this was the first festival for the401 Foundation. You may have heard about Ben Smith who ran 401 marathons in 401 days. Post that challenge he set up the foundation and this is the first major event.
It's set in and around Portishead so a fantastic location - right by the Bristol channel and the routes take you all around town from Battery Point where you can take in the views across to Wales and down the coast, up the river to the two bridges, in through the marina, around the nature reserve, it's a great spot (ok I'm biased I live there!).
Portished isnt flat, so expect a bit of hillage....but its not horrendous (really)
The festival consists of a 10k on the Saturday, a 5k early Sunday morning followed fairly swiftly by the HM....so reasonably challenging. We benefitted from fantastic weather albeit pretty hot during the half!
There were also smaller events for small people (some of who were pretty darn speedy!)
Support - the marshalls were fantastic, it's a windy course through town but they were there to point you in the right direction with tonnes of encouragement. Lots of locals were out to support too (with sweets!).
On the Saturday evening there were 3 really good bands and food stalls throughout plus TrueStart coffee and ice cream
and the medals..oh the medals !! Big chunky beautiful things that all click together.
It was one of the best running experiences that ive ever had and i say that not just because its home turf and because i know Ben - it was great fun, everyone was friendly (more so than many other races I've done), there was such a good feeling around the whole thing.
Logistics - cant really comment but heard no reports of issues and I didnt notice any traffic problems.
So....all in all..well organised and planned - fantastic location and great running routes...well supported and amazing bling.
It will be back in 2018 - and will be even better. Maybe I can help Ben get rid of some of those nasty hills ;-)