Run LDN Victoria Park Spring 5k, 10k & Half Marathon

Bad signage on the track, very long queue to registration. I arrived at the suggested time, but the queue for registration didn't really start moving until the queue for the half-marathon was finished, which seemed like a waste of time queue especially in the cold weather, not that off putting but would have been nice to know when to arrive. The bigger problem were signs on route, a large group of the 10K starters got confused on what the route was, and there were signs missing, and the distance marks didn't seem to match the actual distance. Staying on the right route was definitely not straight forward, and people ended up crossing a road through traffic because of bad route signs. Overall not a great experience, I would still think it was a one off and it does not put me of from running their races in the future but this one was not great.

Such a shame. The directions to the run were very poor to start with. "An easy walk from Bow Road or Mile End Stations" when you're not from London was hugely misleading. I ended up taking a 40 min fast walk around some motorway underpasses and some ropey alleys. Not a good start. No signage to the event at all. Then 9 toilets for 100's of runners was a complete joke. No portaloo urinals for men either, this resulted in people leaving water bottles of urine around the toilets. Nice! The delay added to the stress. I have no idea what was going on with the signage. Mile 11 and Mile 12 were about 100 meters apart. If I didn't have a watch on I would still be going around in circles as it was not clear when you were finished lapping the horse poo. The medal was awful quality for a hard half. Also the constant camber generated by 6+ laps really hurt my right knee and hip which are in agony today, and not even a banana or drink of water at the finish. Poor, Poor, Poor. Such a shame. Won't bother again.

Absolute shambles. This was an absolute shambles of an event from pre race registration (an hour spent queuing) to the race where an excessively complex course, no signs and clueless marshals had hundreds of people heading the wrong way and missing laps. Finishing distance for thr 10k could have been anywhere between 9-11k depending on which of their mishaps you fell for. The worst was the mess left in the park at the end - hundreds of plastic cups blown everywhere. I know that wind wasn’t their fault but better-run events are all over this. A huge amount to fix for this to be an event worth doing.

very poor. Not sure what happened but the 10k was a shambles - the dog leg turnaround sign seemed to be missing so loads of people missed the turn. Myself and another runner realised we'd gone too far when we got to the market stalls and turned around. We came across loads of other runners seemingly in the same boat and encouraged them to turn around too. Then when I completed the 1st small lap I asked if should go around again or carry on and the marshall didnt seem to know, possibly because my timing was off. Somehow miraculously my running distance ended matching with the course markers and my strava had me come in at 10.11km but certainly more by luck than judgement. Poor organisation

Dangerous. There was no real marshalling. The signage was completely wrong and missing at times. Many of the 10k competitors found themselves running across a busy road that was not marshalled, because “the race was started too early” (words of one of the few marshalls). As such my 10k was actually 12.5k. I went to collect my bag from the “secure” bag drop at the end to find that it was a free for all. Not even 1 attendant/marshal in sight. Just grab your own bag and someone else’s too - if you feel so inclined! There was very little about the organisation of this event that I could put in a positive light.

Okay track. Event itself needed more organisation.. Apart from the late start time and mediocre team 'warm up', I did not experience any further issues in the 5k race. The track was fairly easy and flat - good for PB's! There were problems with the 10k race, however, due to poor marshalling and lack of sign posts. RUNLDN have since apologised. Overall, I had no problems with the 5k track, but the day itself lacked organisation.

Bad. Late start time due to poor staffing I suppose. I did the half, my wife did the 10k. They forgot to put the 10k turn back board out so all of those runners ran out the park across a road. The signage was confusing and quite frankly the 6 laps doing the half got very dull. If you want to run 13 miles through Vic Park just do it anyway and dont pay £26. Also the medals and t shirts are not race or date specific so no real momento of the actual event. Even small village 10ks ive done haven't done that. Also never got emailed the results like promised. Had to find it myself. Avoid.

Very poor. i think i ran 11k as there were no signs. most of us ran across roads with cars only to realise we all went the wrong way due to no signs on where to go. bags are not in a secure place. you pick up your own bags once your done. so not sure why they give u tags. very dangerous and is to steal. took over 1hr to register so you just get cold and stiff. race started late. it just feels like a run in a park with no structure. not worth entrance fee at all. wont be doing it again

Poorly organised, confusing route, poor signage. The race started late and abruptly, putting us on the back foot. The course itself was very confusing, with one short and 6 longer laps around victoria park. The convuluted route made it difficult to keep track of how many laps we had done, and was a pretty boring route. This was made worse by the mile/km signage being mixed up along the way - there was a sign for the 3 miles mark around 20 minutes into the race. It was very hard to keep track of how far we had run. The single water station was manned at the start, but after approx one hour the staff had stopped handing out the cups, and instead there were just a few cups at the back of the table (which had bits in them). Overall, a pretty dissapointing experience, I wouldn't race with them again.

