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Forest of Dean Half-Marathon
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Good news about the unwell runner..
And well done to those who organised on another great FoD half. Fantastic off-road course (so much more enjoyable than boring big city races) and very well organised. Big thanks especially to all those marshalling, supporting and generally standing around in torrid weather whilst the rest of us had fun. I love the last 4m of this course (even when running like cr*p and injured)
I'm also down as a female - a major lifestyle change clearly now required..
Depressed by the comments re goody bags etc. I'd prefer ALL money raised to go good causes rather than buying junk for me - I run because I enjoy running. My kids stop expecting goody bags (at birthday parties etc) when they were about 9 years old !
Definately back next year
The guy leading the resuscitation was my brother in law who is a consultant in Intensive Care (as am I, but I was ahead of the unwell runner and returned to the scene a bit later when my brother in law didn't arrive at the finish as expected). He was assisted by a consultant physician, an experienced nurse and 2 others! The St J's, mountain rescue and an ambulance paramedic all arrived in quick succession, followed not long after by the air ambulance (pretty impressive flying to land in a field strewn with tree stumps!) which whisked him away. Not a bad effort I think, they all deserve a winners medal or more...
My brother in law (who was on for a finish time of about 1hr 53 mins) still finished the race in 2hrs 32mins (with the others) having saved the guys life as well!!!
Respect to your Bro in Law and the other guys Phil - I hope that, should anything similar should ever happen to me I've got equally competent guys around me!
It all happened (not far) behind me, so the first I knew was when the emergency crews came through the finish area. I have to congratulate the organisers for getting all the emergency services in to the guy so quickly. He was lucky to be so near to the finish where they could at least get to him.
Fingers crossed that the gentleman involved is now making a good recovery...
Great to see so much help was available so quickly.
Well done to those who helped and to the organisers!
All in a days running eh? Glad to hear that despite being unwell the poor chap was fortunate enough to have people around him that could help. Well done to everyone.
This was my second half marathon. I think that I am more suited to this kind of terrain. I loved it. It was my best time and I felt strong enough at the end to have done a few more miles so perhaps I should have pushed myself a bit more.
I think that the organisation, information, marshals, support teams, mile markers, water stations and atmosphere were top class. I’ve only done a couple of running events but I’ve done loads of mountain and road biking events and can say that in my opinion yesterdays event outclassed everything else I’ve attended. This is definitely going to be one of my recurring events.
With reference to the goody bag etc. I was happy enough with what I got for the entry fee, especially considering it's for charity. A lot of my sportive type cycling events are now charging in the £20 to £30 bracket which is about as much as I'd pay however you do get food stations in addition to water as well as the usual medal and possibly a T shirt. Some offer a recovery service. So £ for £ it's probably on par.
One point about the medal. I think it pays to consider the wider benefits of handing out memoribllia. Yeah sure they're plastic and not worth much but my children (3 and 4.5 years) love to see the latest medal or T shirt and will fight to wear it home if they're with me. It actually gets their interest and they it as a real reward for the effort which as a parent trying to sell an active lifestyle is a help.
Respect to all those who helped in the resuscitation. Speaking as someone whose closest significant birthday is 60, you always have an element of concern when you take on a long hard race - regardless of the nick you're in. This really can happen to anyone. I'm so grateful there are people around who know what they're doing!
On the topic of goody bags etc, just take a look at what you get for your £30 from (overcrowded and badly organised) races like Bath and it's seriously not worth it. A medal is great (I don't care what people say, I'm proud of mine) but a drink and a energy bar or banana at the end is enough, and let people buy their own t-shirts if they want them.
I though FoD was great value for money. I know from being part of the Cheddar Half organisation that huge amounts of work go into these smaller events - and whatever surplus we get goes to good causes, the same as FoD.
