Firstly, the positives; lovely course, great views amd location. Set up was good, plenty of water stations.

Now the negatives; tricky course, lots of tree roots, slippery mud (I fell over once, my fault, you couldn't afford toi take your eyes off your feet along some parts of the course), distance markers (I know there were 3 events (10k, HM & Marathon) but the marking was bizarre, unhelpful and mislaeding), distance (I measured 13.47 which is a long way off), signage / marshalling (often not there when needed especially at the end when there was contrary signage and no marshalls, it made for a very stressful and angry finish during which time I lost out on time and placing).

Overall, better signage and marshalling would have made all the difference. Great location but spoiled by these factors

Not for the first time in an F3 event signposting on the route was really poor, leading to numerous runners losing their way around main roads. 

Two date I've not heard back from anyone at F3 despite having my details taken twice and making contact through various channels. They either don't monitor their email and social media or don't care. 

This was my first trail race - however, the 10k itself was mostly ran on tarmac not Trail paths. I did expect more of the race to run alongside the river, and was a little disappointed that it didn't!! Overall the race was well organised, there was a water stop halfway and the bag drop and event HQ was well set-up.

To collect your race number, you had to travel to Windsor on the days before the race, which I found a little strange for a non-marathon event. Luckily, my friend and I love close enough to travel there and back!!

When we finished the race, we found the course only measured 5.9miles, so not the full 10k distance - not sure if this was different for previous years!

Overall a nice race, but I was expecting more trails!

I have ran this race before 2 years ago, but when I did I don't think I paid attention to my watch and just ran and took in the surroundings.

This really is a beautiful course along the Thames river, mostly on trails, but a real introduction to trail running with flat and compacted trails. If you want a pb in trail running this is a good venue.

To start there is official parking about a 5-10 minute walk away. They charge a fiver which isn't too bad. If I were to look around you could probably find cheaper or free parking.

Registration is basic, but there is a nice small race village atmosphere. There are activities for the family, and with the gorgeous weather we had it makes for a lovely day out.

A small criticism is that the bag drop is £5, I've never known paying separately. Perhaps this is to reduce the cost of the entry fee, but for many this would be an issue, no matter how much it cost. I put my bag in someone's car so not an issue for me, but wouldn't have been happy to pay for this service.

The race started in waves which was great. The trails are narrow for most of the route, but I personally did not experience any congestion which will be partly owing to this good organisation at the start. I organised the pacers this year and people did not appear to be in correct waves, so this could have been advertised more widely. There was a PA system at the finish, but at the start (a short walk across a bridge) there wasn't, so I announced the pacers and times myself. I did ask one of the organisers a couple of times but he chose not to. 

The run itself was so beautiful and really enjoyable. As the 1:45 pacer I had a good small group around me which was fantastic.

The support was very sparse, as were the marshalls, but this is expected in a course like this. There wouldn't be room for anyone else. This isn't a criticism of the race, it's just a fact. The course was well marked and only a couple of road crossings. What I did find strang at mile 12 was the marshalls stopping runners rather than cars. They need a proper brief. There were so few of us they could have easily stopped the cars, which I what I have experienced in EVERY other race that have done this. I've seen lots of feedback of people being stopped for a few seconds here?

The aid stations were to sparse and I only saw water in cups and high 5 gels. The cups were also only being handed out by a couple of people so it was difficult to get the water if in a group. This could benefit from a little attention.

The main criticism of the whole day is the course measurement and markings. The course is about 400 metres long. As a pacer this is something we could have been told as now everyone is saying this is a common theme (i wish someone said this before). Even if a course is long we can usually account for this, but what made matters worse is from about mile 10 the course markings were coming up short. So at mile 10 my watch said 9.90, and this was consistent until 12. I was running perfectly just under 8 min miles. At mile 10 I started to ease off a little to adjust to the course, otherwise risk going too fast. At mile 12 my watch recorded 11.87 and I was still set to come in too fast. I eased off maybe 15 seconds over the next mile to ensure I wasn't too fast and encouraged everyone on. I told everyone they had loads of time.

I didn't see a mile 13 (and no one I have spoken to did either) but when I got mile 13 on my watch I had plenty of time. I crossed the bridge and all of a suddden started to worry. I was at 13:12 and still no sign of the finish and only had 1 minute to spare. I sped up at this point and caught up with the people I sent ahead. I could have sprinted and made the time but was not going to leave those I had paced behind, what was the point in me doing a 6 minute mile now? We came in a minute over the pace, and I feel terrible.

Im upset and a little angry with the organisation of this part as everyone on social media has confirmed they experienced the same. Every single pacer finished the exact same way, experienced pacers, there was nothing they could do. To put in in perspective, the additional distance at the end is an extra 2 minutes for me, and gets worse the slower you are running. The short mile markers made it much worse as we all slowed thinking we were ahead (still confident our watches had us with a good 30 second cushion). 

