I'm more trail than road so after not enjoying the crowds and motorway of the Great North Run last month I was apprehensive about this race. I was running a bit late for the start as usual. The first thing I saw when I got to the university was my start pen. I asked the marshals where the bag check was and they didn't know. So I ran around in a bit of a panic until I found the event village. It was about a 10 minute walk away, more on the way back due to the crowds. Better signage would have helped, I found a map but not knowing the university it was pretty useless. There were some funny Yorkshire themed signs around the university though and the grounds were gorgeous. Got in a long toilet queue with a bunch of 10 milers who weren't starting until 45 minutes after the marathon. I think I was in the toilet when the gun went! I managed to get in my start pen (2) just as it started moving. Panic over, from here on in the race was great. The weather was wet, cold and miserable but this did not put the fine people of Yorkshire off giving the runners a warm welcome. Support on course was off the charts. York Minster pealed its encouragement. A few miles in there is even a high 5ing vicar. Plenty of water stations and two gel stations. The course is flat-ish. It's full of almost imperceptible upward slopes. My Strava seems to think I did more up than down. There were a couple of tailbacks, one of them very long. Sometimes this is demoralising but as I was there with a large group it was great to cheer on my teammates. As I said support from spectators was good - so good I didn't really notice there wasn't much entertainment. There was one woman with a speaker pumping out tunes from the boot of her car, there was a band, a pipe band and a choir. I think I heard a samba band off in the distance but didn't notice passing them. Jelly babies everywhere, the people of Yorkshire know what runners like! Most of the course is in the countryside and villages around York so lovely scenery. There is a hill right at the end, the only thing that can properly be termed a hill in the course. You come down the hill right at the start so I can't say we weren't warned! At the finish I got my medal, silver blanket and a big cup of Erdinger. The goody bag only contained things that had dairy in them so I'll be giving those away at work. Getting my bag back was relatively quick and because I was cooling down even with my silver blanket I jumped on the shuttle to the train station, which was a bit closer to where I was staying. £3 to do a bit less walking seemed worth it at the time! To sum up, I really enjoyed the race. The hardy spectators and volunteers made my day. A+ would do again!