This was my very first marathon and I feel I chose wisely. There were lots of emails beforehand with a lot of information and links for places to stay. I found it incredibly easy to park close by which I was amazed by. The start was very straight forward, you are sent your bib beforehand with the colour of pen and this was easy to locate.
The course itself is nothing spectacular. There are as many nice sections as there are boring sections. It's a fast, flat course and the first 5 miles are downhill although I didn't really feel that. The water stations were quite timely spaced apart for myself although I did find they weren't necessarily manned that well. I did not see many toilets and thankfully didn't need during the race.
Running through the houses was quite good as there are many people with speakers blaring out music to encourage you. One section you run through a farm ground and I did not enjoy that. It was blistering hot, the water station was not until the end and the terrain was difficult underfoot. There is also an out and back section which some people found demoralising.
The finish was good - a long straight on the metal ground laid over the park. A large area for you to collapse on before going to see your family was most welcoming! The goody bag was really good too - the medal is one of the best I have seen with a key ring that forms part of it! Unfortunately I heard they ran out do thirst and medals and I can not imagine anything worse than finishing a marathon and not having the 'goods' to show. They also ran out of water for some of the slower runners and in my opinion they are the ones who would have needed it most.
I will do it again next year, it is a good race but I'm not sure how someone who needs almost 6 hours would deem it unfortunately.