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How was the Bath Half-marathon for you?

Kimber
This was my first half marathon and I was especially pleased that I got the chance to run it in my home city of Bath. The support from the crowd was fantastic and the hand out of drinks around the course was perfect. I personally had a great day although was very sore for the next couple of days. As this was my first race I had nothing to compare it to. However the runners village at the start, seemed badly organised there were no signs saying where to get water or the direction for the start line, also there was nowhere to warm up! As for the mud it looked like Glastonbury festival, surely laying down many more wooden boards would have helped. I suppose the fact the original medical tent was far too small for the race which contributed to the hour delay sums up the organisation of the Bath Half. Overall it was a wonderful experience I shall run it again and I recommend it to others.

MS
Shame about the start being delayed this year.Standing in the cold was not great. Numbers must be limited next year to make it the enjoyable race it was! This said enjoyed the running thanks to the 7min.pace runner! Managed a new PB this year.Will come back next year but organisation must improve.

Mark
This was the 5th Bath Half i've run, and it by far the worst organised race i've ever been in. Hour delay was acceptable, but the finishing area organisation was an absolute shambles. There were quite simply not enough staff to hand out bags, foils, water and to handle crowd control. Why were so many spectators being allowed back up into the runners finishing area making it even more clogged? I was stuck on the finish line for 35 minutes. The race itself however was faultless. Please sort this out for next year Bath Half organisers!!

Richard
Having to pay £2 for a shower at the Sports Centre (and to be gruffly ordered to take off my muddy trainers before I entered - I hadn't deliberately muddied them) left a bad taste in the mouth. The hour delay was a nuisance, the failure to put boarding over the grass, especially when rain had been forecast several days earlier, was inexplicable. The handout of the medals was very badly organised. But I have to say I really enjoyed the race. The crowd were absolutely fantastic and buoyed me on; the band at Green Park was inspirational; and the goodie bag and t-shirt fantastic. 15,000 was an unrealistic number. Let's hope the lessons are learned and we can return next year for a better half-marathon.

David Chandler
Organisation of the race is shocking - no where to warm up, over crowded, delayed start, being covered in mud before the start, not being able to get to the start and having to climb a barrier once the race had started - apart from that I enjoyed the race...

RS
For the price to enter and then not to have paid to get sufficient staff smacks of money grabbing from the organisers. All the positive comments are about the peop0le of Bath and the course - beyond the controkl of the organisers largely. Those elements worked. Everything else did not. Runnigh High, you are a disgrace. Count me out next year.

lindsey
having been running over 10mins/mile in training i aced my first Half marathon pulling in some sub 8minute miles in the second half to make it back within two hours. weather was shocking though as was organisation, not helped by a bg jump in numbers.loved the atmosphere and support all the way round, especially all the kids hi-fiving the runners, cheers guys!

KAREN CRANE
My first half marathon experience, I really enjoyed the coarse and the spectatores were fantastic with loads of encouragement all around the coarse.A huge thanks to all the helpers handing out the drinks, they were great!! The biggset down side to the day was the delay at the start as it was so cold and hard to keep warm and the awful chaos at the end where we had to fight for foil to keep warm and then wait for ages to get a goody bag whivh had no t shirt in it!!!!! All in all I would enter the bath half again as I thought the coarse was great>

Tom Booth
Arriving early and waiting at Odd Down Park and Ride for half an hour in the pouring rain and cold wind didn't exactly enthuse me form the outset! Then to be kept waiting for a further hour and having nowhere available to properly warm-up due to the mud-bath (no pun intended) nearly made me want to go home. However, the support as always was brilliant - especially Samba Sulis at Green Park.Agree that smaller number of entries would produce a better quality event.

Chris Martin
It was my first time. I wasn't impressed with the organisation (or the weather) but the people of Bath are fantastic. What inspirational support and encouragement! Thank You!

Tom Tanner
I've run the London Marathon 4 times and the organisation is brilliant. I have to say that the Bath Half's organisation left alot to be desired. Particularly the finish, I was with some Marathon 'Virgins' and at the time we finished there was no-one apart from two ladies with scanners to welcome the runners in, plus the roads were opened too early; no medals; no one giving out foil sheets - it was poor. Sorry Bath but you need to do better next time!

Carry
Can't believe people were so inconsiderate as to take more than one goody bag at the end. I can see how one or two might go missing but a thousand?? Everyone I know missed their target time, I suppose because of the bad weather conditions. About 8 miles was when the cold started to set in for me, and my time/mile began to dramatically rise. The delay to the start was awful, my feet got wet and it was really hard to keep warm which I'm sure isn't good before you run 13 miles! The support from the drinks stations, spectators and especially the professional runners that were lapping me was so nice! Did not appreciate having to go find a piece of foil of the floor of the rec that someone else has disguarded because there was none left me for, though!!

Nathan Forde
The event management and notification of the delay was poor, but the course itself was good and enjoyable.

Ian Lloyd
I can forgive the Hours delay at the start.. No-one can control the weather, and the First aid tent had to running before the race could start.... The mud in the Village, was unfortunate, but not the end of the world. The start was a little chaotic, and there was no warm up.. Not too good.. But the finish was appaling... I came in just after 2 hours, which I suppose is the peak time, and there seemed to be NO organisation.. The debacle of having to catch a goody bag as it was thrown from the back of a lorry by a spotty looking teenager, meant that I ended up with one which did not contain a Medal.. We had to wait for 25 minutes in the cold.. Possibly the worst end to a race I have ever seen. Please limit the numbers next year.....

Njabulo Sithole 7202
It was my first time to to run a half marathon and it felt so good through out.Thanks for the support of the public, yes they kept me going.

