Southampton Festival Of Running 18th Feb 2024
reviewed by Tony Sudworth.
Review of Southampton Festival of Running 18th Feb 2024. It is three races running concurrently on the same course on Southampton Common. Parking is straightforward and free with about a 1k walk to the event village. Numbers are allocated on the day and normally would be fine except the grass areas was completely waterlogged . There was a bag drop , unattended , stuff left at your own risk. The Half marathon was off first followed by the 10k then 5k. Essentially it was 6 laps of the park for the Half which did not work for me. Far prefer a loop but this was a transfer from a race booked before we moved. The course could be crowded although there were lanes for each race and it was not closed to other users / dog walkers etc. Lots of marshals on the course and only a few areas where it was boggy , full of puddles where I would have preferred other shoes – vast majority was tarmac paths. Big shout out to the blow up dinosaur half way round .. I was not happy at DNF and should have known better healthwise – or maybe transferred to the 10k say on the day (an option apparently) Would I do it again – no.
