which is what we all paid to turn up to. Once we got going though the run was great. It was an easy & short route so family friendly. Lots of marshals stopping traffic etc & it was fun. I notcied though the Santa suits (sourced from running imp) were pretty cheap & most Dads I saw had massive holes in the legs after a mile. I know these suits aren’t designed to last but i’d Suggest they need to last the run at least. When we got back to the finish one thing that struck me was there was no proper finish line to cross. It doesn’t have to be fancy but a defined point to show you’re finished is always good. This is when is got silly. To get you Medal you had to queue up outside, it was freezing cold, you were queuing to get through this same single door where no o we had opened the other half & the queue didn’t seem to be moving. Kids were shivering and a few crying in the cold. By the time I got to the front I realised you were having to de register!! Give your name, someone crossed you off a list & then you got your medal. This was taking ages as they were finding people on the list. My opinion is that this was totally unecessary. I get there’s kids & they’re trying to account for everyone but ultimately as an adult I’m responsible for myself & also my child. If I lost mine on the course a list at the end wasn’t going to help they’d already be lost. If someone was lost they’d hear about it so the list was just over the top. It was safeguarding gone mad & meant we all froze outside for ages. To add to this they were serving hot drinks right next to the De register bit so people were crowding there to warm up, wueiengin, congestion issue, making the ones outside waiting longer. Eventually someone took the initiative & started taking medals outside & just giving them out. When we finished my little one said I never want to do that again. She said this due to being so cold & was crying, not the enjoyment we’d hoped to get from this event. Next year I’d scrap the Christmas market, have people register & change in the hall, do hot drinks in the hall, keep the entrance/exit area clear, use a one way system, give medals out at the finish & scrap the deregistering nonsense.