Confused race. It was my first Run LDN Victoria 10k race - i arrived to huge queues for registration and also the loos. We started 40 minutes later than expected and I was so confused by the route. I'm running down one way and suddenly some runners are telling me that I'm going the wrong way. Such a shame - also it would be good to get the date on the medal too. I don't think I will do this race again - sorry :-(

A series of mishaps.... Lets start with the 300 people queue at 10am for a race that started at 10:25 for the 10k. Could have been organised better. 1.5 km in, the steward directed us out of the the park, out to a major road and up another park only for us to realise that we have run a km the wrong way due to a confusing set up and lack of staff. The signs flew off or turned around so we weren't able to see our progress unless we checked our watches so I was shocked to find that I had finished, checking my watch, I was probably at around 9km when I was directed to the finish line... All in all, confusion due to the weather and the a staff shortage and a small amount of bad organisation. However, the event was enjoyable for all and the organisers were friendly and helpful. Will definitely run again.

Poorly organised... This was not an enjoyable experience! The staffing issues meant Runner’s waiting around in the cold and wet not really knowing that was going on. There was one water stall and no refresherments were offered during the marathon for that essential boost. The signage was very confusing and to top it off you collected your medal and ‘goodie bag’ from a cardboard box at the end - no staff giving them out or congratulating runners! Enough to put me off running this half again!

A disappointing first half marathon. This was my first ever half marathon and to say i left dosappointed is an understatement! I arrived shortly after 9 am for a 10.15 start time and found myself in the longest registration queue ever. I then thought i’d use the toilet but having seen it was now 10.05 and seen the length of the queue for the loos I decided i’d try and hold it. I joined several others at the starting point, only to find out from other runners that we now wouldn’t be starting until 10.40! (The announcement was very loud or clear) I attempted the toilet queue after this but only got half way when they then said we were starting. I eventually managed to go after my first long lap when they were finally free. (There were only about 10 loos for the hundreds of people there!) The marshals out on route were ok for the first lap or 2 and then looked like they’d rather be anywhere else, they weren’t very encouraging or motivating at all (except one younger guy on a corner near the end of the large lap) By my final lap there wasn’t a single one left out on the course, now i’m not the fastest runner, and from looking at the results several people finished after me, a few almost an hour later, so I can only imagine how it felt for them to be going it alone by this point! Coming up to the finish line i felt so proud and couldnt wait to receive my medal and goody bag...what a disappointment that was! The “goody bag” was practically thrown at me when i crossed the line, and contained a magazine, gym leaflet, a RUNLDN finisher t-shirt and the cheapest looking medal I’ve ever seen! I follow a lot of runners on Instagram who love to show off their beautiful, amazing medals and i couldn’t wait to do the same, especially being my first half marathon and the acheivement it was! Theres nothing that stands out about what I done or where I done it, both the tshirt and medal are basic. I currently complete virtual running challenges of 50 miles per month, i pay £10 a month to do so and the medals i get from that are a million times better than what i received yesterday. The medal was a dissapointment to say the least! According to the website, printed handouts of finishing times would also be available on the day, yet I didnt receive one so only had a rough time going by my own watch. The food outlets had stopped serving when i finished. There was nobody giving out water it was all dumped on a table. Nothing to even say “well done” once finished. Extremely dissapointed that i paid £26 for what i thought would be a brilliant first half marathon and only left me feeling deflated and dissapointed afterwards.

Few issues - but mostly not their fault. The driving rain and strong winds caused all sorts of issues with the signage which made it incredibly difficult to keep up with the quite convoluted route set for the 10k. Having run a 10k on the same site 2 weeks previous why it was a different route I am not sure. They had a staffing issue which pushed everything back which obviously was not great prep before running. Not enough to put me off running their races in the future though.

The Fyre Festival of 10km Races. Awful organisation and planning, overall bad experience. To begin, registration was entirely manual and involved the staff finding your name on a printed sheet and rifling through a box of envelopes. This resulted us queuing for 45 minutes (in the rain). There also didn't seem to be any staff to ask which queue to join, which meant people had wasted their time queuing, just to find it was the wrong one. The race began (15 minutes late) and after around 2km the 10km race had already taken a wrong turn - the small cone saying "10km turnaround" had turned in the wind and so hundreds of us ran straight past it. This wasn't helped by the confusing looped course and the lack of staff to point us in the right direction at key intersections. I came to the finish after following directions and found my final distance was 9.3km. Overall very disappointing, as I feel I didn't 'finish' the run, a feeling I'm sure is shared by many others, and the cheap-feeling medal was no real compensation. The extra half a star is for the t-shirt which seems quite good.