Event Review: Gosport Half Marathon 2008

Event Location: Gosport
Organiser: Gosport Road Runners
Online Fee: GBP 14
Results are out
Photos

The event took place at 10am on Sunday morning. We drove by car from Southampton and parking near the meeting point was very well organised and there was plenty of it. The meeting point was at Stokes Bay school, where bag storage was available. The school’s toilets were available for the runners and queues were not a problem.

We made our way to the start at around 9.40am. Unfortunately the start line was quite far away, so we got there just in time. They should have made clear that there is a short walk to the start line from the meeting point because some runners might have left the meeting point later than us.

Anyway, with only a couple of minutes delay, the race slowly started. It was a little bit annoying that the start was so slow; this was because straight after the start we were forced to run on a narrow cycle path. After about 2km however, the field started to break up a bit.

The overall route of the race was very flat and not very scenic. Most of the route zigzagged through an airfield, which was very open and windy – and the rest of the route took us along some cycle paths and pavements around Gosport.

Water was only provided three times, the first one was only at the 7km mark and there were two more. Energy drinks were not provided at all, and unfortunately we had leave without a goody bag, as there was only squash and water at the finish line.

The route was very well marshalled and signposted. They were all very helpful and encouraging.

There was only an official event stop clock and no chip times were available. This is unfortunate for the runners that didn’t start at the front – especially because the race took a while to get up to speed.

All in all it was a good race for a GBP 14 fee. The organisation was good and we will hopefully be back next year.

~ by jen on November 17, 2008.