Race to the Eye 2013 - LONDON

London's newest charity challenge - Race to the Eye was launched last year in aid of the charity VSO. It's 30km, you choose East or West and it follows the Thames Path - a beautiful, easily accessible and exciting route! Prizes for fastest male, female and best fundraiser. Fundraising is a target and not a "must-do". After Party at Tattershall Castle on the Thames.

Perfect for people training for the Spring Marathons!!!

Enter/find out more info at www.racetotheeye.com

Who's in? Any queries about the race? I can try and help image It's only 4 weeks away so getting excited now!

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Comments

  • so you are charging £20 and £200 to run along the Thames path that people can run through everyday...........and it will be going through pedestrian areas which will be busy so not great for a marathon training plan......would be better to do it 6 am in the morning when its quiet and so not having to avoid all the people..........

    why do you think think it would make a good training race for a marathon........image

  • Seren - are you not tempted by the 100-step climb up and down the Greenwich foot tunnel?  image

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    So in addition to all the tourists, cyclists, in-line-skaters, dog-walkers and regular runners on the Thames path, there will be (how many?) additional runners, not even all going in the same direction?

    Sounds like a hoot.

     

  • How does it cost £20 per runner to put this on? There are no marshals or water except at half way, and the t-shirt would cost next to nothing to produce in bulk. The Thames Path is free so where is the money going?

    I run the Thames Path a lot and it is a nightmare most days, especially around the London Eye...there will be carnage image

    I think the £200 sponsorship will be a stretch for many as well, especially if they are already fundraising for VLM.

    Not to put a downer on it, but I can think of better pre-VLM events than this.

  • Thanks for the interest Seren - I imagine you'd say the same about London Marathon/the Thames Path Challenge/the Royal Parks Half Mara/pretty much any race that is held in public areas as opposed to private! As you can imagine, to corden off 60km of London footpath for a day is not feasible...

    Just like any race - you're paying to race against people, have a route provided (including electronic map for this event - something new!), be in the running for a prize, have first aiders on hand, to be timed, have water points and get into the good atmosphere! The £200 is a fundraising target for the charity VSO - this is not compulsory but is a reachable target. The concept is that you put yourself through a challenge in return for sponsorship for a good cause.

    In terms of training for a marathon- depending on your training regime obviously, but it's around the time most people will be up to about 18 miles if they're getting ready for an April 26.2... so perfect timing and on similar terrain to the big city marathons image

  • if you are training for a marathon then 18 miles is not a challenge....and if you are racing it then you need to be able to have  aclear path............at least in london all the runners are going the same way and the public are not allowed on the road.......

    most races i do pick a time or a route where there are not many public people so that you can race it........

    if you were organising a charity walk i could understand the route and the challenge,.........

    but as a running race it just doesn't make sense to me....

     good luck with the fundraising

  • Victoria probably not the responce you were looking for eh.

    Anyhoo are there not rules on the RW T&C's about advertising races.

     

  • Freemers wrote (see)

    How does it cost £20 per runner to put this on? There are no marshals or water except at half way, and the t-shirt would cost next to nothing to produce in bulk. The Thames Path is free so where is the money going?

    I run the Thames Path a lot and it is a nightmare most days, especially around the London Eye...there will be carnage image

    I think the £200 sponsorship will be a stretch for many as well, especially if they are already fundraising for VLM.

    Not to put a downer on it, but I can think of better pre-VLM events than this.

    Hi Freemers - any profit made will go to the charity - this allows the charity to put the race on if people don't reach their fundraising targets.

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    PhilPub wrote (see)

    Seren - are you not tempted by the 100-step climb up and down the Greenwich foot tunnel?  image

    Has anyone done a a risk assessment on this?

  • They do manage to cordon off the London marathon course....



    An electronic map..... How about following the river ?



    Some of us are already hitting 20 milers ready for our 26.2 in April
  • Wilkie wrote (see)

    So in addition to all the tourists, cyclists, in-line-skaters, dog-walkers and regular runners on the Thames path, there will be (how many?) additional runners, not even all going in the same direction?

    Sounds like a hoot.

     

     

    Agree sounds like an absolute bloody nightmare to me!

    Seriously, this is a terrible, terrible idea. How many participants do you expect to get, because if it's more than about 40 on each side of the river there are going to be a lot of pissed off people. 

  • its only 4 weeks to go so i would have thought most runners would have chosen their spring races by now.......and would not want the responsibility of fund raising........

    I love the idea of new and different races to add to the calender........so will be happy to be proved wrong that this doesn't seem to have been oprganised by someone who runs

  • Great to see so many positive runners out there! Have sent this to the event organisers so will see what they can do about the constructive feedback provided.

    Did any of you actually do it last year? I really enjoyed it - doing something good for charity and running in a nice place - met some other runners, and it was whilst I was training for 8 marathons in 8 days in April so it was good timing. Was hoping to find some other people going along again this year.

    So going back to the original question... who is IN? Think there is also a walk that starts in the morning if anyone in for that too?

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    You didn't pick the best place to advertise (which you are not supposed to do on the forum in any case).  Many people who post here are more than a bit fed up with charity events and charities taking up places in popular events.

