Puddleducks Trail 15k & 10k

This run this year was organised by Lancashire Trails, not Fylde Coast Runners, I believe? That's what my race bib said, anyway... This was the most poorly organised and I would say unsafe event I have ever taken part in and I would advise people to think very carefully before entering one of their events. The safety briefing didn't mention the dangerously steep woodland steps that you had to go down on all fours. They didn't mention who to contact or give us a number to call in the event of an emergency. There was no apparent medical support on site and no toilets either!..Nearest were a five minute walk to a farm or into the village to use the public toilets. Marshals sent everyone the wrong way at the start...I had run a mile and a half before someone from the team caught up with me in a car to tell me to go back to the start!!! So my 15km ended up being 19km. Other runners, I found out, had run five miles before being caught up with! I don't think the marshals at the water station had radios either because when someone asked 'have you heard people were sent the wrong way?' they replied 'We're just hearing about it now from runners coming through.' There was a terrible lack of marshals on the course..there were two at the start who sent everyone the wrong way, then I counted two on the route and two at the water station! Really poor signage, with a big pack of runners at one point all wandering around trying to find their way out of a field with cows in it. No apologies from the race director...when I saw him on the route, he laughed and said it was extra milage for free. Not funny and not the response he should have been giving. I helped one runner near the end who was looking very rough and dehydrated. I stayed with him for a bit and gave him what fuel I had....we hadn't been given an emergency number to ring and no marshalls around. Luckily he was eventually okay and I kept an eye on him for the final mile or so. Thank god he was okay because she would have been totally shafted had he not been!!! No apologies at the end of the race...awful. I would never do a Lancashire trails race again because I don't feel safe running with them. I don't feel they have my safety in mind or that they would be prepared, or able to, take care of me should the need arise. 0 out of 5 stars.

Won't be running an FCR or Lancashire Trails event again after this. Marshall failed to direct runners on the correct course on an inadequately signed turn, leading participants to run a significant distance in the wrong direction (up to 3 miles out for some runners). This led to runners either being forced to complete a distance significantly higher than they'd signed up for, or to DNF the event. When a refund was requested, the event organiser has stated that their no-refund policy will remain in place. The fact that they're willing to keep people's money with nothing more than a "sorry, our bad" is infuriating after the state of the event they've put on.

Extremely disappointing. For an event that should have offered spectacular views the organisation let it down. From existing the field and going up the first hill on road I did not run on or see a single trail path. A mere 500m from the start line where the 2nd significant turn was there was no sign of a marshall nor signage to direct the race to turn. As far as I could tell the entire field carried straight on to run completely on road - we'd ran 5km before anyone caught up to say we were off track. Some runners didn't even get told and effectively had to make it up themselves, running a straight 15km out and back. The event was marketed as having a signed route - I didn't see any. I noticed on after the event that a post had been put on the Facebook group hours before it started saying to make sure runners download the route to their device, why wasn't this communicated earlier or in pre race briefing emails. The routes themselves also appeared to be sat behind paywalls. The event itself was already towards the more expensive end - why should we have to pay more to access something that shouldn't be required in a signposted event. I've entered other events costing far less than have been far better organised. This may have just been one thing didn't go as planned but it ruined the whole experience. Overall very disappointing and the lack of follow up from organisers (as promised) hasnt made things any better.