You are not alone

And that's Standalone over for another year.  Despite the first rain in 21 years (and it seemed the weather was making up for that by dumping it all on us in one day), our spirits were not dampened and the whole event was a success.

I always think of the Saturday session at Standalone as being the goodie-bag production line, but this year I wasn't involved in that at all.  Instead, I helped put up the various gazebos we needed for the information desk, chip collection and goodie-bag pick-up.  Since I'm tall, I feel I added something useful to this process (I was going to say something unique, but Duncan was there too, and he can reach as far as I can!).  I'm also impressed at how much gazebo technology has advanced over the years - once you work out what all the telescopic poles do, and where all the velcro goes, it's really easy.  (Gazebo technology?  Of course such a thing exists!)

Unfortunately, it was too windy to risk putting all the canvas on the frames on Saturday (otherwise we might not know where to look for them the next day).  So my first Sunday task was to finish that job.  Then I spent an hour or two in one of the gazebos handing out numbers and chips, before going to the start line to stop the runners getting too close to the chip mats before the race started.  Then a bit of tidying up in the 'quiet' half-hour before the runners came back, then a spell (in the dry!) helping Karen Franklin give everyone their kit bags back.  And finally, when all that was over, I joined the general army of fluorescent yellow ants, working away at dismantling all the things we'd spent so long constructing!

I'm glad I didn't have to run.  At the moment I'm about Ollie-Statto-Northy speed*, and since they all ran well, I wouldn't have added anything useful there.  In fact, both the NHRR men's and ladies' teams won the overall event, which was a fantastic performance.  It's just a shame I didn't see any of it!

I'm also glad I wasn't marshalling - it was more fun to have lots of jobs to do rather than stay in the same place all morning.  And I was the trail cyclist one year and got very bored, so well done Sally for (dare I say) enjoying it this time round!

Looking at the feedback, the overwhelming response seems to be that everyone likes the enthusiasm, organisation and friendliness of Standalone, especially from the marshals.  I think as long as we can keep that side of things up to standard, runners will keep enjoying themselves and keep coming back.

There are things we can improve, of course.  The most immediate problem at number-collection was a lack of pins, and from what I understand, the race memento was a bag, but we also had some extra stuff to give out on behalf of the sponsors (not enough for every bag) so people were unhappy with the contents of their bags.  Funny, if we'd left them empty then people would probably have been happier!  During peak time at bag collection (10:50 to 11:00 maybe?) we could have done with a few extra bodies at the bag collection, too.

If you've got your own opinions about anything that went wrong, the NHRR committee in general and race committee in particular need to hear about them.  It'll help to make next year's race better, so don't keep your suggestions to yourself.

*I mean over 10k.  I hope I'd be able to out-run them over 26 miles.  Only 4 weeks before I have to find out... back to the normal marathon blogging soon!