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The Nike+ Human Race 10K
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Well, Wasn't sure what to expect - but in summary I think it was better than the british london 10k (at least we started in waves for the nike), but nowhere near as good as the Great Capital run.
Positives: security staff "not looking" when my mates came and sat with me in the runners bit of the stadium, rather than the fenced off friends and family bit elsewhere.
Good marshalling, great atmosphere, warmup, iconic location. Good bag drop area. Nice touch to have your results texted to you.
Negatives: far too twisty and windy course. Far too late start - I knew it was starting lateish but I was in wave 3 so we didn't get out of the stadium till 8 - I got there at 4! Not enough kilometre markers. Complete scrum for shirts at the end (and the red giveaway t-shirts don't even have the date of the run printed on them - what a con). Paula and Seb only started off waves 1 and 2 - we in wave 3 were warming up, to turn round and see the race timer had started, no announcement or anything.
Neutrals: Didn't get a PB but such is life!
Have to agree with all the negatives mentioned before. Yes, the baggage area was a good idea, but why the long walk down the corridor, only to loop back on yourself again.
Then of course was the rediculous idea of being forced to be inside the stadium by 6.00. I was in wave one, and initially went onto the pitch, got bored and went back up exit 118. Just killed time wandering round the concourse, looking at all the pictures above the bars...bringing back a few memories. I dont understand when people said they had to stand on the pitch, when I went back I just took a seat in the stands and waited, and waited and waited.
Must be getting old....had never heard of Pendulem, and doubt I would buy any of their stuff. Found it quite repetative, and cant honestly say I knew anything by Moby. The whole concert idea prior the race was just not going to work....its a race!!!!
Knowing the area quite well I knew the course would be pretty dire, and it was....but never expected the snaking around two car parks.....and why were people trying to cross the road on Olympic Way across thousands of people running. I just wish I had knocked the woman who made me stop over and into one of the many puddles....
Then realising after the race the route to the station was blocked but some running race...so having to walk back to the stadium and use the flyover to pass over the race. ....out of respect for other runners I wasnt going to try to run across the road...
Living fairly locally I was home by half past nine....but I really pity those of you who made special, and no doubt, expensive trips to London...I can only help the next one is better.
Hi everyone - my first post
I thought the race was brilliant!
It's only my 2nd ever race, the first being the Nike North/South 10k, and i enjoyed this one much more. I expected the rain to bother me quite a lot, but in the end it really didn't. The whole race was a great atmosphere, and i'd definitely enter more races. It has got me fired up and hungry for more
What i didnt like, however, was the part in the stadium. I didnt like not knowing what time the race was due to begin. I didnt care for the music, although i felt bed for the pendulum guy who was trying his best to energise the crowd. I think Nike got that whole aspect of it quite wrong. I would've much prefered the race without the music component, and without the long wait beforehand.
I did however like the t-shirt i got at the finish, and the sight of us all packed in the tube with our matching tops.
Wellll....where to start...
I am reading all these bad reviews of the race (and the odd good one!), but I believe the general consensus is that it was fairly poor!
Here is my story...
My girlfriend and I turned up at 5pm, thinking to ourselves, 'The first wave will be off at 6pm, since, I'm in wave 4, I'll be out of here at 7pm and back home by 8.30pm'....and we all know how that turned out! The security guard gave us our first view of the start times...8.40pm (so, fair play to them for getting us out at 8.30!!)
Anyway, sitting there for over 3 hours waiting and watching pure rubbish in pendulum and Moby. (We weren't there to run, not listen to music!). It would have been fine if they were there to help us around, or there at the end...but hold us in the stadium for nearly 2 hours!
Then, they won't let us stay in our seats until we go...we have to stand on the pitch while they clean the seats! (They could have had the stadium cleaned by then if they started at 2pm!)
So, then eventually we get going...and 500m into the race...straight outside the stadium in the pitch black car park, I run into a pothole and that is my race over!
So now, I'm sitting here with my ankle over my head and probably not able to run either the Dublin or Amsterdam marathons that I had planned to do!
