I enjoyed this event as you can probably tell if you watch my video of race: https://youtu.be/Xu7V4qJm_JY

It was the first time that the event had been run and it certainly attracked a large number of runners which created a good atmosphere. It was an out and back course, starting and finishing at the top of Guildford High Street, with a small event village within the High Street itself. Not a flat course and quite undulating in places but this didn't bother me as I managed a surprising 10k PB!

I liked the idea of the different coloured teams. It was something different and created a bit of interest, adding to the atmosphere on the day. The buff was nice too!

I'm sure there are a few lessons learnt that will help to make this a bigger and better event in 2020. Here are the improvements I'd like to see:

• Whilst the overall distance and the turn about points were accurate, the first and last few kilometer markers were way off. Easy issue to fix for next time.
• Even though I arrived at the bag drop collection fairly early when there wasn't much of a queue, it took a long time for the volunteers to find the bags. The queue grew quickly after this and I heard people having to wait quite a long time for their bags. A better baggage drop system is needed next time.
• It was a very early start which I understand was due to permitted road closure times. It would be good if the start time could be put back even by half and hour to avoid getting up quite so early.
• Lots of runners like a nice black coffee before a race. We were told that there would only coffee shop open early before the race started and it was suppose to open at 7am. Personally I don't like to eat on drink anything in the hour before I start to run but I needed my coffee so was prepare to make an exception. However the coffee shop didn't open at 7am, it was at least 20 mins late opening and had a crowd of runners waiting outside wondering if they would get their much needed coffee in time. Better options for coffee before race start would be very welcome next year.
• The event village felt like it could do with some more stalls, especially food and drink ones. It would be good to look at the after race aspects of the event village.

So overall, a good first event with room to improve and make it even better.