Back again for the 2023 edition. Brilliant as ever. Great atmosphere in the start area on the build up to the race. Started on Newcastle quayside for the second year, which looks to be a permanent setting now. Maybe not a favourite of the purists, but it is a great space for pre race meet ups etc. The course does have some undulations, but I'd describe it as mostly flat. This year the course was made a touch shorter, I measured it as 9.3km, against 9.8km last year. I don't think I've ran the same course 2 years and running, they seem to tweak it every year. A minor gripe is that people aren't asked to queue at the start in pace/ finish time order. It's fairly congested for the first mile with lots of very slow runners and walkers. I'm not particularly fast, but I was pushing for a target time, so was a bit frustrating. It didn't overall destract from the enjoyment and maybe stopped my going off too quick and burning myself out early on. I finished ahead of my target pace, so all was good. A brilliant event and I'll be back in 2024.