I have no quibble with the entry fee or the goody bag as its a charity event.....It was brilliantly organised
But I'm still really disappointed with the timing chips.......No point is having them if they don't measure the chip times.........
well done to all who helped the guy who collapsed......I hope he is ok now
Good point seren nos, especially as the start was crowded, narrow, and the field quite large
Am sure it was chip timing start:finish time last year. We also crossed what look liked a timing mat at the start of this year's race. Maybe there were technical probs ??
Still better than the Bath debacle though !
There were problems father tim.... see Trevor Kingdom's post from this morning.
Given the amount of rain I imagine all the organisers had to work hard to make everything happen so that we should really be pleased the event went ahead and was such a success.
If I was only attending because it was chipped timing then I'd be disappointed. To be honest as I was competing against myself then my trusty stopwatch sufficed. My time was 02:04:27 but the published time was 02:05:37. I must admit though that if these things are used to pubish peoples times then they should have a low failure rate.
I think I read further back in the thread that the times should have been between the start and finish mat but there were problems with some runners chips registering on the start so they used the gun time and the chipped finish. I am not sure what the stats for these things are like but I've only done one other event that used chips on the front forks of bicycles and a few people failed to get registered as they passed over the start mat.
I don't think it should detract from what I think was an A1 event though especially as random hardware faults are very often beyond the users/suppliers control.
well spoken David and Craig !
I love this race - off road running at its best (and not too hilly for idle types like me). Perfect too if one is recovering from injury (aways my case it seems !)
I thought the rain and 'streams' added to the character - much more fun than heat/sun. The support and marshalling was also excellent - as said previously, the latter part of the course (especially the flat, rail-track, trail through the woods and across the decked bridge) is probably my favourite stretch of any race I've done. The first time I did the FoD a large male deer jumped out of the forest a few yards ahead and scared the bejeepers out of me. A very special event ..
Personally I always take my time off my watch and just compare it with interest when I look at the official times.
Glad there was a reason for the difference between my watch and event timing. I was a minute different from my watch to official time.
Considering that you pay more for Great North run than London Marathon. Putting this into perspective the price for FoD is about right.
So glad that the guy is ok, has been worrying me for the last couple of days
Hope the event orgainers are not too disheartened by people's criticisms, it must be a hell of a job organising an event like this and they do it all for nothing. I don't care about goodie bags and my time isn't important. My medal will go into my daughter's dressing up box (she and her friends play 'limpics' with them). What will last forever is the memory of a very enjoyable day, some really friendly marsalls who must have been frozen solid, a beautiful route and a good laugh when it got a bit muddy. I'm sure it's different for the really fast people, they have such a commitment to what they do it must be very frustrating if anything is less than perfect, but for a plodder in the pack like me, it was brilliant.
phew! glad to hear my watch time is more accurate! The chip time on the web had me as a minute and a half slower! I was near the back at the start - and ended with a watch of 2h2m, and a chip time of almost 2hr4mins - not much difference - bit ot was my first half - and I wanted to get as near to two hours as a i could!
great location though - and I thought the organisers did well - what with the rain giving them parking problems, etc - don't need a goody bag - but my kids (to echo other posters) love a medal - they can almost believe I won something / or,more serioulsy, that going for a run is something valued in some sense or other - which has to be a good messge...
So glad I never went to Bath...was never going to and, after a third year running this, I still never will!!
Well done Chris and Co.
Yes second that.Well done to Chris,the lions and whoever else was involved.I live near Parkend and I can assure you it proper pelted down all day Sat and most of the night! I wasn't sure it was going to be on even. As for the gripes about the goodie bags, I thought it was a Half Marathon and not a Birthday party haha. I'm sure there will be more people returning next year than giving it a miss. I can't wait for it to come around again and I get to run the course at least once a week
Just for good measure I am just reading the local rag and it says that the man who collapsed is Ok now. Thats a real issue to me and puts the chip times and goodie bags into perspective I think.
See you all next year unless you want to join me on Saturday for a re-run
I guess with the bath fiasco there may well be a rush to enter the FoD !