This was my first running of the Tad 10 and my first ever 10 mile race (so a guaranteed PB :)).

We arrived early and there was plentiful free parking in the town centre. Race registration and number collection was easy in Riley Smith Hall, a lovely building in the town centre. Race HQ also offered a baggage store and bacon sandwiches and cakes for supporters. The ladies toilets were newly refurbished and were really stylish (the first time I'd seen candelabras in a pre race loo!), but were getting busy by my second visit half an hour before the race start. There were however, portaloos next to the start line which was a 5 minute walk away from the hall.

I couldn't hear the race briefing from my start position at the back of the pack so I couldn't really comment on that!

The race itself started on the newly repaired Tadcaster Bridge and into town on a 1.5 mile loop before arriving back at the bridge again. Having only previously driven through Tadcaster I was surprised about how nice the town was. From the bridge the course went out of town on a loop consisting of mostly narrow country roads through 3 villages before finishing back in Tadcaster on the edge of town.

The course was slightly hillier than I expected and though not any hills to speak of, long sections felt like steady inclines or drags. There were 2 water stations and good on- course support in the villages and in the town.

I really enjoyed the race; it seemed to have a lot of fast club runners which meant that I was towards the back of the pack but had little course congestion!

There was a decent medal and a great technical race T shirt at the finish and another bonus was the post race bacon sandwich and mug of coffee (for only £2!!!) from the Methodist Church a short walk from the finish, which had been advertised in the pre race email. :)

My only grumbles were:

The course was advertised as closed road, but we encountered traffic in places and two of my friends encountered a car at 60mph ignoring the marshalls and driving dangerously along the route and another car which came within a few feet of them as it tried to drive over the finish line (it was stopped and diverted just before). Presumably these were locals who had driven off their drives, as all adjoining roads were marshalled.

My second grumble was that the same two friends didn't receive a finishers shirt as by the 2 hour mark most t shirt sizes had gone and there were few shirts left at all (the cut off was 2:30). This was especially disappointing for one friend, for whom this was her longest race to date (they were promised that a t-shirt would be posted to them, but it hasn't yet arrived). I understand that there were entries on the day, but t-shirt sizes had been requested on the race entry so it would have been fairer (as in other races) for these late entries to be marked on the race numbers and be the ones who had t shirts posted on.

The other great thing about the race was links to free to download race photos were posted in the few days following and I actually had a decent photo for a change!

A race I would definitely do again.