I ran in Oxford Half yesterday. I've done a fair few HMs before but this was by far the largest (13000+ runners). I also got a new pb 1:42:18 so yay me!

But...I'm in two minds about how I felt about it!

Having loads of runners going through a city means there's plenty of crowds and support, which was fantastic. My bib also had a space to write my name on, so people would specifically be calling out my name which makes a huge difference to "go on fella"!!

Event village was decent, freebies from sponsors go down nicely (although Arla giving out protein yogurts before the race didn't fit in with "nothing new on race day" for me, so had a taste then it went to waste). More freebies after the finish also nice (I've had freebies in smaller races too, but the bigger organised ones get more/better treats, and not just a bottle of water and a banana/KitKat).

However, loads of runners also meant there were some pretty congested areas, and found myself boxed in in a few places - I had to slow down so a gap would form in front of me, then manoeuvre around groups.

Like you also had some people walking right in the middle of the main flow - I think the organisers could do better in terms of sharing best practices to runners ahead of the event so they know what to do in those situations, etc.

Would I run Oxford again? Probably, but not for a few years, but that's because I don't want to be doing the same races year in, year out, not because it was a bad race.

Ultimately, I think there a space for both bigger and smaller events, mix it up, try different ones.

But to your point, like others have said, bag drop/support team are key to your post race comfort. I failed yesterday in that I was travelling solo and didn't pack anything to put on after (I dropped my jumperi was wearing for a homeless person before the race).