For his second outing of the weekend David Goodyear chose the Tadcaster 10 miler. Hosted by Sport Yorkshire the race is a 10 mile road race that was established in 1983 by Tadcaster Methodist Church before Tadcaster Harriers had even been formed. The Harriers subsequently took it on and it was a fixture on the Summer calendar until the last race in 2002.
Increasing beaurocracy , heavier traffic and a downturn in entries spelt the end for the race. At the height of it’s popularity in the late 1980’s it attracted nearly 1000 runners.The course record was set in the first race by Steve Anders, St Helens AC, at 48.07 and plenty of top class runners tried to better it, the closest being Colin Moore of Bingley in 48.37.
Veroniqe Marot, an international athlete who represented Leeds City AC set a mark of 58.37 in the very first race. This was subsequently demolished by Lynn Everington of Stretford AC who ran 56.02 in 1987, coming 31st out of 735 finishers.] The event was relaunched in 2016 but unfortunately the floods washed away the historic bridge, so the route had to be diverted over the viaduct. The following years has seen a few alterations to the route, each time hopefully making it better each time. For 2021 the Race HQ and start line have moved to St Josephs Street in Tadcaster. Starting on St Josephs Street, the course begins with a 2km loop around Tadcaster Town Centre before heading East out towards the quiet country roads passing through Catterton, Healaugh and Wighill. Billed as quite a flat course, although there is a long steady climb around the half way mark, still ideal for those looking for a new 10 mile pb. With the perfect, sunny if a little cool, conditions today making it all the more achievable. David finished the race in a brilliant time of 1:40:16. Well done David!
