How are the JE folks holding up @gingerbongo ?
Hot! 
I think itās pretty tough for the volunteers too trying to stay away from the sun.
Especially one of our mates with a most important task rollerblading Exmouth seafront where it ends!!
(Iām assuming heās stopped now so as not to melt in that costume!!)
Didnāt stop the vicar winning again and heading off to his Sunday service this morning! 
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@Sparky , just watched a clip of a guy that ran this year in Batch Q and he said there was not water at all for the first 14km, due to the early batches using it all.
Whatās that 7 aid stations? I think Iāve seen more clips of people running with vests this year than Iāve ever noticed before.
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Let me get back to you on this properly tomorrow and also other stuff above. But yes that is correct
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So @FatPom I was in the last wave but not at the very back however there was no water for the first 5 or 6 stations. As you can imagine some people, not unreasonably, were going mental. They did have coke and I think also on some of those, isotonic drinks, so I was drinking those and trying to stay calm. It was though, I think, a good hour and a half before I saw any water which is really really bad. They have the water in these little plastic tubes which are absolutely brilliant. However rather than handing out one they were handing out two which was unnecessary and obviously did not help
@funkin yes it was in 2023 which was my back to back year. A real shame as I had a great race that year and was then looking forward to watching runners trying to make the 12 hour cut off. Instead with 20 mins to go the runners just dried up. Just weird. Many runners, Iām sure, would have made it but got pulled out
@awildt Iāll be honest I am not sure about the waves. On the positive it only took me 1m 20 secs to cross the line in wave 3 and it did seem less congested, which is the feedback the organisers have responded to. However I did not mind the congestion and those in waves 2 and 3 got a cut down version of the start; so just Chariotts of Fire, the Cockerel Crow and then the cannon which seems a shame. But as Iāve already mentioned the plan is for 35000 starters next year, which they will definitely get. Iām just trying to imagine how that is going to work in the narrow streets of Pietermaritzburg 
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I think this is why they had to do it this year to test it. I did wonder about the reality of the start line atmosphere. What you see versus whatās experienced are vastly different.
They had a couple of incidents of broken limbs from trips and falls last year (in PMB) so they had to reassess the start. The question is, does it need to get bigger? There was a lot of chatter in 2000 when they had the āone-offā cut-off extension to 12 hours and a big increase in the entry cap. Ultimately thatās in the history books now and no one would roll it back.
Quite akin to the discussions around a 2-day London marathon. You canāt please all of the people, all of the time.
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This.
I do hope that the 35000 limit does not somehow become a norm. Itās perhaps appropriate for the 100th but then it needs to revert back to a manageable number; somewhere around 20000. The money it generates is a big reason to milk the race, I do hope that someone up top has the strength of character to say no.
It is analogous to whatās happening, has happened to the London Marathon. It has to be one day, capped somewhere around 40000, more places in the ballot and less given to charities who pay a premium for them (probably not a popular sentiment). Even then many will be disappointed, but that is life, you are not entitled to a place. There are other things you can enter whilst you wait
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Watched this today
I do recommend it , really shows the hard reality of Cocodona 250.
Still working on @tunster to do Sedona 125 in 2028 with me ā¦ ( unless one of us gets into WSER).
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Will watch that later thank you
Donāt worry - I will be in for WSER 2027 
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Spent most of the afternoon watching WS on YouTube - fascinating race. Menās leader massively up on course record pace - probably due to cooler conditions
Womenās race is super competitive with top 10 all so close to each other
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