If this is the same route they always use they must know it's long, in which case it needs to be advertised as a long course. If it's not then look at the route as it's been marked wrong.

Ok rant over. This was a big deal for a lot of people, probably more for the pacers that do this to help people achieve their times, so all feel terrible that this didn't happen. Apart from this I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event. If the measurements are sorted or announced as long then it would be a great race to do

I was invited along to this F3 event by my pacing friend Paul Addicott who had been asked to provide the pacers for the first time at this event.  I was asked to pace the 2 hour slot.

I found the registration to be straightforward and I travelled up by car from my Milton Keynes home to the event via the M1/M25/M4 in just over an hour.  I parked at the official car park as advertised on their website for a charge of £5.00

It was an easy 10 min walk from the car park to the race village to collect my race bib and pacers T-shirt and meet the other pacers.

There was a baggage area here at a cost of £5.00 which is unusual as this is normally included in the entrance fee. There were stalls selling running sundries and refreshments along with post race massage. Portaloos were dotted around and the PA announcer made it clear there were extra toilets opened just outside the park that the race village was in.

The race start was on the opposite side of the River Thames and a 5 min walk to here from the race village.

We made our way over to the start and there were more portaloos here. The start area was roped off and in 7 start wave times; 1.30/1.45/2.00/2.15/2.30/2.45 and then last was the wave for the 10K option.

The idea of the staggered wave starts was to eliminate congestion in the early stages as the first few miles were often narrow along the Thames and in wooded areas.

I made myself known to all the runners in my wave pen that I was the pacer for 2 hrs and that I would be pacing 9.05 mins to finish approx 30/40 secs under allocated time; (actual 2 hr time is 9.09 pace)

The race started promptly at 8.30am and every 5 mins another wave started so at 8.40 I set off.

The start followed a smooth flat trail on grass alongside the scenic Thames and into wooded areas for the first few miles. Very narrow in many places and a little slippy/muddy due to recent downpours. I made everyone around me aware of puddles, roots and low branches as we made our way towards the first water stop. Rather surprisingly the first water station was 4.3 miles in (usually 3.1 on most races),and very disappointingly in plastic cups which is nigh on impossible to drink from whilst running. There was also a fallen tree that we had to run around just before 5 miles but this was marshalled perfectly. There were 2 more water stations around the course. There were 3 road crossings to manoeuvre over the remainder of the race that the marshalls were actually stopping runners as traffic had priority. The first two I didn't have to break stride for as the road was clear but the last one just before mile 12 brought myself and my followers to a standstill for approx 10 secs.

All the way I had been checking my Garmin to the mile markers and these had been very accurate up to mile 10 with miles 11 & 12 ever so slightly early but as I had paced as promised I was on course to finish in just over 1.59.20 as planned so we ease people home over the last mile. I didn't need to panic as I had those extra seconds in the bank,however as I was telling everyone around me we were well under the 2 hrs it soon become apparent that as my Garmin signalled 13 miles I couldnt see Windsor Castle - where the finish line was???

Major panic set in as I double checked my splits and distances and yep I was approaching the 13.1 expected finish time and we approached a road bridge only to be told "only 700" to go???

As I came over the road bridge I could see the castle in the distance and thought immediately there was no way I could reach there within the 40 secs I needed to as my Garmin showed 1.59.16:(

Needless to say I sped up automatically leaving the large group I have accumulated over the race standing :-(( in my attempt to get home in time. I had no chance in reality as I came home in 2.01.24 with that last 1/4 mile run at 7.48 pace lowering my ave for the run to 9.03 for 13.38 miles. 

The fact I had let others down really hurt me personally as I pace events to help people reach their goals, but I still had lots of thanks from people that still gained PB's from my help and from those who had just missed out due to the inaccuracy of the distance. 

The last 1.1 miles was in fact 1.38 so that extra distance ruined my memory of what otherwise was a very picturesque scenic run along the Thames in a beautiful location on almost flat mixed terrain. 

The medal was very nice and the goody bag contained an energy bar, heat wrap and a few leaflets,water and banana.

Finding out afterwards the last few years has been similar with the water station issues/long distances simply hurt even more. If only we were made aware but it's happened so....!??

Its these small details that really make the runner go away with a sense of 'I can't wait to return next year' mentality, but I can only assume a lot will go away feeling let down and these will not return unfortunately for a long time if ever!

F3 events run lots of events and if they read this I urge them to please look at making sure the water is every 5K and in bottles, and that the distance Is remeasured. Lots of runners will say 'oh but as it's Trail you can run a bit longer than usual' but the bottom line is ALL 7 of our pacers were over a minute over their times which I have never to this day heard of

The second time I've entered this river trial half marathon and both times I've been left disappointed.

An additional £5 to park and another for bag drop is robbery on top of the already over inflated £35 race entry.

