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.

My first ever event sign up was for Tough Mudder 2015. My work put a team together of what ended up being 20 + people for some team building and fundraising. They paid entry and transport, we just had to train.
It's not a race but you do need to be able to run as some obstacles are a good few kilometres apart. And of course you need some strength. In our group we had all levels of fitness. Some put the effort in and did some training but others didn't. We had drop outs from 2 obstacles in. Don't think you can do it if you've been drinking the night before, that's all I'm saying.
The atmosphere from when you get there really gets you in the mood! I've now completed over 15 events and Tough Mudder sticks out as the best for atmosphere hands down. You do the 'pledge' at the start which is all fun and games and then you get stuck in! One of the worst, sorry hardest, obstacles is only 3 in - the Arctic Enema. You slide down a chute under an iron gate and plunge straight in to ice water. There are officials at the side screaming at you to keep moving as you then duck twice under tyres. Definitely one of TM's iconic obstacles and a wake up call of what you are about to put your body through.
Upper body strength is a must for this course. You have to pull yourself up things, over things, carry logs, carry a team mate, crawl through long heavy tubes, swing from bars - it's a lot. There is a lot of running too and jumping so make sure your knees are strong. Be prepared for injuries. We had one sprained ankle, one heavily bruised knee and one broken sinus bone (the poor women's face literally blew up when she blew her nose). My bruises lasted a good few weeks.
I would highly recommend anyone to do Tough Mudder but I would say the following - do it in a small group, 20 was ridiculous
- train by running and upper body strength, if you're not prepared to put the work in don't do the event
- buy your ticket early, although my work paid for mine I know the prices are extremely steep!
- be prepared for an all day event
- be prepared to see all kinds of sights! Fancy dress is optional although it seems it's the norm!

I'm doing it again this year with my brother this time so I think that speaks volumes!