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Brighton Marathon 2016
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Here's another one unprepared for the sun, and now most definitely suffering for it. It was a bit burny out there.
Jason & OnTheBeach - glad you both enjoyed your first marathons, and now you know what's coming you'll be better equipped to deal with those pesky last few miles...or that's the idea, anyway.
Cracking day for me, achieving my 'silver' target I set myself several pages back here with a 3:09, and an 11 minute PB. Did slow a bit towards the end, but held it together pretty well. Very pleased.
I managed 3:51 well done everyone. Pleased that my calf held together. The last 6 miles were horrendous i just kept telling myself to put one root in front of the other.
for what its worth i thought the organisation was atrocious, from the expo queues, running out of pen spaces, the bag size, the loos, the quagmire at the start, the water station, cups ffs, the finish line made it impossible to get back to Brighton. After the finish volumteers were basically telling finishers to get out of the pen. There was a thin long walk which was totally blocked and took forever. There was one extra train out on which just went to hove which then only allowed the hext train from brighton to come along. The medals are cheap too.
i thought the support was amazing, the number of people with oranges was fantastic, the people of brighton were brilliant shame the race organisers were not. i suspect brighton are trying to milk the event for every last drop of profit out if it rather than actually putting on a quality event.
Had a great time but I have to agree with Richard above. Also I saw on my app that the 6:35 out of victoria got cancelled? No idea what people planning to catch that would have done. Glad I made a last minute decision to drive to Haywards Heath although there was standing room only on the tran (and very little of it),
First marathon, 03:50:05. The last 6 miles felt harder than the first 20
Great day despite the organisation at times. Now sunburnt and tired!
Slow walk to the start found my self a nice sunny spot to by 8am plenty of time to chill out.excellent water stations the cups did take of getting use to but not a issue as there was plenty, only used 2 gels my self seem to work for me 1 at 11 miles other at 17, actually ran a negative split marathon by about 4 seconds great feeling ran average 7:03 pace giving me new pb 3:05.16 happy days !!
First time I've run a marathon, so I've not to much to compare with. I thought the only let down was the toilets and signage at the start....huge waits and poor signage to show that the urinals were theother side of cubicles. I missed my red start and didn't have a great warm up but hey ho.
Drink stations were fine and I don't mind cups, less chance of turning a ankle on a discarded cup, support was immense and the fantastic weather caught me out come the 2nd half, although that's partly due to my gunho first half!!
3:32 finish time leaves me lining up another one as I reckon that can come down.
thanks Brighton
Once again Brighton marathon was an amazing day!
As with Jason and others I faded badly on the last 4 miles and didn't get my sub 3:15, but cant complain with limited training. managed 3:22 Well done everyone.
Great day out yesterday, slightly down on my wished for finish but happy with 3:53, was well on track for a faster finish but cramped badly after mile 23 and just couldn't shake it off.
I fully agree with all earlier comments on the poor organisation, if that's the best they can manage then it's a pretty poor show. No where near enough toilets at the start or out on course (loads of people peeing on hedge just before the marina due to lack of facilities), rubbish idea making everyone slog into town to collect their numbers, poor organisation at the end, one bottle of water each only and limited ability to buy more on the beach afterwards, and a dull loop around the harbour towards the end when you really need the support of the crowds.
Come on Brighton surely you can manage better than that shambles! and well done every one who ran.
Mine went horribly wrong, utterly off the rails and way outside target time. Just nothing in me; the sniffles and cough today may have had something to do with it. Today legs hurt and sunburn is bad.
With regards to organisation, the number pick up was messy, but I'd treated myself to hospitality and it was definitely worth it. proper loos, tea and no waiting in pens. But chatting to people i definitely looks like they needed more loos at the start. And by the time I got there there were no water left at finish, or at least what I saw. Spending rest of year on halfs..no thought of marathon yet.
Gorgeous weather, shame about the utter fiasco which was the portaloos. I got into the queue at approx 8.35. I was still in the queue at 9.30, way after the race had started and after my wave (blue) had gone. Honestly, you expect to queue but that was beyond ridiculous. Next year they need more loos and some organisation with the queueing. London can manage it with more runners so I don't buy the "everyone is going to go to the toilet at the same time argument." It's just not acceptable.
In my case, it really spoilt the start of the race. By the time I got through to the start, I was in amongst the yellow runners. Which meant miles 1 and 3 in particular were much slower than I wanted to run because I had to try and get past slower people. I finished in 4:00:23. Those 23 seconds were lost in the first few miles.
It was hillier than I thought it was going to be and there was quite an adverse camber on some of the coastal road past the marina which made it more tiring than it should have been on a flat piece of road.
But the crowd was great, I can't fault the support at all. Bag collection was fine (cf the stories from Manchester the week before). They really could do with improving the exit from the recovery area as it seemed to get really narrow and there were loads of us trying to get to the meet and greet area. I was feeling really rubbish at this point so being crammed in with lots of other people and not moving wasn't great. Once I found my family, we ended up walking along the beach as we couldn't get out by the screen as no-one seemed to be moving.
Water in bottles would be better as I just can't drink from cups whilst moving. However, I know that you are less likely to fall over a cup so it is a difficult choice.
