The Carsington Water Half Marathon & 10K Weekend

Really enjoyed this challenging race around beautiful scenery. Firm trails but I was fine in road shoes. Friendly marshals and fellow runners!

3rd time doing the 10K here (not quite brave enough for the half yet) - fantastic atmosphere, but logistically needs improving for safety reasons.
First time i did this course they took us out 2km by bus and we ran the remaining 10km round, really enjoyed that course and was generally fantastic organisation without any safety risks with runners running both ways, but last 2 years has been out 5km and back 5km from visitor centre - doesnt make very good use of the excellent scenery, but does make the course more challenging in my opinion (good or bad, I suppose!). Agree with other reviews - the start was very unorganised, and weird with runners coming from various angles to squeeze through gaps, quite risky, and the 90 degree turn for the finish was pretty dangerous when you've got people sprinting the finish, caught a few people out around me and I almost crashed into the runner in front as she stopped not realising. Also echo what someone else said, assumed it was my GPS watch but it didnt reach 10K (300m short) - not an issue but thought worth mentioning in case its a wider thing rather than my watch having a bad day! Overall a challenging course and beautiful scenery, would run again because I like the area and the atmosphere (GREAT encouragement from marshalls!!), just needs refining logistically!

Beautiful but brutal course, definitely a challenge and not a PB course - the wind across the damn was brutal, I thought I was going to end up in the water for a while. Needed more marshalls around the course as other than at the water stations there were very few, you'd have had to walk a long time to find one if you needed assistance. A great event to do and tick off the bucket list, but not much to draw you back year after year.

Organised really well. Tough course with the weather not the best. Good value for money and worth the trip down to run.

It was my second year at this event and I really enjoyed it (despite my below comments) thanks for putting this event on.
Just a bit of constructive feedback, as mentioned, I did enjoy this event but I have done a fair few events and I do hope my below comments help make this event even better in the future :) ....

I know carsington quite well and appreciate it isnt perfect for creating a big start line, but this years start was poor, everyone around me (including me) was completely confused as to what was happening and where we were supposed to be starting from, it was just a bum fight when the very bizarre start happened, no starting gun, no big countdown, just a very quiet and strange "3,2,1 go" over the mic.

Secondly, the finish again this year just baffled me and everyone else I spoke to, none of us could work out why the finish line was on a corner? Why wouldnt you have it on the path and then allow finishers to turn left, after they have crossed the mat, to collect medals etc. In the finishers area there was little to no staff there and after being thrown a medal I was unsure what I was able to take from the food and drink piles.

At the start, runners head off into the car park and then funneled through a timber open gate / style / path entrance, I remember last year there was a problem with this and again this year there was a complete bottle neck and confusion around whether we should be going through this and down the path or just down the road, it literally makes no difference to distance and so am unsure why Marshall's were trying to get a few hundred runners through a tiny gap and causing mayhem.

Finally (sorry), both this year and last the course seems to have been below half marathon distance, all of the group I was with, plus a number of competitors compared distances recorded on watches and none of us had it at the full distance (averaged about 200 yards short).

Great course, enjoyed it. Maybe next year, start the 10k about 10 min before the 1/2 to ease congestion and possibly try to arrange a deal with the parking as £5 was a bit steep especially as you had to pay with coins and not a card.

Well organized , great course , great scenery great atmosphere , really enjoyed the run, the only thing I could fault was having to pay£5 parking otherwise a great day 😁

Have done this race the last 4 years. It is very good. Well organised with a great atmosphere.
What I think could make it better is if the half marathon started 15 minutes before the 10K. Easy enough to organise I would think. Half marathon starts at 09.30, the 10K at 09.45. Reduces crowding and helps get better times.

This was my 8th half and my favourite! The support of the team and other runners is unlike any before- I loved it! Thank you to Nice Work for a great event!

Enjoyed it and was great to win a team trophy at the end. Only thing I would change is stagger 10k/half marathon starts as was very busy for first mile.