Exeter City 10k

This is a family friendly route with stunning scenery along the river. Although it is a flat route, there was barely any room with returning runners looping back on the same side of the pavement, as well as cyclists and dog walkers. The organisation was absolutely terrible. Half of us were told in our confirmation emails the start time was 10am, while the other half were told 10:30am. I arrived at 9:55 hoping to warm up and meet my family before a 10:30 start. At 9:58am I was told that the race starts in 2 minutes! I had to rush to the start line where a few hundred of us squeezed onto a muddy grass area to start. On our arrival back to the finish line, we had to search for the medal collection area (that was also poorly organised) where the bloke dropped my medal into the mud before handing it to me (with no apology). Further, when my family arrived closer to 10:30 (as expected) they politely asked where the start line was to be told that 'it doesn't matter, they'll be on their way back by now!". I would still recommend the route (easy for beginners), and hope that the poor organisation was a one-off!

I don't wish to be unfair, it can't be easy to set up a race like this and it is all too easy to criticise from afar in complete anonymity .. First, I enjoyed my run - I usually do and that is why I race, however I was disappointed for a number of reasons... Race numbers were not posted in advance, we had to queue for them in a quite chaotic way inside the climbing centre pre-race. This is time I want to spend preparing for my run. The race route was changed only a week before the event with no route map made available so I was unable to plan my run. There were no additional toilets at the venue so the inevitable queues for the loos were lengthy. The route itself took place on the canal/river path in a double loop. The path itself was narrow and the out lap and return lap was on the same path so the situation emerged that there were runners on the return leg running against runners on their out lap and on the second loop this included runners being lapped as well as the general public/bikes/dogs/prams and the whole thing became very congested for a short period - inevitably this affected finishing times. The race medal was generic, cheap looking, and not branded for the specific event as was the t shirt which was a cotton tee and not a commemorative tech shirt. The published results did not specify categories so I don't know how I got on in comparison to others in mybage group. The most laughable bit for me was I received an email 5 days before the event congratulating me on my run!! Like I said at the start of this, it can't be easy to set these things up, but my message to the organisers is - you could have done better. Thanks anyway.

flat course all the way and in a lovely setting but was a bit of a bun fight at times when there were two overlapping runner groups, cyclists and dog walkers all trying to use the same narrow paths.

Completely flat route, no hills at all. Runs along the river and back twice. Sad to see it was still open to cyclists and walkers with dogs on leads, and there was a lot of them!! Cyclists constantly cut me up and I was shouted at a few times to move. With runners running in both directions on a narrow canal path there simply isnt room for cyclists and walkers too. A real shame. I wont be doing this race again.

Was a friendly race. Check in was a bit chaotic and not enough toilets for that Pre-race wee!Limited signage for bag drop and race director could have done with a megaphone. Also would have been useful for the start line up to have been staggered so the faster runners were at the front.Medals were a bit naff and could have done with more drink stations.But there were plenty of marshals which is always a good thing

Good trail run, cold on the day but the hills soon warmed you up.