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Two2go Lea Valley Trail Marathon
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Ah well, I guess sometimes things go wrong.
Thanks for all the chat guys and gals, it made the whole experience more fun. Hope you all got what you were looking for, and that you managed to avoid getting too lost.
Agree about the finish. I think it didn't get the expected support judging by the marshalls being Hackney kids shipped up. Saying that I thoguht all the marshalls were very nice, one chap was very chatty and enthuiastic.
The question of would I do it again? Well like ORB it is local so probably yes. I heard people at the finish complaining about the long straights with no view, but I enjoyed the narrow boats with cats, the fishermen, and the friendly rowers.
Thanks to the Marshalls who were there doing a great job
But shocking on course organisation. far far too few marshalls and very poor signage
Pity as could be a great race with nice scenary and wind permitting great times possible
I'd really like to say I'd do it again but I'm not sure given the complete mess at several points.
I DID IT !
*CONGRATULATIONS* To all those who got round, in whatever time, style or even distance. Well Done!
It did Blow, but not so bad . It did Rain but not that much. Infact it went much better than I had hopped ( this isn't unusual for me) even a rather remarkable touch of sun burn by the end! I, unusually didn't get lost and ran 26.29 according too my Garmin. Perhaps the the somewhat "excentric" course could be viewed as a test, of errr... somthing. Especially the obstalce course section on the waterworks loop, just what my tired legs an mind needed 24.7 miles round.
Oh and the medal is rather mingey, that won't be at the front of the collection for long. Ok the organisers are clearly not German but these things do take a lot of work to stage and to all those who made today happen I say "thanx".
Same again nexr year?
Was standing with my friend Kaz at the finish and we hard one of the marshalls saying that 30 runners went the wrong way. If you went the right way the course was the correct distance.
I was in a group of about 30 people that went the wrong way because a arrow was pointing the wrong way, it was at 13k where there was supposed to be a water station, what happened is that after we turned round and came back we bumped into the marshall who got there late and he told us the right way to go . I'm not saying the course was the wrong distance , but the extra couple of Ks that i ran were'nt my fault and do feel i have a right to be a little bit frustrated, after all my chances of a PB went out the window at that point and the latter part of the marathon became very hard,
I know it's tough to organise these events, and I'm more frustrated/angry/annoyed at life than at the organisers. It was such a shame, because where they'd put down the arrows on the ground it was pretty easy to follow. While one or two people might miss arrows on the ground, there's no way thirty in a row are going to (especially since we were stretched out with 10-20s between runners I'd say, and I spent most of my time looking for arrows).
Oh, and I *almost* converted the course to GPS waypoints and uploaded them to my Garmin, but then decided I couldn't be bothered. More fool me.
Back to shorter distances for me, but I might be tempted to run this again next year, but only after practising the middle of the course in training! That's another thing I was going to do, but didn't.
Wait a second - what am I saying? I have no intention of running another marathon in a very long time.
Evening all
First of all a big thanks to Supergirl Pam - she helped me through it. I have had training problems due to various reasons but we got each other to the end. Lovely lady.
We were last to finish but I don't think we should have been. There were two ladies behind us (quite a long way behind us) but when we got to one of the water stations, we were told they had gone through a long time before us............. Looks like they missed a loop.
Also, as we came on the the marshes, the colour of the arrows changed colour which we found very confusing. We had been following bright orange arrows and suddenly there were yellow ones. Luckily someone came along and pointed us in the right direction.
But I had a great day. And once again, massive thanks to Pam
I'm kind of treating this one as a work in progress, by the time we get to one2go or possibly gone the race might work properly.
There are good elements and it's mainly one wrongly pointing arrow that caused much of the chaos. I don't have a problem with the marshalling, it always varies from race to race, it's hard to get volunteers (how many of us really do it regularly?) and I hope it's a good experience for them too.
I still find some of the canal hard work but the finish is nice and sociable. I'd have liked to get the time I was aiming for but I'm more upset I appear to have missed out on a free compensatory beer
.
Roobarb,
Thanks very much but you helped me as much as I helped you! Hope we meet again somewhere.
Have a good time in Scotland and enjoy Loch Ness Marathon.