    However, to answer your question, then - not me.  If you are interested in WHY runners might not find this event appealing, then take some notice of what you appear to think is non-constructive feedback.

    Too many people milling about on the 'course', going in different directions, not moving at all, etc., dogs getting excited by runners, pulling on those long extending leads.  A race course should at least have everyone going in the same direction, and moving.

    The foot tunnel steps sounds like a real nightmare - my question about the risk analysis is a serious one!

     

  • 42 k of London gets cordoned off for VLM



    Why do I need a map to follow the river, plus of course to follow said map I need to carry some sort of gadget



    Bet the users of the Greenwich foot tunnel are over the moon over this



    What be entering, and seriously unexcited
  • as I said .it suits a walking event brilliantly.......as for a training event.......training to race a marathon is much different to training to run 8 in 8.........I take it you didn't run flat out for any of your 8 marathons that you did.no doubt you ran then a bit easier than you would a single on to pace you for the 8.......

    so your training run would be a world apart from someone training for a marathon which they intend to race.....

    i take it that a lot of runners must have the same opinions as us or you would  not be trying to do some last minute desperate advertising on this forum.....

  • Wilkie's quite right 8in8 it might not seem like constructive criticism but it is.

    I'm sorry to break it to you but what attracts most runners to a race, any race, is not the scenery but the practicalities - how easy will it be to get there/get home? Will there be enough toilets? Will the course be able to cope with a big field because if congestion gets in the way of a PB I might not bother? Will there be enough water stations with enough water if it's warm? Where will my supporters be able to see me on the route? What are the changing/bag storage facilities like? How long will it take me to collect my stuff afterwards? With respect, your website doesn't address any of that.

    And then you have a race which seems to be positively inviting collisions with other runners, cyclists, dogs, prams, pedestrians, skaters, you name it.

    And on top of that you expect runners to raise £200 running a course that most Londoners have access to, for free, all the time.

    Can you really not see why hundreds of people are not begging to sign up? 

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    The words "charity challenge" "fundraising target" put me off instantly. If you read a lot of threads on here there are lots of people who think that charity races are taking over the sport.

    You did ask for the opinions of Runners and many people are giving you theirs from a running perspective.
  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Everything that screamy says...



    Just FYI - they've run 2 marathons in the Greenwich foot tunnel before but they've had a lot of issues running it last year for the 100 year anniversary.
  • I'm in - looking forward to it!  It's for a good cause and personally will be a bit of a challenge. 

    I'm guessing some of you guys will be a bit more hardcore but if you don't want to put off a load of people who want to get more into the sport, by taking part in events like this, then might be worth thinking a bit more about your comments! 

    Hope to see some of you there

  • I post and it has to be in support !!!

    Wow Did you get a free entry ?

  • You seem to have joined the Forum just to post your comment Roland100 - did you think no-one would notice?

    And I'm not hardcore, I just appreciate a decent standard of organisation - as do all runners. 

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Hang on Roland, the OP advertised it as good prep for spring marathons. Most of the runners will already be up to 20 mile runs by then so of course we may be more "hardcore"
  • Awful event ,im voting with my pocket. Im out

  • I spend a fair amount of time traipsing through the Greenwich foot tunnel (it's between me and the nearest shops) and what's going to add to the fun even more is that since last year they've put in two sets of zigzag barriers to stop cyclists whizzing through the tunnel. Remind me to be somewhere else that day...
  • I've already registered for the Finchley 20 which is on the same day and has a limit of 700 runners. It's also in the London area and a good training race for London.
  • I think that all the criticism will be unfounded and the race will be a roaring success for the half a dozen people that do it.

    Can't find any reviews online of anyone doing it last year which suggests not many people did - have a look at 

    Race to the Eye 2012

    ..for an idea of the grand scale of this one.

    Why? Everything that all the experienced runners have said so far on this thread I would guess.

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Is it like race for life? Didn't see many men , if any, in the pictures.
  • Running Rodent wrote (see)
    I spend a fair amount of time traipsing through the Greenwich foot tunnel (it's between me and the nearest shops) and what's going to add to the fun even more is that since last year they've put in two sets of zigzag barriers to stop cyclists whizzing through the tunnel. Remind me to be somewhere else that day...


    Seriously, I take in the foot tunnel twice a day for commuting, not to mention a run or two each week, and using it to stage a race route strikes me as being a shockingly bad idea.  There's a reason it's one-way even to PEDESTRIANS on London Marathon day!

    Slowkoala wrote (see)
    I've already registered for the Finchley 20 which is on the same day and has a limit of 700 runners. It's also in the London area and a good training race for London.


    +1.  Me too!  (etc...)  image

  • Roland.....................an 18 mile race is not the event to get people into running with 4 weeks to go.....that would be most irresponsible if you think the organisers are trying to get people to go from nothing to running 18 miles in 4 weeks...........

     this is a fun fundriser which is great for walkers..............but sdvertising it as a great training run for the spring marathons is irresponsible as it is not infact that at all.......

    maybe next time you should try and advertise it for what it is and you might get more interested parties........make it a fun run/ walk.....buit don't try tell us its a race

     

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