A hilly, muddy but scenic 10k or 5k route. The 10k is a 2 x 5k lap race which means you get to enjoy the woods for a 2nd time. 

Once you've negotiated the muddy woodland and it's hills you come out to lovely views over Bathampton and head up towards Sham Castle. Definitely worth the uphill sections.  

The route is mainly off road, through the university and woods but you share the route with the general public. The marshals are good when it comes to the section down the entrance to the golf club car park. 

The Marshals are helpful, friendly and encouraging and the post race food table is excellent. 

Results are usually on the website as a live update and collecting your number on race day is hassle free and organised. 

Having run a few of Relish Runnings races I'd recommend them. 

I completed all 4 of the Bath Skyline 10ks over the 2016/17 winter and they were all great (and different!) despite being on exactly the same course.

Registration was straightforward, when booking you can select any available wave to spread the field out (it's not based on speed).

The 10k is a two lap course starting from the University, tracking around the outside of the golf course, through woods (very muddy, very steep) and opening out to some great views over Bath. It's 95% off-road, mainly tracks, with a very short stint on a quiet road.

The event is popular and fairly narrow/technical in places, so it's good to be alert and willing to move over (or politely let slower runners know you're coming through!)

At the end you get a fantastic medal (they interlock if you do more than one in the series) and an always excellent assortment of goodies such as fruit, sweets, chocolate bars etc.

The Bath Skyline is a series of 300 metre, 5km, and 10km races on Bath's Skyline trail by the University of Bath. There are four races in the series, which runs from November to February, and if you run all of them and collect the medals they interlock.

Relish Running puts on a great race. Runners leave in waves that aren't sorted by pace to disperse the crowd throughout the course and it went off without a hitch. Each wave got our own race briefing with a description of the course and, more importantly, it's muddy hills. Perhaps the most worrying bit for the 10km runners, making sure to turn off for the 2nd loop, was nothing to worry about due to the excellent course marshals and signage. The 10km course was two laps of the 5km course and as the 5km runners set off with the first wave of 10km runners it could have been confusing. 

The course loops round Bathampton Down and the Bath Golf Club. It sets off through the University's West Car Park, over a pedestrian bridge and along some fairly tame campus trails until heading downhill into Bathampton Woods - an absolute quagmire that caused a traffic jam on the first loop. Eventually the trail leads up into the course's steepest section along the old quarry tramway. After the hill runners cross some beautiful fields with a fantastic view of the city before crossing the Bath Golf Club parking lot, heading down a short road, and climbing up to the famouse Sham Castle. The course follows a country road, with the deepest puddles you'll encounter the whole race, before climbing back up to the pedestrian footbridge and around the sports field to the finish area or the split for the 2nd lap.

Finish area was great. Because of the staggered start there wasn't a huge lineup for medals or water and food and it was easy to find friends. I finished the race covered from head to toe in mud, got a unique medal (not why I run races, but always a bonus), and raced a stranger in a sprint to the finish. 

Tips:

• Don't worry about falling. You're going to get muddy at some point and it's really quite a soft landing.
• Wear trail shoes.
• Run through the puddles.
• Go to the university sports centre for lunch afterwards. Cheap healthy food, big portions.