I last took part in this race in 2014, when the route took you out of Kew Gardens and finished up in the Old Deer park, Richmond, so I was looking forward to competing in it again and running the new course.

I was part of the pacing team for the event, running 65mins and as such my entry was taken care of by the race organisers, the price has been described as being a bit pricey by some, but each runner was able to take family and friends into the stunning kew gardens for free (normally £15 per person entry) so it worked out a good deal if you wanted to make a day out of visiting the gardens.

As I had to be there early to be kitted out as a pacer, I was able to get free parking in the road right outside of the entry gate, I understand that there was a recommended car park close by, and public transport routes right up to the main gate.

On arrival in the park, I met the rest of the team at the information centre and got kitted out in our special pacers Tee shirts and flags, the race hub consisted of an information tent, a good amount of toilets and a few chairty supporters tents.

The start was arranged on a wave basis, with each runner allocated tio a wave based on their predicted finsih time, this  was very well organised and marshalled, and each wave was set off with a short interval between each other.

The first few hundred metres was ran on grass, which in the early morning (08.30 start) was still a little damp and slippery, but soon we made our way onto tarmac paths to start our tour of the grounds. As previuosly mentioned earlier, this was a new course for 2017, and was almost totally confined to the beautiful Kew Garden park. This has to be one of the prettiest runs I have taken part in as we wound our way through the stunning collection of trees, flowers and statues within the grounds. The course briefly went outside of the walls for about 0.5km towards the latter part of the run, before returning back to the finish line which was where we began. Other than the few hundred metres at the start and end on grass, the route was a majoity of tarmac path, with a few sections on gravel.

Mid way through the run, we were greeted by some people dressed in Alice in Wonderland costumes (Queen of Hearts, Dormouse, Mad Hatter, and the White Rabbit), I.m still unsure if these were laid on by the run directors, or they were the stragglers from an interesting night out in Richmond the evening before, however it made for a good atmosphere and lots of Hi 5's followed.

The pre race briefings mentioned that there would be a water station at approx 5km, however when my wave group arrived at this point, all we found was a lot of half empty discarded water bottles on the floor, no sign of a water station.Possibly the early waves used up all the water before we arrived and the volunteers had packed up and returned to base?, there was another water station at 8kms, but this was a bit late for those that missed out on the earlier drink.

The race was chip timed, via a shoe worn timing tag, which on completion of the race, was removed from your shoe and you were presented with a very impressive medal and goody bag, and collected your finisher tee shirt. Photographers were on hand to capture past race images with your medal in front of an advertising board if you wished.

You were then free to spend as long as you liked visiting the park, gift shops and cafe's with your medal hung proudly around your neck.

In summary a very well organised run, save for the issue with the missing water station, in beautiful stunning parkland, one to put onto the to do list for 2018