This was the first time that I ran the Yorkshire Marathon, billed as being (unexpectedly) flat!

There was a rather crowded event village at the start, which maybe could have been better laid out.  There seemed to be small groups of toilet cubicles dotted around, but queues were huge, so for 7,000 people probably not enough.  That said the atmosphere was great, the starting funnel worked really well and was well marshalled with great MCs keep ing the crowd entertained.

The course started with a nice downhill section, good to get you up to speed and warm up a bit, however if was busy at that point and a sharp left turn almost brought us to a standstill.  After that it was busy, but soon thinned out and running through this historical city was amazing.  Soon we were out of town and meandering through picturesque villages.  The first half of the race was pretty straightforard and fun, with lots to see.  However just after halfway there was a pair of 'out and backs', the long straight between was really tough with a steady incline over about 2-3 miles.  This whole section of about 5-6 miles was a bit sole destroying until turning back into the villages and heading for home.  The last mile or so again was pretty tough as we navigated the hill that had made for such a pleasant start.  Fortunately it wasn't too long and levelled out for a fast final 400m 'sprint' to the line.

Once all of that was complete the finishing funnel worked really well and the medal and goodies were great!

Support on the route was great in places, but was non existent elsewhere.  To be expected on a route that has long stretches between villages.  

Overall a good event, well worth doing, but need to be aware of the tough bits!!