Every year there have been problems with this race which is a pity because it could be a great event.
Hopefully they will get it right next year (I think we have said that before)
It was great to see Mike Gratton (former London Marathon winner) waiting to see Roobarb and I finish. Thanks Mike.
Perhaps Mike should take over the running of this event (via his 209 Events) as the organisation was shocking.
I was in a small group of people that went the wrong way because another group of people that had gone the wrong way where standing in front of the sign point us the right way. Not the organisers fault. Other than that I had no problems following the route but agree the change of colour of the ground arrows was confusing. They should have put some signs up, like they do at Steyning, that say Not This Way so you know when you have gone wrong.
I liked the route bar the stupid loop around the reed bed thing and the pointless run down the tow path and turn around thing. They could have removed both of these be getting us to run around the outside of the football pitches.
Quick list of complaints from my point of view:-
How about next year moving the start up the river a bit? I have run the Hertford to Pickets lock section a couple of times and I am sure there is a big sports field or park a couple of miles north of the start. Would cut out some of the loops.
Hi to all,
Hope you all had a good run. My comments are:-
Very friendly race (Marshalls and most of all fellow runners).
The start: Location not suitable too small, complete lack of organisation with the tent in the way and having to leave the premises to drop of my bag in the coach which was not supervised to ensure "secure bagage" status claimed! Why the route included going over the station bridge was very surprising as quoted by JJ especially as the half hourly train service in each direction arrive roughly at the same time 1017 and 1020, we must have had a good 8 minutes before the gates would have been lowered and if there was a late train we could have been switched to the bridge.
Being held for nearly a minute to cross a small road bridge after about 20 minutes was also dissapointing. The route for the first 12k was very picture perfect (nice and green and peaceful along the towpath).
Why, why, why the complicated zig zagging around Cheshunt / Waltham X??? I too got lost because of the sign after a longish bridge was firmly fixed point right and the route was to go right. This knocked me off my stride for some time (also missing water station at around 13k (why did we not get atleast a tip off that there may have been a missing water station then we could have worked around it.
What was the balancing act about in the old industrail part of the course along with the silly turnback at the end????? A large lap of the football field would have been better.
The finish line area I thought was okay (yes low key for a Marathon) but nice that there was food, drink and entertainment for all at the finish. The medal was very mickey mouse - two 2 go you should be ashemed of the cheapness, I am sure some first time Marathon runners would have been very dissapointed.
Organises should consider stretching the course out to start say at Hertford East? This race has got a reputation for getting people lost (I took the wrong route twice!). In my 70+ previous races I have never taken the wrong route or got lost so something is wrong here. I am writing this to hope that the organises learn from the feedback. The course is a nice scenic route. Pitty about the strong head wind which I will not blame the organises for
.
p.s. The number of runners that went the wrong way would be 50+, possibly alot more given this direction arrow. I understand from a runner who was some way behind me that this was still pointing the wrong way later (even after the marshall turned up).
Oops. I meant the sign pointed right, but the route was to the left (at around 13k ish).
signed
Victor Meldrew
Could even start further back and cut out the silly looping totally.
OTR - that was the sign that got me. I looped around a second time and so although the water station wasn't out the first time I stopped the second time I passed it to get some water.
Talking of water, bottles with caps don't work. Sucky tops far better.
I agree with Bob. I hope the organisers don't lose heart because this has the potential to be a great event. It's a scenic route (considering it's a race ending in London), I think the loops in the middle are actually pretty nice (from what I saw of them!), you end up next to the Olympic station and it's a flat course so has great potential for a PB.
To defend against some of the criticisms: the tent in the way was bad luck - and probably little they could do about it (and did it *really* things that much?). The railway crossing was a risk assessment/health and safety thing: you can blame them for choosing the route, but in this day and age you can't run a race across a "live" line even if it's half an hour before and after a train. The lack of toilets: actually there *was* a second set, but they weren't well sign posted unfortunately.
Oh, and about the "it's a knockout course", while I was in bad shape at that point and not really appreciating it, it was actually quite cool to run through something so strange. Anyone know what it is/was?
In spite of my protestations about not wanting to run a marathon for a very long time, I can't help but feel I'll be back next year... but I'll learn the route first