Decided I was going to enter this one after a friend was showing off her 2016 EHM medal last year - very impressive bling!

So, on to 2017. First things - race number arrived rather too close to race day itself, but never mind. Was surprised to see the free beer token on the bib numbers too (similar to Liverpool Rock n Roll).

No problems getting to the event. Parked up at Cockhedge Shopping Centre car park, where it's free to park all day on Sunday. I believe a number of other car parks nearby are free on Sundays too. Start line was only about 10 minutes walk from there.

Start area isn't too packed, and it's split into different time sections (e.g. sub-1:30, 1:30-1:45, etc) for you to position yourself accordingly. However, the start of the race was 15 minutes late - irritating when you've warmed up beforehand, and are cooling down again while waiting around.

The course itself is ok, nothing particularly scenic - out of Warrington town centre, around some Cheshire country lanes, into the Warrington Wolves stadium, and then through Warrington town centre again to the finish at the golden gates! The first half is gradually uphill, followed by some welcome flats/descents in the second half.

Local support is surprisingly good, considering it's mostly on country lanes! About 7km into the HM route, the residents of one of the houses had set up stall outside their house giving out water, orange juice and jelly babies, which was a really lovely gesture! Quite a few people out on the course handing out jelly babies and ice pops too.

Think my main gripe was with the organisation of the race. The water stations along the course were particularly understaffed - at the first one we came to, both the person ahead of me and the person behind me ended up without a water bottle as the 2 people manning it (why only 2??) couldn't give them out quickly enough. After I'd had a couple of sips from my water, I ended up handing it around to the people who'd missed out - not ideal! There was also a huge queue for T-shirt pickup at the end, backing up into the finish funnel. In fact, about a minute after we'd picked ours up, we heard a marshal shouting "T-shirt pickup is closed for now", so not sure what happened to people still waiting??

Amazing finishers medal and T-shirt though, and some decent goodies in the bag. Enjoyed it overall, but feel the organisers have a few logistical issues they need to address for next year.