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Manchester Marathon 2016
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Nose Nowt - The course length certification I found was from the Manchester Marathon website and it is for this year, not last year. It's just that it is dated 15 October 2015 when the finish was supposed to be at MUFC. They only changed it to the cricket ground in late January.
I'm just hoping that they did things properly in the background I don't know the procedures for course amendments, but maybe they got some amendment documentation in the background that adapts the original certification on the website. Hopefully!
How odd. I just checked out my photos (they're up now, btw) and they have me at the finish holding the hand of a random guy in a Macmillan shirt. I have absolutely no recollection of this happening! Maybe I looked as though I was about to keel over and he grabbed hold of me. It's all a blur!
Legs are incredibly sore still. Managed a 3 mile walk today in the sunshine and I can walk normally but stairs are a real problem!
Ran this marathon on Sunday, my first one.
my garmin said the total distance ran was 26.42 miles. I also noticed the 19 and 20 mile markers were only about a half mile apart. So some of the route organisation seemed...odd, to put it politely.
Glad I wasnt one of the poor sods waiting four hours for their bag afterwards.
great crowd support though.
On reflection I have nothing but positive feelings about the whole weekend I spent in Manchester and the marathon itself is certainly one of the best experiences of my life-one I will always treasure as it was my first. I won't be back next year because all roads lead to London but not ruling out doing it again at some point in the future.
This has been a great thread to be involved in and I would like to thank all those who have been contributing regularly for many months (you know who you are!)as you have really inspired, motivated and helped me to achieve my goal for the race.
First recovery run of 4 miles done this evening and certainly helped with loosening up my rather sore legs.
Hope everyone recovers well and good luck with future targets. Anyone doing Abingdon in October?
I wish i could do a recovery run, but my legs hurt too much, i struggle even walking at the moment, stairs are nightmare, Give it a couple of days i will be out there again training for the Manchester 10km.
Glad you popped up JJ-you have been so helpful to many on here with your local knowledge. Thanks for being the "Godfather" of the thread.
hahaha, i wouldn't say that, but it has been a pleasure to help where i can.
Must say I'm with Tom, regardless of all the issues we're discussing, it was an incredible day in my mind and will be cherished forever. And great thanks for all the local knowledge guys.
Also got out on the track tonight, I think feeling better than expected due to my other issues not allowing myself to go 100% on Sunday, hit 12 x 400m in 67-69s, which actually felt really good.
Next 'proper' marathon (i.e., not winding trail somewhere in Surrey) will be Warsaw on 25th September for me. Before then it's a 100 miler in 3 weeks and a summer trying to pound the track into letting me run fast!
Just been reading back a bit and couldn't help chipping in possibly for the last time on here - I'd agree with Tom13 above, the positives far outweigh the negatives on this one, even though I didn't hit my targets and waited 90mins for my bag - it was a fantastic experience. The supporters really made this event, course was good too, perfect mix of town, city and a little bit of countryside (tailwind thankfully!).
Going to rest up properly now and get ready for the shorter club stuff this summer which starts with a little 7k race in about a month's time...perfect.
Also, Tom13, Abingdon would be a good one for you (it's my local marathon - did it a couple of years ago). It's fast and fairly flat (same as Manchester) with a couple of quirks to make it interesting. I think that'll be my next one too, in 2017. It's got a strong club vibe for about 1200 runners. You'll have good company with the speed you can run. Don't expect anything like the support in Manchester, there's no comparison.
JJ8 - you have been a star.
Jack Brotchie - good luck with that 100 miler! I did a 100k last year - just keep moving forward...
The photos are up, won't be getting any, but I would defo consider doing Manchester again.
Nice to see a positive turn in the thread. For sure, criticism is needed where it's due, to hopefully stop the disastrous organisational issues from happening again. But for me personally, it was all good. I was lucky enough to not have a single bad experience... and I thought the atmosphere was better this year than last. Also, I preferred the finish up the wide road. And also, I got a massive pb!
Well I had a great day, I ran 26.32 miles on my Garmin which will not be as accurate as a wheel, that the UK athletics have measured. How did runners go on years ago before garmins? I thought the crowd was brilliant, I finished average pace 6.25 which is low 2.48, and my finish time was 2.48. Course was bang on to me, which i expected. How many would be moaning if it was .2 short? non haha.
