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Thread: Excalibur Off-Road Marathon

  1. #81

    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    I'd just like to add to the comments about the discarded bottles. I found myself getting increasingly upset by this as the race went on - I wonder whether the sheer volume of litter will compromise any future running of the event, which would be a real shame as it is a great addition to the local scene. Would it be unfair to assume they were all dropped by road runners? I really enjoyed the friendly informality of the race, so was amazed by the litter (the ipod wearers were a bit unfortunate too!).

  2. #82

    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    I don't think you could blame a particular group for all the litter, there were also a lot of tissue/wipes towards the end as well. It's disappointing that there should be so much litter after the warnings that were given by the Organiser.


    I had a run over Moel Arthur and Pen-y-Cloddiau this afternoon and surprisingly the control at the top of Arthur is still there. There's also a First Aid kit in an 'ammo' sort of box half hidden in a gorse bush on Pen-y-Cloddiau. It says 'Official' on it so I left that alone as well (and it looks a bit heavy to run with!) Do you think they would leave Brandy in there, just in case? It could be nothing to do with the Excalibur though.


    And just to add, my Garmin reading for the route was 26.43 miles on both the Garmin Training Centre and SportTracks but the climb was approx. 1,000 ft difference (5,800 ST to 6,800 GTC).

  3. #83
    Senior Member Usually at the back's Avatar
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    from Runners World Forum:

    Hello Everyone,

    Thanks to all the runners and walkers who took part!
    It was a fantastic day, and we were absolutely overwhelmed with the positive response from all of you!

    The race times are just being calculated, and a couple of errors being corrected and I will get them up online for Tuesday 3rd April.

    We have learnt a lot from this years event, which was a first year, and after a debreif session with the local council and forestry service we will make a decision on next years event. Fingers crossed that we will have the event again next year!

    We are open to all constructive criticism from all the runners, the main points are listed below, so if you do have any other points, please feel free to email me and I will respond to all messages.

    The main points moving forwards:

    1 - The stamp system, was at times confusing, and it was easy to miss certain stamps.

    2 - Sign-age. A big issue for all marathons. Although self navigation is essential, we could have offered more support at certain points, which we will definitely be looking at for the future.

    3 - Litter. This was our only major concern. Majority of our runners were very good with their empty bottles and sachets, but we did unfortunately have a number of people littering the route. We did a sweep of the course and removed as much as possible, but for future events we will tackle this issue head on!

    4 - The Numbers. The self-adhesive numbers were a great idea in principle, but in practice they were not right of this race. We will amend this for the future events and go for the pinned option.

    5 - Parking. Unfortunately, our hands were tied with this because the site is still open to the public. The only area available to us for parking was the top car park. We will look at other options, and possibly moving the finish line and will report back on that one!

    I hope you all agree that the above points are all minor issues and that the event as a whole was a really enjoyable day!
    Im glad that so many of you commented on how well the route worked!

    Thank you to all of you who dropped you sponsorship money off on the day, and those of you who made donations to the hospice!

    Anyone who is yet to collect their sponsor money can either pay their money in by cheque, or call me to make a card payment.

    And if anyone else would like to make a donation to Claire House in lieu of sponsorship please use the same methods.

    I look forward to seeing your event reviews online, please be honest but if you can also take into account that it was a pilot year it would be much appreciated.

    I hope to see you all next year, and will let you all know as soon as possible once a decision has been made on the 2012 Event.

    Kind regards

    Mr Daniel Thomas
    [email protected]
    0151 343 0883

    Event Fundraiser
    Claire House Children's Hospice

  4. #84
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    My impression is that they are open to comments and keen to get it right. I spoke briefly to the organiser on the day and he was very aware that there was a problem with litter which needed to be addressed. I only hope that they don't change the course (move the finish to the top). I think if they'd communicated the top car park thing beforehand (mind you I parked in the car park at registration and nobody tried to stop me) it would have been ok. Now the have the course, which was good and challenging, to change for next year would change the benchmark. I've been to plenty of fell races where it is further to walk - is it the Green, Green Grass of Home? (not complaining, Martin, just saying!) and Penmaenmawr - there are probably loads more.

  5. #85

    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    Hi all Just joined forum.

    Excalibur was my first jaunt into off road racing, and It was a a cracking event. On the down side mine was one of the cars that was broken into they took my kit bag and I had stupidly put my wallet in it with my wedding rings in wallet.

  6. #86
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    I think it would have been useful to know that the car parking was not at the start beforehand, just to allow people to factor the walk into the timing that's all. The walk to the start of Tarren Hendre the other week was further but we allowed time to do so.

  7. #87
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    Quote Originally Posted by Nigel View Post
    I've been to plenty of fell races where it is further to walk - is it the Green, Green Grass of Home? (not complaining, Martin, just saying!) and Penmaenmawr - there are probably loads more.
    The amble up to the start of the GGGH is just to get you warmed up. When the Llangynhafal Loop started down at the crossroads, everyone used to moan about the road bit :angry:, so we moved the start due to 'popular demand'! :thumbup:

  8. #88
    Master (notsomuchofa)Fellrunner's Avatar
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    I'm not too bothered where they start the route, or if it's ran cw or anti-cw. If parking does become a problem I don't see any reason why they can't start an acw route from Llandyrnog or cw from Cilcain.

    Ipods do seem a bit daft on the hills. Early on I kept hearing one bloke hollering encouragement at the top of his voice to walkers as he approached them. He must have scared the bejesus out of them.

    Good blog Simon. You get about a bit, don't you?
    I've just decided I don't trust you anymore.

  9. #89
    Member Kathyf's Avatar
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
    [quote by Steven Wright]

  10. #90
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    Re: Excalibur Off-Road Maratho

    Quote Originally Posted by Kathyf View Post
    Not entirely accurate, though. Hopefully they will be more accurate before getting onto the WFRA website.

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