I have ran this race before 2 years ago, but when I did I don't think I paid attention to my watch and just ran and took in the surroundings.

This really is a beautiful course along the Thames river, mostly on trails, but a real introduction to trail running with flat and compacted trails. If you want a pb in trail running this is a good venue.

To start there is official parking about a 5-10 minute walk away. They charge a fiver which isn't too bad. If I were to look around you could probably find cheaper or free parking.

Registration is basic, but there is a nice small race village atmosphere. There are activities for the family, and with the gorgeous weather we had it makes for a lovely day out.

A small criticism is that the bag drop is £5, I've never known paying separately. Perhaps this is to reduce the cost of the entry fee, but for many this would be an issue, no matter how much it cost. I put my bag in someone's car so not an issue for me, but wouldn't have been happy to pay for this service.

The race started in waves which was great. The trails are narrow for most of the route, but I personally did not experience any congestion which will be partly owing to this good organisation at the start. I organised the pacers this year and people did not appear to be in correct waves, so this could have been advertised more widely. There was a PA system at the finish, but at the start (a short walk across a bridge) there wasn't, so I announced the pacers and times myself. I did ask one of the organisers a couple of times but he chose not to. 

The run itself was so beautiful and really enjoyable. As the 1:45 pacer I had a good small group around me which was fantastic.

The support was very sparse, as were the marshalls, but this is expected in a course like this. There wouldn't be room for anyone else. This isn't a criticism of the race, it's just a fact. The course was well marked and only a couple of road crossings. What I did find strang at mile 12 was the marshalls stopping runners rather than cars. They need a proper brief. There were so few of us they could have easily stopped the cars, which I what I have experienced in EVERY other race that have done this. I've seen lots of feedback of people being stopped for a few seconds here?

The aid stations were to sparse and I only saw water in cups and high 5 gels. The cups were also only being handed out by a couple of people so it was difficult to get the water if in a group. This could benefit from a little attention.

The main criticism of the whole day is the course measurement and markings. The course is about 400 metres long. As a pacer this is something we could have been told as now everyone is saying this is a common theme (i wish someone said this before). Even if a course is long we can usually account for this, but what made matters worse is from about mile 10 the course markings were coming up short. So at mile 10 my watch said 9.90, and this was consistent until 12. I was running perfectly just under 8 min miles. At mile 10 I started to ease off a little to adjust to the course, otherwise risk going too fast. At mile 12 my watch recorded 11.87 and I was still set to come in too fast. I eased off maybe 15 seconds over the next mile to ensure I wasn't too fast and encouraged everyone on. I told everyone they had loads of time.

I didn't see a mile 13 (and no one I have spoken to did either) but when I got mile 13 on my watch I had plenty of time. I crossed the bridge and all of a suddden started to worry. I was at 13:12 and still no sign of the finish and only had 1 minute to spare. I sped up at this point and caught up with the people I sent ahead. I could have sprinted and made the time but was not going to leave those I had paced behind, what was the point in me doing a 6 minute mile now? We came in a minute over the pace, and I feel terrible.

Im upset and a little angry with the organisation of this part as everyone on social media has confirmed they experienced the same. Every single pacer finished the exact same way, experienced pacers, there was nothing they could do. To put in in perspective, the additional distance at the end is an extra 2 minutes for me, and gets worse the slower you are running. The short mile markers made it much worse as we all slowed thinking we were ahead (still confident our watches had us with a good 30 second cushion). 

If this is the same route they always use they must know it's long, in which case it needs to be advertised as a long course. If it's not then look at the route as it's been marked wrong.

Ok rant over. This was a big deal for a lot of people, probably more for the pacers that do this to help people achieve their times, so all feel terrible that this didn't happen. Apart from this I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event. If the measurements are sorted or announced as long then it would be a great race to do