Plus i would recommend this marathon to anyone, Great day. loved it
Tom - I'm with you also, I've definitely come away from the weekend with positive feelings, probably mostly because I was happy with how I ran. I can't see I'll be back though and wouldn't recommend it or any other event run by the same mob. I really hope they improve things next year, with the fast course and great crowd support they have everything they need to make a top race.
Despite the issues mentioned it was only really the baggage drop I had serious complaints about. The other points such as the start line, bottle necks, mile markers and so on can easily be rectified. The support on the course was absolutely phenomenal in places and I loved racing in such a tight close knit environment, the atmosphere on the long straight down to Altrincham was electric.
I was quite fortunate that I travelled to Manchester alone in the morning and got there really early. Parked easily on a neighbouring street free of charge too - the official parking was over priced for a start. I did feel being by myself did help as whereas I've had the family in tow in the past this time I was able to go and find the portaloo's, drop bag off etc all relatively quickly and easily.
Other plus points were the water and gel stations and the medal. (Although the t shirt is a little too figure hugging if anyone wants to swap a L for a XL!).
If they can assure lessons have been learnt I'd be happy to give it another go next year. Let's see what sort of discount they offer too - I'm expecting entry for this years runners to be around ??30.
ha - brilliant - good one CSMLFC
CSMLFC
lol
Hi all.
I thought race day was really good. We had a bit of an issue parking because of the lack of diversion signs, but pulled into the MUFC car park with ten minutes to spare. We were in N2 which had all of three other cars in it (I think everybody else had given up or gone into another MUFC car park).
Because I was late I left my bag with my other half and headed to the portaloos near the start line. The klaxon went off before I got into a loo, but I wasn't too fussed, there was a massive queue of people to cross the start line and it's the chip time that matters. I joined the pack with a chap hoping for a sub-4 time so I wasn't too out of position (aiming for a 3:30) and when we eventually crossed what looked like a start line I hit go on the watch.
The run went well for my first attempt at a marathon, only getting cramp at 38km. I finished in 3:31:52, which I'm happy with.
Then I saw the email from Xtra Mile and thought I'd see what the commotion was about. I am so glad we got there too late for me to use the baggage drop! It sounds like they had a bit of a disaster there!
Oh, and what do others think of their photos? The best two of me have cut off my head! (Some might say that's why they're the best two!)
I also wanted thank everyone on the thread for some great chat and support over that last few months on the road to Manchester. Has been very enjoyable and motivating to have people on the same journey.
i to had a great day as was lucky that much circumstances allowed me to side step a lot of the major issues. Not dropping bag and staying in hotel 5 minutes from start really helped with that. There are things that need addressing and hope they get them right for next year, especially as I maybe back as Mrs S has championship time for London and after a great run my mum has GFA in her first marathon at 68.
just read this about Paris and which made me think about the Manchester course length complaints. Sorry guys but GPS just is not accurate!
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/general-running/paris-marathon-appears-to-be-long/320988.html
OK, maybe I've got too much time on my hands but I did a quick search on Strava for people's GPS traces of the Paris Marathon route. At a quick glance, the most popular "distance" to the nearest decimal place appears to be 26.3 Quite a few 26.4, a few hits ranging from 26.5 - 26.8 and the odd 26.2 (well done!)
£35 entry for next year by way of apology.That's good enough for me to enter again and give them another try.
£35 might turn out to be very good value as they may well make a big effort to ensure that all the problems are well and truly sorted next year. You certainly hope that would be the case anyway.
I'll enter it again for £35 no worries. Brilliant course and support - bargain. You can bet the organisers will do everything they can to get everything right in 2017.
I will be back for £35, apart from the minimal annoyance with the mile markers nothing else effected my race. Had a great weekend with the family. Now hope they can get a good date for the race.
Planning first recovery run tomorrow - stil feel worn out
Well, since I have friends there, I can opt to leave my bag with them, so it's tempting actually. I thought the race was great in terms of crowd support, water/gel stations and marshalls. It was just the end - the lack of blankets, the bag cock-ups and general chaos.