Despite missing the sub-4hrs I thought overall it was a good race so I am tempted to enter next year. I may stump up for the vip tent though to avoid the toilet issue.
Agree with all the comments about the queues. We arrived at the expo and the queue went round three sides of the block.
Ian Miler - you say you should arrive early to have time to use the portaloos. We arrived an hour before the race start and joined the queue immediately. We were in it for fifty minutes. It left ten minutes to go to the bag drop and get to the starting pen - very stressful and meant we completely missed out on the buzz of the start. When we'd done the lap of Preston Park we could see people were still queueing for the loos. Thank goodness for chip times but it would be rubbish to have to start the race so late. And then it took ages to get through the finish to the beach and I was just desperate to get to some more water having finished the bottle they gave me and what was in my kit bag.
So I'm afraid on those three counts it compares very unfavourably to London which has much better organisation. But weather was perfect and crowd support wonderful. Really pleased with my sub 4 and (just) negative split.
I had an awesome time even if I did mess up in not keeping to my plan, hopefully lesson learn't again!!
The loo situation was awful, I arrived early and was able to go easy enough only problem was I needed to go again and the queues where horrific, I struggled with the paper cups but did learn if you pinch the cup you was able to drink some of it, I personally perfer the bottled sports drinks not so keen on the High5 so stuck with water. Loved the support around town with loads of oranges and jelly babies, I could hardly move after and was grateful for the lift to the top to get out even if you had to queue.
When I did my other marthon in 2012 they had bananas at the end I was looking forward to that sadly none.
Don't get me wrong I throughly enjoyed it, I wonder how London cope with the loo situation as they have a larger number of runners, stupidly signed up for next year hopefully I'll run it better
The urinals at Preston Park should've made everything very easy loo-wise: I was straight in and out, and there was plenty free. Either the men all needed a nervous-poo or they were walking around with their eyes shut
My finish line experience was a little different having finished earlier; didn't really find getting out too difficult, but thinking back, it was quite narrow so I can see how it could have bottle-necked. I don't know it logistically they could close off more of the road off towards the East so there's a bit more room - suspect they need a certain amount 'runner free' for any possible emergency services activity.
Incidentally, I got out by going off towards the marina and walking up the steps for a 180 back into town. As I was walking along, someone with red bib was walking along the course at about 11.5 miles...possibly chose the wrong colour at the expo, the poor sod!
The electrolyte tabs were by far the biggest win after the race for me. Two of three of them were mostly gone by the time I got to the pub!
I enjoyed the race. Wasn't too affected by organization problems; no queue to get number at 1.30 Saturday; kit bag just fitted what I wanted (though did have to fix with Sellotape!); got through toilet queue about 9.05 and wanted to start near the back of my pen anyway; mud didn't seem as bad as I'd feared at Preston park. Getting away from finish was a mission. In past I've gone up the steps (as suggested by Meadower) after the half marathon, but I could face those steps on tired legs this time! On hindsight probably would have been easier!
Toilet queues were annoying, especially the number of non running using them shortly before start. Would have been better to have a runners only area or runners only loos before 9.15. Might have eased the wait a bit.
Interesting comments .. I never had any problem getting out at the end and found the village areas buzzing.
Never had the toilet problem as there were no queues at the Withdean start - perhaps they should move some down to Preston area. (men have it easier here).
I cant really think of any gripes except it would be nice to have bottles over cups for drinks.... If that's the worst ... it cant be bad.
But most of all Well done everyone!
Cups wasn't the worst. The water stations were all great and plenty of gels for those who need them. The race itself was good but they could make it easier for the runners to disperse. I was an early finisher so can't imagine how bad it was later on. Those pesky charity villages need moving down and out the way and don't plonk the TV screen near the exit.
Never needed a portaloo.
I ran most of the race near one of the pacers, not obvious at all, just a paper number on the small of her back indicating target time. No flag or balloon.
Flags for pacers are a must otherwise except for the lucky few that happen to stumble across them, there's little point in them being there
I d hoped to follow a pacer but didnt see one at any point whatsoever
I set off and nearly ran into the back of the 3 hour pacers. then they seemed to suddenly up the pace and shoot off. I got to mile one at 6.39 and they were way ahead of me.
I did my first 3 miles at 6:55 and was with the 3:15 pacers who were well ahead of pace - they went past halfway at about 1:34-1:35
I was with the 3.15 pacers at the start line. The race started and they took off. I ran the first 20 miles at Bang on 3.15 pace, going through the half way marker at 1:37:20 and yet I didn't see either of the 3:15 pacers at any point!!
3.15 pacers first mile was 6.50. Sub 3 pace.
Got an email from Brighton Marathon Team today asking to fill in a survey - so i did but i haven't got too many grumbles, but starting from Withdean means i avoided the Preston Park toilet fiasco. I thought music along the route this year was really poor, but crowds made up for it.
If people have complaints then should do the survey.
I almost ran into the back of the 4:15 pacers at about mile 4. The tiny numbers of their back were all but useless unless you were right behind them.
I filled in the survey and mentioned some of the gripes that you've all mentioned. If enough people mention them they'll fix it for next year... not that I'm doing it again