My first half marathon and was blown away by the event, organising and support on the day.
Loved it and will be back next year

Once again , this was a fabulous event. I ran the half in 2015, and it was good then. This time was even better. The organisation was top notch, the marshall's were awesome (and motivating), and the spectators.... well, the spectators make the race memorable. There was never a moment where I felt I was running alone. It wasn't my best time, but as it was my first proper run since ABP2015 , I was happy just to finish. And the icing on the cake! Having the route go THROUGH St. Mary's Stadium. My only nemesis was Itchen Bridge, but I'm sure I was not alone.
Well done to the ABPSouthampton team , and to the city and residents of Southampton. Awesome!!

Really enjoyed it well organized and great community spirit on show!

Brilliant race, great atmosphere & a very good route. One id definitely do again

A fantastic day, thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere on the day.
Well organised.
Big thanks to Chris & Nikki Rees for letting me be involved with pacing the race.

Well organised race. Lots of enthusiastic Marshalls cheering everyone on. Thanks for a great day!

Great route, lovely marshals and excellent spectators!!! Itchen Bridge won't be my favourite for the big incline right at the last push of the race :D

Excellent race, only think hampering it was where the races joined and you couldn't move on the bridge.

An amazing day - really well organised and supported. Dare I try the full next year?

There needs to be better organisation of the day and some of it may be down to the city council but for next year:
- packs need to be out a few weeks in advance not days in advance
- there needs to be signs from the train station directing people who don't know Southampton to the start.
- the bag dropped worked very well so please keep it the same.
- the pacers you can't see in orange tops so a light weight flag on their back would help (look at the GSR pacers)
- energy drinks rather than water need to be given
- the BIGGEST issue was the marathon runners looped when the bulk of halfs were running along riverside. There is hardly any room there so you either need to design a wider route or the best option would be to start the marathon at 8.30am and half at 10.30am. Timing wise there is less bottleneck points or do them separate days. The 10k then at 11.30 means even spacing.
- as we got to the bargate there were walkers everywhere walking in front of runners. The gates needed to be put up there and along the park to stop walkers going in the path.

Hope you find this information useful

Tabitha

I really enjoyed the race and the route was good, support and everything happening was really fantastic. However, I was on for a PB in the half marathon, hoping to do 1:18 but after 10miles joining the 10km runners wasn't great. I had to weave through them all, obviously I think it's fantastic to have so many people running, but I don't think it's good for them for me to have to run around them and it's not great for me and the other faster half marathon runners to have to dodge around them in the final 3 miles when it's really hurting. This was especially bad when we ran along the bridge as there were too many people on the bridge. I could see the lead bike and the guys/girls infront of me were also struggling to get through.

The staff and all the spectators were amazing and made the day so good!! It was my first marathon and I wouldn't have been able to complete it without them. However, I felt that there was a lack of water stations. Also, one of the stations wasn't where it said on the map which meant running 5 ish miles (including the itchen bridge) with no water. I think the tops and the medals were very very good!!!

For my first ever half marathon the course was fantastic and the staff working the course were brilliant! Sadly the signing in process wasn't so brilliant!
Missing best part of the walm up because of admin errors is not okay! There was no indication of which tent to go to and even the staff working them weren't sure where we should have been!
My issue was that my race number hadn't arrived by post which I accept happens and from the organisers point of view is completely unavoidable! However I was told that I could pick up a pack by going to the tent and asking for it!
Then when I arrived at the tent after a very long wait, I was told by a very stressed lady that she can't help me unless I know my 4 digit number, a number I hadn't been told to remember, I presented her with the email I received which states I might need to show it on race day but apparently that wasn't what she wanted! I was then sent to another que to get my number! Whilst waiting I trawled through all of my emails and found my 4 digit number! I then went back to the original tent with my number only to be told that they didn't have any numbers above 3000 and mine was 5000. One staff member took it upon herself to help me out personally and spoke to someone in the other tent and I was issued a completely different number from my original one!
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of running! But the admin side of things was a total let down! It really wasn't a positive way to start my race!
Hopefully improvements can be made for next year?

Well organised, very enjoyable day, all went smoothly.....despite my time. I much preferred last year's route. Excellent support and marshalls. Thank you

For me personally it were very hard as it was my first marathon in seven years, the course could've been made less difficult without running over itchen bridge twice and especially at the end ! I also thought we could've finished at St Mary's stadium which would of been brilliant. Overall then a nice course and great support from the locals and especially the marshals. Which in the end I think got me to the finish line ! Many thanks ????

Very hot on the day but didn't stop a great turn out. As always the event was very well marshalled, and well run from start to finish. Loved the race village again and plenty of people milling around with bits to buy etc. Will definitely be back next year!

The route and organisation was excellent. The support was amazing throughout but especially on the Itchen Bridge. My only moan was that the start was a bit disorganised and I didn't hear the starting gun. Otherwise, brilliant!

Really well organised with so much entertainment to keep you motivated whilst running. The medals and t-shirts were great quality as well!

Loved the new route in reverse (this is my third year) - much better than the other way around. Crowd as ever brilliant. There were a few big issues for me that need fixing:
- you need to have large countdown boards from 1000m to the end at 100m or 200m increments;
- there were too many people crossing the park path at the end in the city centre, making it dangerous and slowing me down. They need to be controlled.
- too many people in the park at the end were walking and on such a narrow path it was difficult to get around.
- goody bags at the end could have been pre-packed saving time and hassle.

Still a great event but organisation could be a lot tighter.

Faultless throughout