The Guildford 10K and 5K is one of the more organised inaugral races I have been to. The early start was a little painful but that couldn't be helped due to Guildford Council wanting everything finished before Sunday opening hours. If anything I was very impressed with the speed of set up and take down. Hopefully next year it will be a later start to encourage more runners and supporters on the day. Also due to the early start there weren't any places open for a hot pre race drink.
Plenty of communication from the race organisers, AAT, over email and on social media prior to the race.
Plenty of free parking in the area until 11am within walking distance of the start area. There could have been more toilet facilities provided. Bag drop was easy at the start of the day. It was more chaotic after the race so maybe that needs to be moved elsewhere next time to prevent long queues.
I was the Team Turquoise captain and also one of the pacers provided by Racecheck on the day. The team element on the day is a novel idea. It was a great sight with all the different coloured buffs and race bibs on the course. It made it easier to identify fellow team members and give each other encouragement on the course. It's one of the few 10K races I have run that provides pacers and I also like the touch of the flags in the starting area telling you the km split times so runners could start in the right place with the pacers.
The course itself is an out and back route starting in Guildford high street. It's not extremely steep, given the geography of the area, but it was undulating enough to test your legs. Not sure if it's to do with GPS or the hills but we found the km markers were measuring short at the start and long at the end of the route so it made it a bit tricky getting the sub 60 minute km split times spot on. There was more support near the start/end but those that did come out along the route gave the runners a lot of encouragement. We appreciated the music station at the top of one of the hill sections. More of that next year. Marshals were very supportive, including the one posted on the roundabout high fiving runners.
Look forward to running this event again
Hi Carmen, thank you for the great review and feedback. Excellent job as Team Turquoise captain and pacer! See you next time. SV. - RunThrough Events