Great!! Everything was well organised and fun filled! I enjoyed running especially when I was almost giving up and the crowd kept cheering us on!! That was lovely ????

The best half marathon I have ever run! Brilliant organisation, interesting course so never became boring, amazing support (probably the best I've ever come across all the way round the course) and just an all-round great atmosphere! Plus a lovely race village / medal / t-shirt and ****! Can't recommend it highly enough and will definitely be back!

My first 10k, blown away from start to Finish. The emails to rectify my wrong number being sent out, was a great help. The whole set up was amazing as was my run, with so much support on the streets & staff on the day. Looking forward to next year & getting my family involved, thanks for the experience ????

Well organised and great fun. Apart from the bridge which was **** on earth.

The people of Southampton were so friendly and supportive it helped a lot. Maybe more mile markers though and some pacers.

Great day

Well organised race my only suggestion is putting a water station for the 10k earlier as we only got one on the 8thkm

Good fun.

It was pretty crowded at the start, and in the twisty city centre streets with parked cars and things that was a bit frustrating - also going over the bridge and back (the worst 2 hills) in the closing stages was probably a mistake - that was hard. If it was me I'd go out of the town centre south, over that bridge eastwards early on and then head up north and come back in via one of the other two bridges later, then come through the parks into the town centre to finish. I reckon that would be a good route. You probably need some guidance for the slower 5k runners (i.e. keep left) so they don't clog up the route for half and full marathoners. I did enjoy it, but there are some ways it could be improved.

The racecwas well organized and the support was tremendous. The route was tough being actwo lapper. An out and back course would be nice . well done on an enjoyable race day .

Well organised and thought through. Love the medal and have definitely caught the racing bug! Thanks for a great first race. Here's to many more.

I really enjoyed this race. I thought the course was good, with good variation in hill and footwork. The Itchen bridge was a killer at mile 11 but a good test. As a Saints season ticket holder, I loved running through the stadium. I thought it was very well organised and the goodie bag offers were excellent. No criticism at all !

We are seasoned 'fun runners' and I hate to say it but our experience on Sunday was not a good one. It was disappointing to receive all the info for the marathon/10km in our pack but no course map or details of the start/finish for the actual run we'd all entered. The start was a disorganised sham! Leading all the entrants across the start line instead of queueing everyone up from behind. A process that was repeated at the finish line, when all finishers had to return back through the finish gantry, in the opposite direction to the runners still coming in to finish their runs. This resulted in a ridiculously slow moving queue for t.shirts, water and the all important medal. And the medal!! SO disappointing again. My 7 & 9 year old we're so unimpressed with the very "babyish" (for want of a better word) medal they didn't even want to take it in to school the next day. I wish I could be more positive but you charge a premium entrance fee for a fun run yet we've done many, many others, at a fraction of the cost, that have been better organised and had a far more quality medal at the end of it. Sorry. :-( on the plus side, it was a nice course through the park, hence the 2 stars!

Superb atmosphere the marshalls from the guide group on itchen bridge were fantastic. The bridge makes Southampton a challenge and unique but I still wish it was slightly flatter! Starting down in the park was fine but could do with a little more space the path was very narrow for the number of 10k runners.
Super welcome back to the finish from everyone,superb atmosphere coming up the High Street and at the finish line, marshalls were great. Lovely music sung and played at the Guildhall added to the atmosphere and gave you that last push.
Water bottles were good and allowed you to take them with you if needed but water station at post 7km of a 10km race a little late, could it be just before the 10k route joined the other runners.

Great day,, very well organised.. crowd were amazing too.. thank u for a great experience

No organisation at the start for the half and runners starting too far forward for their finishing time and despite just behind the 1 hr 40 pacers, I didn't see them when we crossed the start. I spent the first 3 miles weaving around slower runners and witnessed 1 man fall over. Nice route however it's not a fast course and It will not be a half I will be returning too unfortunately. The photos I received only a handful are poor too.

Pros
Great set up. Lovely atmosphere and plenty of families cheering. Loads of toilets. Very well organised baggage area. Great space to stretch in!

Cons
Signs of distances/ directions could have been bigger/clearer.

Excellent event. Already signed up for next year.

Great atmosphere and a great event, my two children loved the run and receiving the medal at the end

I am sad to say that I was very disappointed with this years event, especially following the success of last year. This year I decided to enter the 10k and was grateful for the free place after winning the half last year.

Last year after the race I pointed out that there were issues with the start as it was difficult for the "faster" runners to get to the front and several of us had to jump the barrier to avoid being caught at the back. This year I looked on the map provided to see where the start of the race was and turned up in plenty of time. When I arrived I asked 4 marshalls who all said I needed to wait by the warm up area where there was a barrier where they would let the quicker runners through to the start line. After waiting here under the marshalls instructions the warm up instructors announced that the race had already started and we were in the wrong area. I then, along with several others including last years winner, ran over to the "correct" start line but the path was so narrow that there was no way that I could get through the hundreds of people. As you will see from my chip time it took me 1.37 minutes to cross the start line meaning my race was effectively over. I ran as hard as I could but ultimately as I was stuck behind the masses I had no chance. As I've said this affected a number of us and could and should have been easily avoided. It turned out that my chip time was the fastest female time of the day but this was not to be acknowledged in the overal results which I was gutted about considering I did not feel I was at fault for the error at the start of the race. My time turned out to be around 90 seconds faster than the female athlete who was crowned champion which was extremely frustrating.

My main issues are that the marshalls were not fully aware of where the start line was, the starting area was simply too narrow and quite frankly dangerous and the maps provided and instructions given were not clear and seemed to differ depending on what map you read. To compound matters when I finished I was told that Abdi Mahamed, the leader of the race for most of the way,had been led the wrong way by the lead bike and ended up running 7.4 miles as shown by his Garmin. I later found out the same thing happened to 2nd and 3rd place. Finally I found the start times of the various races very strange. Those marathon runners looking to run 3 hours came round for their 2nd lap at 10.30, the same time as the start of the 10k, and as they filtered into the 10k race obviously this caused further congestion.

I was told by several people watching the races that it was simply impossible to see where people were as by the end there were 10k, half marathon and marathon runners all on the course. This also caused problems as overtaking on the Itchen Bridge was very hazardous.

I don't like to complain but I found the organisation this year very poor and I am not sure I will compete in this event again. I would like to make a final point concerning the prizes on offer. I find it quite appalling that only the winners are given trophies for their position. I run in several local races and there are both medals for top 3 positions and prize money on offer. For such an expensive entry fee I find it unacceptable that there is not prize money for the top runners. This event has such great potential however at the moment the danger is that it will turn into a "fun run" and club runners will no longer turn up which will be detrimental to the reputation of the race.

Overall the support around the course was fantastic, it was just a shame that it turned out as it did. I hope you take my feedback on board.

Really good experience, it was my 1st ever half marathon, great support from everyone, great encouragement from everyone, I found it quite tough but fought my battles and got through it....bit disappointed with the goody bag at the finish but over all a great experience.