York is by far one of my favourite places to race as the local support is amazing and the routes are always beautiful. I signed up for this race at the last minute and I'm so glad I did. 

We got the shuttle bus from the train station to York University campus which was fairly easy. We got there at a great time as a minute or so after we arrived at the bus stop, the line really started to grow. The bag drop was easy enough to find as it is right by where the buses droped us off. However, I am aware of other runners who did not use the shuttle buses having difficulty finding the bag drop/main race village. 

The race village itself felt fairly compact due to space limitations of being on the university campus, and medal engraving (two different locations)/massage areas were spread out due to this and some were in some university buildings. There were lines at the bag drop, but they moved very quickly and the marshalls were so friendly. 

The village was not well sign posted at all, and what signs were there were small and difficult to see. It made finding the start areas very chaotic and we were very rushed to find our holding pens despite leaving plenty of time to find them.

 I really enjoyed the route and thought it was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't mind running in the countryside one bit, and thought it was a nice change from only running in the city. You get the best of both worlds running the 10mile race of both city and country running. 

The spectator support was amazing, even in the countryside we still had plenty of support. A real highlight for me was somewhere between 6 - 8 miles, I had to walk due to a nasty stitch in my side. A gentleman gave me a big smile and encouragement and told me to get myself some sweets just up the road that some kids were handing out to runners. When I got to the kids, the youngest one looked up at me and said 'have a candy, it will help.' It gave me such a boost and put a massive smile on my face.

The support from runners was equally amazing. When I was walking I had so many other runners ask me if I was okay, and encourage me to keep going. There was on in paticular (and I wish I got her name) that asked me if I was okay, told me to keep breathing to get rid of the stitch and gave me a big smile as she went past. When I caught up with her a short time later she gave me an even bigger smile and a wave when she recognised me. It is moments like this that really make a race for me, and race in York never disappoint. It is by far one of the friendliest and best supported places I've ever run in. I was asked more times in the space of 1 minute if I was okay, compared to the last 45 minutes of a half marathon I ran 2 weeks earlier in a different city

 The route is fairly flat aside from a lovely hill within the last mile of the race near the end. I know this through a few runners off, but what goes up must come down and you had a lovely downhill finish. Although I did start sprinting early when I mistook the marathon start line for the finish line (rookie mistake). 

I love the finishers top and medal, and really enjoyed the free pint of Erdinger at the end. 

My only real complaints of the day are the lack of signs in the race village and the water stations. The start area was absolute chaos due t the lack of signs and inability of runners to get to their starting pens. It felt very rushed and didn't allow for a proper warm-up. During the race water bottles with twist off caps were handed out to runners. I find these next to impossible to drink from during a race with most of the water going all over the place, and gulping down air instead of water. At the finish line runners are handed water bottles with squirty tops which are much easier to drink from while running. It is an easy enough fix which would really add to the experience.

Overall, I absolutely loved the day. This was my first time running a 10 mile race, and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend this race to anybody as it is so friendly and a beautiful route. I can't wait to race here again .