Note
Regular Irregular. Saw Simon at the start but not for very long. I was always intending to walk the whole way an settled into the middle of the walking group. I quickly got frustrated with this, not because they were particularly slow but because it took ages to get through every stile. So I accelerated past the walkers and by the top of the first little climb found myself catching the back end of the runners. I spent the rest of the first loop (11 miles) overtaking on the climbs and getting overtaken on the descents, and admittedly getting a bit competitive about it. I wasn't going to do any running though.
I didn't stop for a rest before the second loop (7 miles) and ended up doing most of it on my own. It was much hillier and much muddier than loop 1 so I was a bit slower. I caught a group just at the top of the last climb so they could jog away from me down to the Village Hall.
I had a couple of minutes for a drink and some sweets before tackling the easy 3rd loop (4 miles), which consisted of one big climb and then back down by a different route. I didn't see anybody else at all. With about 1.5 miles to go disaster struck. I was just thinking that if I got a move on I would beat 6 hours, wasn't paying attention and missed a turn. It took me several minutes to notice despite some very obvious signs,but at least when I did notice there was a way back on track which meant I didn't have to retrace my steps. It was a bit demoralising though and then when I hit the horriblest muddiest field of the entire route I was completely knocked out of my stride and had a bit of a wobble. I had to down a gel to get me through the last half mile. And then when I had finished I pressed the wrong combination of buttons on my watch and the entire day's GPS disappeared.
23 miles plus a little diversion, 6:08. Simon Says 4000 feet of climb which must be about 1200m for normal people. It was a nice day and I was enjoying it until the last mile.