Tadcaster 10 – 17th November 2024
by Paul Campbell
I’ve never ran a 10-mile event, and after flagging at around the 10 mile point on my last 2 half marathons I wanted to give the distance ago, knowing I didn’t have the equivalent of a parkrun tagged on at the end.
A quick google search found the Tadcaster race on the same date as the more popular Brampton to Carlisle event. The logistics swung it for me, easy to find, less than 5 miles from the A1 and not having to worry about catching shuttle buses to the start line. I entered just a week before as there were still spaces, which is good to know for future years.
It’s never a good sign when needing to de-ice the windscreen before driving to an event, but although cold there was not much wind, and more importantly it stayed dry. I was able to park at the Heineken brewery, just over the road from Race HQ, and once my number was collected, gels and gloves put in the running belt, I was able to drop my bag off and get ready for the start. I’m never bothered about doing much of a warmup on longer races (the distance itself if a challenge without adding more miles) so a quick jog around the block and we were ready for the gun at 10am.
The first 2 miles were ran around the market town before heading out towards York. At mile 3 the route headed out on country lanes, not too dissimilar to “the Lonnen”, to do a large anti-clockwise loop. I’d gone off a bit too quick and covered the first 5k in 22 minutes, I knew I couldn’t sustain that pace but just concentrated on reaching the village of Wighill at around 8 miles. Chatting to some local club runners I knew 8 miles was the highest point of the course, and was aiming to do the last 2 miles back to the town at 7 min pace, but I didn’t realise that the finish was higher than the start, so unlike the Graham & Brown Superfresco claim, what goes up doesn’t always come down!
I crossed the line in 1h15, with a chip time of 1:14:49. I was hoping for 1h15 so was happy with this considering the Strava distance was 10.12m and it wasn’t exactly flat as advertised, with 286 ft of elevation gain according to the gospel of Strava.
First placed male and female runners completed the race in 50:42 & 58:55, with 794 participants reaching the finish line to receive a medal, and a can of alcohol-free isotonic beer from the event sponsors Erdinger, (one of the many breweries in the area) plus chocolate, flapjack and fruit.
A quick cuppa at Race HQ then back home for 1pm. One I’d definitely consider doing another year, hopefully with some others from Crook next time!
Paul