I am a little surprised the event is called the Hampton Court Half Marathon given that it neither starts nor finishes at Hampton Court. In fact most of the course is fairly dull, running along (often busy) roads. At the beginning of the race, the first mile is on closed roads which is great, but after that you're restricted to pavements for the next 3 or 4 miles so if you're stuck behind slower runners you're forced to either wait until the path widens or gaps open or run in the road. They try to mitigate this by doing the start in waves but the first few miles were still very congested even near the front. All in all, the event is well organised and there is a real buzz at the start, plus the medal and T shirt are great, but the Kingston half (which has a very similar course) is better as it starts in Kingston where the route is a lot wider and doesn't hit open road until nearer the end.