So, nike, if you're reading...why in the hell did you make everyone run around horrible unlit industrial estates and car parks at night when we live in one of the most scenic and beautiful cities in the world? I await your reply...
Yours sincerely,
Eoin!
Wow really mixed experiences, I enjoyed it all in all, yes the weather, length of concert and course were not ideal, (and nearly pulled a hamstring after starting off a little too eager! not good with 2 x 1/2 mara's in next 5 weeks !) - but managed a PB, pushed hard , had a great sprint finish with a couple of other guys and left on a high, lessons to be learnt - but respect to all the runners ,bands , (as New Imbalance says the guy from Pendulum tried hard, few beers I might have bounced around a bit, but we were there to run )& marshalls who had the same weather we did - * thanks to you guys if you read this
* Eoin good luck with your ankle btw, know what you're saying there....
Cheers Martin...I'll need luck...hospital told me it wasn't a break, so touch wood, I'll be back up and running in the next couple of weeks and it mightn't set my training back too much!
Best of luck in your marathons mate!
BRILLIANT!! I had a great time from sitting at Beconsfield train station counting the red shirts I could see......Pendulum was great..... got me really fired up....Standing on the pitch.(how often do you get to do that at wembley)............. I would run a nike event again.......Paula well she's a star.....great to see her run.... shirt was great at the end. TXT was a class act ..
Bad points........ spectators and runners crossing over the course just before the end... And the Idiot that stopped on the start line( wave4) becouse he was not running with his mates.....But that was not Nikes fault.... some of the bends were tight as some of the course...
I still have a smile on my face...
I definitely prefered the Nike North/South 10k, at least we weren't taken round the backstreets of Wembley! Not the most scenic of routes, but the start was a good venue. I agree with everything about the music, not a smart move! I got completely thrown by the bottle neck around the 5km mark round the back of Tesco, was feeling seriously comfortable and didn't see it coming and ground to a halt in about 50 meters, completely messed up my race! Surely Nike would have realised that trying to get thousands of runners though that tiny little gap wasn't going to work? far too many people, I'm going off the big commercial runs....
Also, in the rush of things at the end, I picked up a small ladies shirt instead of a medium, did anyone pick up a medium and want a small? I haven't worn it, so if anyone wants to exchange let me know.
At the water station someone chucked a full bottle of water up in the air, it smacked me on the cheekbone. I may have said this before sorry but it really really annoyed me!!!!
How could anyone be so stupid??
Again clearly not Nike's fault but really was the last straw for me, if I could have given up then I would have
I had idiots cut me up all over the shop and then I got jabbed in the back by some hysterical woman on steriods who said I had 'steered' into her path.
I want to complain to the organisers how do I do it ?
Plus Andy Goldstein got sacked from Soccer AM ironic eh !
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I was shocked it was not on tv, but its on you tube!! (that doesn't count really..lol)
I'm still smiling and very happy
As for me, I was tired, bored and hungry before the race even began; I didn't fancy the greasy food from the only open food place in the stadium and like most people I'd eaten my last banana/sandwich far too early thinking we'd be starting at least an hour before we actually got under way. I didn't mind the weather - I prefer rain to boiling heat - and I did like the music on the way round, also appreciated the nice old open-top Routemaster bus, but couldn't they have had some cardboard cut-outs of Tower Bridge, the Eye and Big Ben to show the rest of the world what we could/should have been running through? Yes, Wembley arch looked nice lit up but not nearly enough to compensate for the rest of the grim surroundings.
There were no signs to toilets etc. at the finish and the two people holding up handwritten signs directing people to the baggage area and tube stations were clearly an afterthought. To cap off the rather disappointing evening, I wandered around for over an hour trying to find my husband who'd finished about 5 minutes before me - we had arranged to meet at the reunion area which was supposedly on the concourse, but there was nothing there and the stadium was shut. He got directed to the baggage area but as we had no bags to hand in (they had after all done their best to discourage people by saying it was 'limited' so we had taken them at their word, but apparently this was where the Lucozade Sport and Starbucks freebies all were, thanks very much Nike!) I didn't even think to go there. Back up plan was a pub on the Harrow Road, but by the time hubby got there I'd given up and been walking backwards and forwards to where we'd parked the car about a mile away - twice! Great on aching legs and I was freezing/desperate for the loo by then. Got home at midnight, despite living in North London and only taking just over an hour for the run.
