The Chester Marathon starts and finished at the Chester Race Course, when the weather is fine this would be okay, however you have to be prepared for a muddy finish if it starts raining!

As the race starts at the Race Course, there is lots of space and plenty of toilet facilities to use before you start. This makes a big difference to other races that I have completed because I didn’t have to queue for ages before using the loo.

The beginning of the race takes your through the historic and sometime cobbled streets of Chester, so if you have weak ankles, be warned! There were a number of people cheering us all on, but it's not a major race so it was a little bit flat in the city centre.

It's not long until you are heading out of the City and making your way into the Cheshire / Wales countryside. This is where the race becomes a little bit stilted. You are running, sometime, on very small country roads that have all been closed to traffic. This means that there is very little spectator support, I run better when people are there to cheer you on so I found it quite difficult to keep my moral up throughout the race. In fact, there was one point when I felt like giving up, but my wife who was running with me encouraged me to keep going.

After what seems an age, you do make your way back into the city and the number of spectators increases, thus I picked up my pace.

The elevation on the route is variable, there are some quite big hills at the start, so it's best to pace yourself accordingly. Out in the countryside it is very variable with long up and down sections.

Would I run this race again? I don't think so. I prefer a race where there is lots of spectator support like there was at the Great North Run in Newcastle. However, the race is very well organised and I cannot give enough praise to the volunteers and organisers for this.