Entered the marathon quite a long time ago and always had it pencilled in for a PB attempt, I had heard it was a fast flat route.

The logistics were straight forward, not too busy and easy enough to find toilets, bag drop and start line etc. Early part of the course was nice through the parks, some nice landmarks and tarmac paths. Long stretches of the route are along the river and the tow paths can be quite tricky under foot, I did see one runner take a nasty tumble. There are some nice landmarks along the route but for large parts it is very quiet, I do prefer a big city feel to a race with lots of support. This run was lonely for large stretches.

The marathon re-joins the half marathon runners with about 4 miles to go, it's quite nice for motivation to be overtaking slower runners but it can also get quite congested on some of the narrow paths.

The medal is great and I really like the finishers t-shirt, overall not bad value for money. I did enjoy this event and was over the moon to get a PB, don't think it's one I would rush back to though.