The course itself is really pleasant and although it had been raining heavily in the week leading up to the event, the course was not too muddy.

The aid stations, like 2016, were abysmal. A hot early summers day and the only water on offer was from those small annoying plastic cups.  Surely an event in late May must provide runners with bottles? Maybe it'll take a fatality for the organisers to take note, as they clearly didn't from last year, where all negative comments regarding the event were magically removed from their Facebook page.

Marshalling on the whole was OK, except at one point at an intersection I had to ask the marshal which way as he was too busy on his phone.

It's also not a half marathon, it's 13.3 miles. Even the 2 hour pacer was caught out by this!

Reviewing the River Trail Half Marathon. (a 10km run was also taking place)

The Beautiful surroundings of Royal Windsor, with the added backdrop of the famous Windsor Castle served as the setting for the F3 Events Royal Windsor River Trail Run. The race was met with a lovely sunny day, which added to the enjoyment of running a trail race along the banks of the Thames.

I was asked to pace the event by the organisors.

Registration online was simple, and race bibs were collected from the race village on the day, although there was an option to collect on the Saturday as well. Entry fee was resonable for an event of this size, although there were added extras on the day to factor in.

An official car park had been set up in a nearby Boys School (about a 13 minute walk from the race hub) for a cost of £5, this allowed you to park until 3pm so gave time to enjoy the sights after the race. The race hub had a large marque for collection of bibs and information and also served as a bag drop area, for which there was an additional charge of £5. Tea/coffee, food and trade stands were on hand, as well as a pre and post race massage service. Regular announcements from a good PA system kept all informed. A few portaloos were also here, and toilets were available in a shopping area just behind the info tent

The race start area was seperate from the race hub, about a 10 min walk over a bridge spanning the Thames, to a field on the Eton School side of the River. The race was split into 6 waves, with a pacer in each wave with estimated times from 1hr 30m to 2 hr 45m and each wave was set off in 15 minutes intervals.

Race start was advertised for 8.30am and actually started quite close to this, perhaps a few minutes late, each wave was moved up to the start line and given a quick briefing before being let loose. With around 1500 runners in the race, being set off in waves with such a distinct time gap ensured that there was not too much congestion on the course, especially as in some places in was down to single file.

the first 10km or so faithfully followed the twists and turns of the Thames, passing by Ascot Racecourse and Dorney Lake, home to the rowing at the London 2012 Olympics. Despite heavy rain the day before the course, mostly grass and troden paths was dry, a few tricky muddy areas and puddles but not enough to break your stride, At points the path would narrow to single file, and overhead branches from trees and bushes made things awkward but still a nice route. A fallen tree over the path at around 8kms added an interesting dilema, climb over or run off route to bypass, most opted for the former.

The second 10kms or so saw the route turn and head back towards Windsor, crossing to the other side of the river and this time on mostly gravel or tarmac paths. It included a few main road crossings where marshalls were on hand to warn runners, but were not stopping traffic to allow runners to cross, most of the road users however seemed happy to slow and let us cross.

The first water station was not until 7kms, the pre race notes had mentioned a station at 3kms but we did not see this, water was handed out in cups, never a big fan of that, and there were High 5 gels also if needed. The next station was not until 14kms and then again at 19kms, on a hot day like it was a few more stations earlier would have been better. The course was marshalled well, with efficient and well identified marshalls. With the nature of the course being trail, there was not a lot of support en route other than the odd walkers, cyclists or riverside house owners

My main grumble on the day was over the accuracy of the measurement of the course, as a pacer we pride ourselves at bringing home runners bang on time, this was impossible today as the course measured so long, a known issue apparently from previous years but which we were not informed of. My GPS read 21.76 Kms (13.5miles) with the main discrepency being the final "mile" which was long. As a result all pacers finished a few minutes outside of the goal times, which is always dissapointing for us.

The race finish was back in the race hub, and after crossing the line you were handed a bottle of water, banana, and a good quality medal. A finisher bag was also given out with just a couple of leaflets inside. Chip timing tags on the bib meant that you could get an instant print out of your time straight after the race.

Despite the issues with the course length, and the lack of a water station or two, the race was well organised and a pleasure to run, especially on such a lovely day in nice scenery. Hopefully the organisors will address the measurement problem, simply move the finish to the other end of the park perhaps, for next year and I would gladly come back to pace again if required.

Lovely course taking you along the river, well marked and marshalled and pretty much flat.

The wave starts were pretty good for easing the congestion as the first couple of km were pretty narrow, it was still a little bottle necky in places but nothing to put you off. 

Wide range of abilities taking part so even if you are having a bit of a mare and drop back from one group you'll never feel like you are running alone. 

Finish line in Alexandria Gardens is a nice place for tourists to hang out anyway but with all the extra runners there the support at the end was brilliant to give you lift just when you need it to get across the line. 

Definitely one I'll put on the calendar for next year.