I had heard about the Royal Parks Half from friends who ran it last year so that was enough for me to enter the ballot. When I didn't get a place that way I chose to run for Macmillan Cancer Support, which is one of the Golden Oak charities so meant raising a fair bit of money for the place. But that just gave me more purpose to complete the race. The weather was perfect and the course is very scenic. Race village is a bit hectic in the lead up to the start. Queuing for the bad drop wasn't too bad as I got there early but queues for the toilets were really manic. So you have to plan it well or risk having to stop early on in the race to use the ones at the start of the course.
The atmosphere is amazing but also very busy. It does take you a while to get going due to the sheer number of runners in the green, blue (where I started), yellow and maroon pens. You have to pace yourself and watch you don't trip over legs as you jostle for some clear space to run in. The fueling stations could be a bit better organised as the bottles of water and lucozade and weren't opened up quick enough so I had to stop briefly the two times I picked some water up. Also another thing to be wary of is spectators darting across sections of the route where there weren't enough volunteers to safely guide them across. This happened a few times in really busy sections of the run so there could have been a few accidents along the way.
The course itself is very scenic. Parts of the route cover that of the London Marathon and also the Cancer Research 10K Run that I did earlier this year. It's definitely one way to take in the sights of London. The route markers were clearly laid out. The crowds were amazing and I loved some of the funny banners being held up to help spur you along when the race got tough towards the latter end. The medal is a great one to have in your collection. It's definitely one of my favourites.