Previously one of my favourite races on the calender with a unique challenging course, however this event has sadly been taken over by DMH and it is now clearly all about saving money on the race organisation and maximum profit for the charity. This makes perfect sense for a charity race however this has not been done very well at all and every corner has been cut.

The marshals simply had no idea what they were doing with one even walking along the course race line in the way of runners .25km from the start, forcing runners to collide with each other to pass her. The marshals were even rude at the finish by pushing people out of the way as they hadn't taped a finishing area off unlike other events.

Upon leaving the park from the start onto the roads I had to side step being hit by an oncoming car on this 'closed roads' event. This happened again about half way when a car pulled across my path causing me to low right down. Both incidents infront of marshals.

There isn't even a nice medal to take away as in previous years but a cheap nasty one that you will throw away. I'd rather not have one as it was quite patronising really to be given this and a waste of money the charity could have saved.

The only plus about this race is the course which I actually think has improved slightly and still kept the best unique parts from before.

When you consider DMH have had 2 years to arrange this event you would have thought it was put together in a weekend. They even arranged it on the same date as two other local races being the Trentham Triathlon and Lichfield 10k which many runners would no doubt have prefered had they not already paid for this event thanks to last years cancellations which were rolled over to this year.