This is the 4th time I've completed Brighton, and by far the hottest.
lets start off by saying Brighton is a beautiful venue for a marathon. You run most of the course along the seafront which is beautiful. There are some quiet sections on the course but from about mile 11 onwards it's pretty well marked with spectators, and whilst around the seafront so between mile 12-14 and miles 22 to the end it revivals London marathon which is an impressive statement to make.
It is a tough challenging course. Every year people get PBS here, but I always think, if conditions were right you could do so much more. It hasn't got the worst hills, but it's not flat, with a lot of long slight inclines that take it out of you. The first quarter before you get to the seafront is also very technical with twists and turns.
Overall the Marathon has potential to be one of the best. I have unfortunately found that each year my enjoyment of this event is overshadowed by organisational issues, and the issues with this event are completely within the control of organisers. I first ran this event in 2013, and it was a far better event then that it is now in my opinion. This is a very expensive Marathon which gets more expensive quickly. Accommodation in Brighton on this weekend soars in price, even if you book early. So I would say this makes it poor value for money, because of the issues.
The expo is the first area for improvement. It's been moved to the seafront this year which was an improvement in space. It could have been a different story if it rained though. Although the layout was better at the expo there still wasn't a lot there.
The bag drop is the most significant pre race issue. This year I arrived early at 12:00 and get in and out quick. I hung around with friends and by 16:00 people were queuing for 90 mins plus. If this was a genuine queue then fair enough. What frustrates me is that these queues are from poor organisation. If you make your way to the front there are empty queues, but the way you line up you don't "self-seed" until nearer the front. The idea of self seed so everyone gets right start is good, and then they don't need to monitor at start as everyone has chosen where they want to go, great in principle. This is the second year. But they need to sort out the queues. Have more people in the more popular finish times and have separate queues. Or just scrap the colours and let people choose in the morning, how is this different? And this way you could allocate alphabetically and get a more even queue spread as you will know how many of each you are expecting so allocate lines accordingly. Whatever the organisers do they need to sort this out. I know of many who ended up getting a faster time after queuing for 90 mins they had an option for queue for another half an hour for their correct colour, or just get a faster one. It's understandable why there were many in red start who finished much slower than they should have.
The next and most dangerous issue was the water stations. I don't like drinking out of cups in any event but a marathon needs better. A few years ago they had pouches and this was great, but it's hard enough to get enough water on board with cups. There just was not enough water and many collapsed with the heat. From the 4:30 plus runners the water and or cups ran out at stations. I know dozens who dropped out of the event because of the heat and when they got to a water station they couldn't get water. Now I found it hard enough to stay hydrated, but at least I was offered a small amount of water. The organisers can't control the weather, but the water situation was always going to be poor, and they should have had contingency plans for this weather. It was negligent and I'm surprised no one died, if they did the event organisers would be liable, can you imagine if you found out a loved one died from dehydration and you realised they weren't given any water from mile 15 onwards??
Water bottles and sports drink like you had years ago would solve this and would have made a huge difference to runners who have paid a lot of money for this event.
The final issue is the finish exit. The finish is actually great with all the supporters. You get a fantastic medal and tshirt and great goody bag. I got given one 330ml bottle of water and no more... really? I understand you want everyone to have a bottle, but even on a cooler day the organisers need to account for more than this, it was a joke. Then the exit is full of families, this is good if you are planning on meeting people and staying there, but if you want to just get out it takes a long time. Families push past you trying to come the opposite way with no consideration that you have justbran a marathon and are now walking miles to get out. There is a bridge to get over the other side of the road and this poorly organised so takes a long time too.
I will do this event again, but I'm not in a rush to book for next year. It is over priced and right now I'm very disappointed with the organisers. Also annoyed that at the expo a so called "expert" advised me not to take my hydration vest when I enquired about the water stations. Obviously I did not listen to him and frankly I don't need to be patronised about drinking out of cups. I've done hundreds of events, so I know I struggle to take enough water out of cups. I did a sensible thing by taking my hydration pack otherwise it could have been much worse.
Ive written more about my experience in my blog
https://pickupthepacepaul.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/brighton-marathon-2017/