The Athlete's Village was at the Old Trafford cricket stadium which meant it was easy to get to with trams starting at about 7am, and buses even earlier. I was staying nearby at Salford Quays, so I walked there, which took about half an hour. With about 9500 people running the marathon, not including the team relays, there were quite a number of people turning up that morning. The organisation seemed good, but I would recommend getting there with time to spare if you are using the bag drop off or toilets, there are always going to be queues with that number of people.
It was a crowded start, it took me 11 minutes in total to get to the actual start line, but I was quite far back. Once I crossed the line the first mile of the route in on a wide, multi-lane road with plenty of room for everyone, then continues with a mix of narrower urban housing and wide main roads for the rest of the race.
Just after mile 8 there's a nice suburban two way straight for just over a mile, where I encountered lead runners passing in the opposite direction. It was an impressive sight and hard not to draw inspiration from it.
There were water stations around every 2 to 2.5 miles with plenty of volunteers. It looks like there were gel stations at about every other station, carrying some product from Optimum Nutrition that I hadn't come across before. I didn't notice them much out on the course as I was using my own.
The first 10k in the second half seemed uneventful. I was mostly running on automatic and I don't remember too much that made this part of the course standout. At mile nineteen there was a timing challenge to run that mile at a faster pace than your overall average, then you were supposedly entered into a draw. I'm not even sure what you'd win, but I found it fun and it was one of my fastest miles, although that wasn't to last much longer.
The crowd support, fantastic throughout, seemed strongest for the last 10K, which helped enormously to keep going, although by this point I was only able to offer up mere grunts of thanks in response. It was hard going by now. Sheer will power managed to keep me moving forward at whatever pace I could for the last couple of miles until the last half mile when the welcome site of the 26-mile marker became visible around a slight turn and I managed to ignore the pain to end on a respectable pace.
After the finish there's what seemed like a fair walk back through the race village then to some stalls to pick up the goody bag, with medal, Optimum Nutrition protein bar, small Soreen malt loaf bar, and technical shirt. The shirt is Asics brand and seems of decent quality, and the design works well for spotting other finishers at your next Parkrun.
In summary, this is a really flat course, great for a PB. It's not the most scenic, mostly through urban areas, but it's relatively easy running and the support is fantastic. The organisation is good, but with the numbers of people it will be fairly crowded around the start. The shirt is nice and the medal is impressively large. This was my first marathon and it was really enjoyable.
Richard