Mike Taylor
I preferred the course to Bristol - less turns to deal with especially at the end, which is tough on your rhythm, and I liked two laps as it I could set my expectations.On the down side, I would question whether Bath can provide the space and infrastructure for so many people. Massive queues in Bristol Temple Meads (I missed my train), poor mapping in the handbook, no signage from the train station, the delay, the queuing to get to the start line, and queuing to collect kit at the end left people freezing with no clothing or shelter which I would say verges on negligent - and so easily avoided.

JP
I've been running the Bath half marathan since 1994: in those days around 1500 runners entered and the infrastucture could cope and it was an enjoyable event. Not any more, 15000 runners is just too many: congestion at start,not enough room, I couldn't get into my running for 5 miles, ages to wait for kitbag etc. Why don't the organisers restrict to 10000, then about 6/7000 will actually run on the day and it will be an enjoyable event like it used to be.Obviously the weather didn't help and as for the 1 hour delay!!! On the plus side crowd were great, drinks stations marshalls etc really good, But please, please next year drop the capacity or I for one won't bother to come.

Judith Chubb-Whittle
I ran on Sunday & managed a PB, the hours delay meant I had time for a cup of tea & criossant with friends. The finish was a bit of a horlicks BUT for all you selfish runners who took more goody bags than they should have & denied someoneelse a medal or who don't understand that they can run around slower people [bit of a no brainer I think,]marshals, spectators, family & friends stood about for us in the cold, people cleared up our rubbish and no organiser aims to get things wrong.Things go wrong sometimes thats life, grow up!!PSI'll be back next year once I can walk again!

richard ashley
The delay at the start i could cope with and the also melee at the finish but the one thing that that realy got up my nose was the £25 car parking charge we were given because we were late back to our car through no fault of ours. When we explained that we were only late due to the marathon being dalayed by 1 hour we were told this was not their fault and we would have to pay the £25 or leave our car in the car park.After raising money for charity this was the last thing i expaected.

Liz
Weather / mud / delayed start/ waiting and more waiting / lovely people giving out drinks / kind stewards shouting encouragement / pumping tunes / happy samba / shocking tent for first aid (freezing!) / nice St Johns / nurses at RUH not talking about inappropriate things / not back next year

Pete
Good race, terrible (DANGEROUS) organisation at finish

james adlington
i felt the race was over subscribed very difficult to get to the start, and no where to warm up at all. We live in a very wet part of the world there were no contingencies for the weather, consequently a lot of people were very cold a the race start, not good. And at the finish it was a shambles and dangerous to boot. I saw several people fall over in the crush you were very lucky not to have some serious problems. May i suggest next year have a warm up area with an instructor miked up like Bristol does its fun and gets everyone prepared. Thank you

Carey Shaw
I participated in the Bath Half marathon on Sunday. I have now continued to support this for a few years.This year I feel that the event had become disorganised and in particular become dangerous in parts. The one item that stood out from the rest of the issues was the finish. At around 2 hours obviously alot of runners were finishing. I do not believe that the organisers had planned for this deluge of finishers. This led to a backlog of runners having to queue to get to the runners village. This took me and many many other runners approx 30 minutes. During this crucial time I am I am sure many other runners were becoming very very cold and there was, in my opinion, potential of becoming hypothermic. I experienced white fingers until I got to my car at approx 15:15.This is one item I would like to raise amongst others including delaying the start, the weather, the poor communication, the even worse start layout and the condition of the "wreck'.I believe that all these contributed to my worst half marathon yet.All this said I am sure that many people enjoyed the race and I was surely thankful to the spectators.

Julie Ivens
In such cold conditions it was unfair to delay the start by an hour. Also news of the delay was spread only by word of mouth, where were the loudspeaker anouncements in areas near the starting point ie. Laura Place and Argyle Street? Come on my city I have viewed several other Half Marathon's and wasn't proud of the organisation in the city I was born and bred in.

Pig Pen
My wife and I enjoyed the run, once it got going. The organisation was appalling. 15K runners were herded like slow moving cattle. None of us recived medals or bags or the chance to either warm up or cool down. The runners village was full of spectators getting in the way. Whilst the nothing can be done about the weather, something can be done about the preperation. The runners took the time I find it insulting that the organisers did not.

LEE DAVIES
OUTSTANDING EVENT. SUPPORT FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WAS FANTASTIC. ITS A MUST NEXT YEAR AGAIN.

Hannah Joyce
I fell over last month and cracked a rib skiing but was so determined to do the race for Macmillan- I was in agony for the first 4 miles but did a time of 2:03 which I am VERY proud of!

tony seaman
the event was so badly organised it was the worst preperation we as runners could have . I will not enter in next years event

David Lattimore
A very enjoyable first event but poor organisation not only the start but aslso having to queue for 45 minutes to leave the finish / runners village area causing runners to et cold and risk injury.

Clare Turner
I thoroughly enjoyed running the Bath Half-Marathon and would like to thank the lady pacing the 10 minute mile as she got me round in a good time. My only critiscm of the race was the delay at the beginning, I understand this was beyond the organisers control, but as we had just left our baggage at the village and were dressed only in running gear with bin liners, we were extremely cold. I know the weather didn't help but there was no where to go to keep warm. I did not want to ruin my running shoes by going back onto the rugby pitch (again, I know that the weather didn't help) but in light of all the weather forecasts could the village not have been moved somewhere drier. I was a little disappointed at the end to have to go to a lorry to get a goody bag, the first one I was given did not have a medal in it and I was then repeatedly shoved up against the barriers as other finishers came to claim their bag. Not what you want after having run 13 miles! Beside all this, the support on the course was amazing, the people of Bath were great, the course was a nice course to run and I would consider running it again in the future