I have no illusions about these events being a Nike publicity stunt, but this was very poor compared to their usual standard and I would not do this run again unless we receive an explanation for why this was.
There was one funny moment during Moby's set, for some reason Wave 1 thought we were about to go (ha!) and so we all simultaneously turned our backs on him and walked to the back of the stadium. Well, he deserves it, for being such a talentless droning waste of time.
Course could have been a lot better too. I wonder if the aim was to keep people in sight of the stadium at all times. Too many sharp turns and bottlenecks - my time was actually 2 minutes slower than North vs South which was disappointing. Nice t-shirts tho'.
Was anybody else impressed with Taipei's results?
While we were in the stadium they announced that their average time was something like 46.16, and that London therefore needed 46'15'' to end up in first place. 46 minutes?? that's seriously impressive, almost suspiciously so...
Well, i just checked the website, and i guess that there were some issues with their timings which have now been rectified, because it now says that their average time was 1:12'05
In fact, London is right up there in 2nd place, with only Madrid ahead of us.
It's really interesting to read all the comments from participants and then read the Nike website's version of events.
That probably tells you all you need to know about this kind of rip-off pap.
I feel very sorry for people that wasted time and money entering. It's also really embarrassing that Paula Radcliffe and Lord Sebastian were so positive about the event - I bet it's just the sort of thing that would have enthused young Seb in his early days. Not.
I have loved Nike events in the past and I'm a fan of their products, but this has left me questioning their whole approach to runners. They are trying to save face and have such a ridiculously overly corporate and political stance on this that it's made me feel cheated. I actually had a great day, but thought it only right that Nike realise that they got this one wrong and for the money paid, it was only right we had a right to reply.
Hope they do the right thing, own up to the mistakes and win us back, otherwise I fear that this great concept will go to waste and they'll notice their running departments significantly quieter.
i think the race organisers think big is best because the big races attract runners like me...beginners. i would imagine that there are far more many beginners than seasoned runners, therefore more money to be had in entrance fees. i would never dream of entering a race that attracted only 300 runners, mainly due to my inexperience and high probablity of coming last!
maybe one day when i have improved i will be brave enough to take part in smaller races, for now i'll stick to the races where I know I am capable of at least running past a few people!
oh...and don't forget, corporate machines like Nike want to maximise their logo/brand exposure so big is always going to best with them. out of interest, do they ever sponsor small, quiet, rarely publicised, localised running events?
Hey people, quick question. did the text message time correspond to the time up on the website?? just wondering as a couple of guys said there's was different, but i'm doubting it, hopefully you maybe able to clear it up.
thanks...
Lisa, I agree - I would just like an explanation/apology and I'm disgusted by the hype which is now in the News Blog bit of the NikePlus Human Race website for the London race (so far removed from reality, I'm beginning to think they're on Planet Reebok!) Actually the two shirts did offer fair value for money (if you wanted another Nike shirt!) but that's really not the point - I'm disgusted that they are trying to silence people who are just recounting their experiences.
I've just read something on the Nike forums, apparently Nike "took the decision" to give us another t-shirt instead of a medal.
Nike, if you're reading this, you SAID you would give us a medal. What arrogance to 'take a decision' and not even bother to tell us.
I wish I could have 'taken the decision' to pay for my entry into the run with a pile of dog poo instead of £30.
I gotta say that I prefer another shirt, that I can actually use, to a medal to chuck in the drawer with all the others. So well done Nike, you did get something right after all
Next time 10am start please, if you must have bands put them on afterwards (so we can go home and not see them), clothing/food/drinks good, carparks and industrial estates bad. There you go, sorted!