Well organised, a lovely and interesting route and so much support... what a day! Excellent medal too!

Great event for my first one!
The staff (George) was quite helpful as my race pack didn't arrive before the race and they were able to sort out something for me on the day.
A nice festive atmosphere means I will probably travel over again next year from Guernsey for the half marathon.
Thank you guys!

Loved the whole day, my only request would have been water near St Mary's stadium/Itchen bridge. Being so hot I found it a hard going over the bridge & could really have done with some fluids. This is my 3rd year in the half & would definitely say most enjoyable!!

Negatives: marshalling and direction for runners was poor. I twice took a wrong turn (following the marathon route instead of 10k - luckily I was told both times so I didn't lose too much ground) and I hear the lead runner was disqualified having also been caught out. I think 3 distances simultaneously is too much - stick to 2 next year as it is far more manageable.

Postives: the course was good, itchen bridge added a challenge, atmostphere and support was great, bag drop off service very efficient and I enjoyed the goodies and t-shirt at the end.

Great fun, a great atmosphere and support (the jelly baby on the return part of The Bridge was wonderful), hard work (especially the last km - should have had two jelly babies), fantastic T-shirt and medal and very welcome 'beer' at the end. Might even do the Half next year ...

Love the race but I have two main gripes:

1: The usual way round was better, the Itchen bridge is good at the start, warms you up, gives you the cheers and the view. Not so good near the end where you're half dead and then need to run over two hills, but a water station before the bridge would have seen a few more people to the top without walking it.

2. The finish line has always been in an awkward place, round a corner up a hill and out of nowhere. Put it on a straight where we can see it coming and drink in the moment.

Medal and t-shirt are great and the banana and beer are so welcome at the end. Organisation is generally spot-on. The girl giving the warm up talks had the right amount of infectious enthusiasm.

I ran the half and thought it was well organised - It was difficult to get into the right space at the start and it would have been better to have more space between the pacers - I couldn't get to the 1:45 because the start area was too narrow! The route was good but the last water stop was too big a gap between the gel stop given the heat and the bridge! We also took part in the fun run as a family with a 3 and 6 year old which was a shambles to start with. If you are going to put some older children in at the front it would be best to fill up the start area from the back and not let them stand over the start line! Also children get disappointed if you run out of the right sized T-shirts given sizes where asked for at the time of booking. But overall a good day and I'm sure we'll all run again next year

Great local event, please consider not a double loop!

This was only my second half marathon experience, I could not of enjoyed it more and the organisation and support from the crowds was fantastic. I will be back next year (maybe to take on the full one!!)

Great experience.A very well organised event with a brilliant atmosphere.
Was lovely to run through the parks and a big surprise to go through St Mary's stadium .

Fantastic atmosphere, great support all round the course I found. Lovely to see local community out supporting and the support as we went through the university area was full of energy! The names on the numbers worked really well again. I thought the actual start and warm up worked much better this year. The beginning miles were a bit hazardous (before we hit the common)... little roads and pavements meant it got a bit chaotic and saw a few people almost go down. Would be better to use bigger roads in that opening section. St. Marys and the bridge were amazing and scenic - they have to stay! Massive thanks to the pacers as well - they added energy and support round the course and kept me going/ helped me achieve my target! Also a big thanks to all of the marshalls who were fantastic - supporting and making it all work so well. Also one other small issue - with our numbers it said we could get a free coffee at Mettricks and it clearly said that was active 'after we got our race pack', but when i went to get my pre-race coffee the staff said it didn't apply until the next day. I wasnt in the mood to argue and just paid for my coffee but I heard the staff (Guildhall square Mettricks) berate other runners for 'not reading the clear instructions' which I felt was unfair as that's not actually what it said and was unnecessarily rude. They could have put signs up explaining and they could have been understanding. Anyway, didn't spoil the day for me, still had an amazing race day experience overall, but it's small things like that which prevent this from being a 5 out of 5 review. Thanks!

Well run and a race with great communication ref race the day which felt personnel , the course was very good, would say better than last year. The marshalling was 2nd to none having run many races over the years. This race has now replaced the great south in my events to do list having run 2.

Excellent event with fantastic support

Really well organised race through a great course showcasing Southampton's sights. There were a few moments where I struggled but the crowd kept me going!

Absolutely loved taking part in my first half marathon with ABP! The atmosphere was amazing and there was so much support! Would love to take part again next year!

Excellent event. The only issue was the confusion at the start of the 10k when the race started while the warmup was still going on,

Fantastic day!

Great experience

I ran the Marathon and must admit I had my reservations with it being 2 laps as worried it might be a bit repetitive but actually I very much enjoyed and both laps felt completely different and I noticed different things each time.

The only downsides for me were:

1. Having to do the stunning Itchen Bridge twice, once is great but having to do a second time especially at M23 was just painful and many were cursing it!

2. There was confusion at the start as people started their watches (myself included) at the first "arch" but the second "arch" is where it said "Start" - by that point I'd run 0.3miles and at the end my finish time was actually based on 26.5m and not 26.2m - This by all means didn't affect my day as I smashed my PB but may have affected those going for GFA times.

Overall, a fabulous first Marathon, with a lovely Medal, T-Shirt and supportive marshals.

I also highly recommend having pacers for the Marathon next year.

Jo Chamberlain, Basingstoke.

Overall a really great event that brings a lot of support across the city to the runners.

I ran the Half Marathon this year and mostly enjoyed the race. A couple of areas for improvement would be the area of the course where 10k runners join the HM route. Running at 1.30 pace meant you reached the Itchen Bridge with the tail end of the 10km runners, many of which were new to races. This resulted in walkers and slower runners blocking the path for quicker HM runners. A suggestion to overcome this would be a simple lane system from the bridge through to the Finish (although after the bridge the problem reduced, it was still difficult to navigate the slower runners).

Another point to raise would be the use of headphones. Although some runners find this helpful to get them through the race, with such a busy route with joining distance points this was a safety concern with runners unaware of their surroundings.

I would be tempted to move into the marathon discipline next year if the route wasn't two laps, however I know this may not be achievable due to road closures. Maybe the marathon route could continue over the itchen bridge and out towards Royal Victoria Country Park, this will incorporate additional distance without needing to close major roads in the city.

The reversed HM route this year was a good challenging half, personally preferred the Burgess Road route however this is just preference [I liked the downhill finish! :)].

Overall, really like how you make this event, it's always one to look forward to being a Southampton runner.