It’s a good event with great atmosphere and support, but it’s also very crowded and expensive.

Location - it’s a good 20+ min walk to any station so logistically it’s a bit of a pain early morning. Worth bearing in mind too now that they’ve also started to have an option of pack pick up on site the days before the race (or pay for postage). 

The festival site has a lot going on for after the race and for keeping the family/friends occupied while others run. There was a distinct lack of toilets this year though, the queues were insane.

Bag drop was very efficient, but can’t see the point with the plastic bag for storage when trying to cut down plastic! It’s not something you’d reuse either.

Route - it’s a quite undulating route with a few short and sharp inclines, not very scenic as such but it generally has decent support for most of the route. Plenty of locals in their garden with music and cheering runners on and a couple of amazing run club cheer zones. In previous years when it’s been really hot local residents were out with hoses to cool down runners as well (and did a far better job than the misting stations!)

New for this year was the water stations using cups only and it was a disaster. The volunteers did their best but just couldn’t keep up with the demand and it was like feeding station at the zoo at the water stations. Now I’m all for cutting down on plastics but there has to be a more practical way. Lost time and momentum getting fluids. There were cups all over the floor as well, despite there being big bins placed out after the stops, can only imagine the clean-up needed for that.   

Goody bag - the bling and tshirt are usually decent with the usual snacks in the goody bag. This year it also came with a beer. The finish area however was  quite disorganised and it got too crowded as people were crowding in at the exit.

Overall, if you like big events with plenty of support this is a good event to do if you can afford it (or volunteer at another event to get a free entry). This was my 4th Hackney Half and it will be my last.