On The Day – Richmond Park Marathon

Please refer to the following information to ensure you have a safe & enjoyable race experience on 21st May 2017 at the Richmond Park Marathon (“RPM”).

Please read the following information as it will ensure you have a safe and enjoyable race.

 The Marathon course is a three lap route held entirely within the boundaries of Richmond Park, starting and finishing at Sheen Gate – the first lap will be approximately 12.2 miles, the 2^nd and 3^rd laps will be full Tamsin Trail laps (7.1 miles each) which will make the marathon distance of 26.2 miles or 42.1 km.

Race HQ is situated just outside Sheen Gate Car Park, you will notice a gathering of marquees and gazebo’s in the area underneath a clutch of trees. Click here to show the location of the start area – look at the top for SHEEN GATE.

We are hoping to have Chris Preston and his team (To Be Confirmed) will lead all the runners to engage in 10 minutes of BMF warm ups to get you ready for the race start. Attendance is compulsory and hopefully you will have a bit of fun stretching out before we count-down to the race start!

The marathon will start promptly at 9.30am – setting off from Sheen Gate heading down on the grass towards to Sheen Crossroads, then turning right up towards Sawyers Hill. This will allow the runners to spread out, by the time they return back down through Sheen Gate at the HQ and onward to complete lap one.

There will be plenty of car parking spaces at Sheen Gate and Roehampton Gate Car Parks – the earlier you arrive for the race, the more chance you will have of getting a space at the Sheen CP which is where the race HQ and start is. We recommend you do not park on verges outside Sheen Car Park.

Runners will be able to collect their race numbers at registration HQ on the morning of event. There will be a help desk for those who have any queries re numbers, timing chips and require any information or support. Race packs will include your running number (which has chip timing attached) and safety pins.

Please click here to view course Map – we will have print outs of race map for you so you can see where the route takes you. We will also have a large scale maps at HQ so you can see the area, route and terrain of the 26.1 miles. We would urge all runners to familiarise themselves with the route in general, so no wrong turns are made and official timings will be not be affected. There are obviously certain key points of the route where runners will need to be careful and ensure they follow directions or instructions from marshals or officials. Organisers cannot be held responsible for any incorrect times where runners have not completed the official course. If you can get a trial run before the event to familiarise yourself with certain parts of the route that would be ideal, but appreciate it will obviously not be possible for many runners.

We will provide a changing tent at the HQ Sheen Gate, please use these as quickly as you can to avoid any delays. We will also provide a gazebo for bag drops – and your race number will be the same as your bag drop tag. This will be near the changing tents area. We recommend you do not leave any valuables in these bags to be extra safe. We will have someone looking after baggage throughout the race day.

Note: Organisers cannot be held responsible for any belongings or items that may go missing which are stored in the baggage area, however we are aiming to secure this area and have our officials supervise bag drop off and collection.

We will provide water aid stations after approximately every 3 miles – so every time you pass Sheen Gate, Broomfield Hill and Ham Gate, you can take on water and nourishment on offer. We recommend you bring your own gels, but may have some on offer at Sheen Gate, during the second half of the race.

If you have a special drink you want to leave at Sheen Gate (passing at 3,12,17 miles) we will leave a special drinks table – please flag and mark up your own drink bottle so you can easily identify.

A bottle of water will also be provided to all runners at the finish line.

St Johns Ambulance are the very best medical support you can have at these marathon events , and we will have once again a significant presence of support medics, both at HQ and mobile to assist runners with any injuries or illness that may occur.

Raynet Communications will have vehicles situated around Richmond Park on race day, They provide a vital link via portable devices that connect them to both HQ St Johns Ambulance Teams and the Race Directors and help with any urgent support issues (short water supplies, injuries etc.)

There are toilets situated at all major entrances of Richmond Park – they can be found at Sheen Gate, then clockwise around the park at Roehampton Gate CP, Kingston Gate, Ham Gate and Richmond Gate.

We will have two additional portable toilets situated in Sheen Gate CP for runners to use free of charge. We would encourage all marathon runners to use temporary toilets we have provided, as the parks WC located at the entrance of Sheen Gate can get generally busy and sometimes struggle to cope with increased numbers. The Royals parks also charge 20p….so bring a few coins just in case!!

There will be individual mile markers along the course – as a basic rule, Start/Sheen HQ first lap is 12 miles, then Sheen Gate second lap (along Tamsin Trail) will be 19 miles, and then when completed it will be 26.2 miles.

Please drop all your litter in the bins or area situated next to the Aid Stations or the many various bins within the park. It’s important we leave the park with only our footprints of the running and nothing else, to ensure the beauty and well-being of the park is maintained.

There will a number of race marshals and supporters who will be situated at key road junctions, aid stations and the HQ start and finish area. Please do bear in mind they are all giving up their time to support you on race day, and make sure it’s both fun and successful – without these people we would not be able to put on the Richmond Park Marathon. I would encourage you, to give your thanks to our wonderful support team right throughout the day – they will be cheering you on!!

We would also urge all runners to use caution when crossing busy junctions, as marshals do not have rights to stop traffic, but will obviously help runners at certain key points. It is the responsibility of each entrant to ensure care and caution is exercised when crossing roads and junctions within the park to ensure there are no accidents or injuries.

Upon completion, all marathon runners can collect the following;

A new Richmond Park Marathon medal, a unique RPM T-shirt plus other goodies. The Sweat Shop Shop goody bag with discount vouchers, Running magazine, various vouchers and snacks to help you rehydrate. The RPM 2017 running number can be used to allow the runner a free entry into the Richmond outdoor heated pools (May-June).

The new incoming Mayor of Richmond will be presenting medals and prizes to the first 3 finishers in the male/female category. The race directors will also be awarding spot prizes to various runners that have been kindly donated by our sponsors – we hope you approve of this extra special gesture we provide!

A race cut off time of 6.0 hours (3.30pm) will be strictly adhered to. Any runners who appear to be unable to complete the distance by then may we be asked to stop and return directly to Sheen Gate HQ. A race sweeper will monitor the slowest runner/s to communicate this with the race directors. We hope as in previous years, all of our runners will safely and successfully complete the distance!

Race HQ will be dissembled from 3.30pm onwards.

Maurice Raynor and his wonderful chip-timing team will be looking after all times and race data from the finishing runners, and no doubt will be working frantically through the night so we can publish the finisher’s results on Monday. We hope to get the FREE OF CHARGE runners photographs from Richard (R&R Photos) loaded onto our website for everyone to review and download. Please look out on for this on our website.

Gabriella and Mike will be at the finish with massage tables to ease any runners pains at finish and offer useful specific advice on any niggles and aches. This will be your ideal opportunity to get first hand contact with these fitness and health specialists. We would also like to state that we do not charge for treatments, but would recommend you make a small donation of…say £5 – £10 for their help and time.

We look forward to seeing you all on race weekend – Sunday 21st May 2017

If you have any queries in the meantime, please contact Race Directors either

Email – 1m2go3@gmail.com

Call
Gareth 07967 729 922
or
Ray on 07540 984 707.