The 2024 Tay Ten was held on on Sunday 28th April. It returns for its tenth edition – Tay Ten 10 (?) – in 2025.
Individual results can be found here. Team results are here.
265 runners completed the 10-mile course, this being the first use of a new course, slightly altered from its predecessor. It emerged as even faster than the old one. Dundee Road Runners took both team prizes, with their first three men coming home 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the men’s race, and their ladies finishing a perfect 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
In a year where age category record prizes were offered for the first time, four new age category records were set, by Alison McNeilly (Dundee Road Runners, F40), Gillian Sangster (Dundee RR, F50), Gary Watt (Bellahouston Harriers, M50) and Tony Martin (Fife AC, M70). Rose Ryan of Perth Road Runners also set a record for the U20 ladies in winning the first Tay Ten for that age group.
The ladies’ open/overall race was won by Mairi Littleson of Dundee RR in 1:02:32. James Donald of Dundee Hawkhill Harriers not only eased to victory in the men’s race, but also took over two minutes off the event record, lowering it to 51:54. See photos below and Perthshire Advertiser press coverage here.
All photos by Caroline Hogarth.
____
The Tay Ten (TT) is Perth Road Runner’s open/all-comers’ ten-mile race held each spring. It starts and finishes on the athletics track at the George Duncan Athletics Arena in North Muirton, Perth. It offers a fast and flat course, ideal for anyone chasing a 10-mile PB, yet also suitable for newcomers to the distance! Ten-mile races are increasingly rare, yet remain a feature of many clubs’ standards and awards systems. Look no further than the Tay Ten!!
The TT was first run in 2014. It was preceded by the brutal Heaven & Hell Half Marathon (historic results of which appear below). The TT takes place on tarmac, asphalt and hard surfaces; it is a road race (in surface terms). Around 90% of the route avoids public roads and traffic, using paths and cycleways around the north of Perth. The course climbs just 25-30 metres total in its length. Perth parkrun runners will be familiar with the section of the course near the start and finish.
Licensing
The race is licensed by Scottish Athletics; the 2024 licence can be found here.
Health & safety
- The race’s risk assessment can be found here. We encourage participants to take a look.
- Insurance is provided via the Scottish Athletics licence; policy details are here.
- First aid will again be provided by Active First Aid Scotland.
Sponsors
In 2024, we were sponsored by:
Tunnock’s – legendary producers, based in Uddingston, of – among many deliciousnesses – the Caramel Wafer and Tea Cake. Provide a small mountain of Caramel Wafers for the race. Have sponsored the Tay Ten for some years.
Fyffes – one of the largest and oldest tropical produce importers and distributors, especially of bananas … a very small proportion of which will be availabe at the Tay Ten finish. Based in Livingston locally.
Race entry
is via Entry Central. There are no on-the-day entries. There were 350 places available in 2024. The race is always popular with clubs from across Scotland – many of whom use the race as part of their championship/grand prix series – and typically sells out quickly. Minimum entry age under SA rules is 17 years of age (an athlete celebrating their 17th birthday on race day may compete).
Entry fees
Traditionally, a medal has been given to all finishers. As the environmental footprint of such practices creates more concern, we now offer entrants the choice (on signing up) of no medal (with a lower entry fee) or an eco-medal (which can be kept/admired or planted!, see here). Entry fees for 2024 were:
- no medal: Scottish Athletics member £12, SA non-member £14.
- with medal: SA member £15, SA non-member £17.
Updates
Watch this page and/or join our Facebook page.
Catering
We were joined by Brew 52, who provided hot and cold drinks, cakes and snacks (for a fee: you don’t get those included in such a daftly low entry price!).
The course
The Tay Ten course change saw a slight alteration in 2024, when compared with previous editions. The new/altered course can be seen here (Strava) and here (plotaroute, zoomable). The change occurred at around 6-7 miles into the course to obviate a short section of road that is becoming increasingly busy and unpredictable. The nature of that change is shown here. The slight-but-necessary adjustment-for-distance is made by including a slightly longer section of the athletics track at the start. The course was re-measured by AUKCM for Scottish Athletics on 3rd January (certificate here).
Water: There is one water station on the route which runners pass twice: the first time, between the 4 and 5 mile markers and again between the 7 and 8 mile markers.
Timing: Since (and including) the 2015 race, the Tay Ten has been chip timed. Given the rising costs of doing so (these being invariably met by the runners) and improvements in alternative technologies, it was not chip timed in 2024. We had been trialling, testing and becoming proficient with webscorer for the last year and, like a few of our neighbour clubs, were hugely impressed by it. The 2024 Tay Ten was timed by this method. The traditional trip-to-the-timing-van was not possible (no van!), but live ‘official’ results were showing on a laptop screen at race HQ. The timing was a great success.
Event records and previous winners
Male: Alistair Gudgin, Fife AC, 54:04 (2022).
Female: Annabel Simpson, Fife AC, 59:21 (2019).
We’ve pulled together the overall winners, age group winners, team winners and the records for those categories in our race history table here. Overall results for each of the races appear below.
Race prizes
Our prize pot increased sharply in 2024; we doubled our previous prizes and added age category record prizes and an Under-20 age category.
There were prizes for:
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd prizes for male & female (£60, £50, £40 + glass mementos).
- 1st prize for male & female teams (XC/position-based scoring system, 3 in team score; decent wine).
- 1st prize (only) for male & female age categories as below (£30 + glass mementos):
- Under-20s: aged 17-19 inclusive on the day (NB: if aged 20, athlete competes in the Senior category);
- Vets: M 40-49 and F 40-49;
- Supervets: M 50-59 and F 50-59;
- Master Vets: M 60-69 and F 60-69; and
- Vintage Vets: M 70+ and F 70+
- Course records (£50). To be 100% clear, this is all-comers (overall/absolute) records, not age group records! … but see also…
- Age category records (£30). See link immediately above for current age group records. Note that, in this first year of the category, Under-20 course record prizes were not offered.
Results from previous years:
2024 (265 finishers) individual results team results
2023 (228 finishers)
2022 (237 finishers)
2019 (271 finishers)
2018 (297 finishers)
2017 (307 finishers)
2016 (270 finishers)
2015 (266 finishers)
2014 (171 finishers)
also held in 2020 and 2021 as a virtual 10K race.
___
For completeness, here are the results from the Heaven & Hell Half-Marathon, prior to the launch of the Tay Ten:
2013 (106 finishers)
2012 (179 finishers)
2011 (156 finishers)
2010 (196 finishers)
2009 (192 finishers)
2008 (115 finishers)
2007 (70 finishers)
2006
2005 (114 finishers)