Race Day Part Five

Directly after the fourth Aid station, there were two horses, and from here on there was also a sudden increase in off-road cyclists to be aware of.

This was not too far from the half-way point.  The terrain during this section was very hard underfoot, so where possible I sought to run on any grass areas.

Half-way stage reached.

The strawberry ice cream was yum! I'm not sure the sandwich touched the sides when I ate it, and the price of that was needing to walk a while to allow it to digest enough so I could run without bringing back up.

I should also add that from filling up one of my water bottles I ended up with a very chemically tasting water that despite several washes it took two further Aid stations before I could get rid of it from the bottle.

Cider for those staying over and completing the rest of the distance tomorrow.

Not a good photo but in the distance there are the green tents the two-day participants were staying in.

I grabbed a banana here before I left to start the second 50km - I ran with it in my hand for about 12 miles! as I never got round to eating it, in part because I wanted to hold off until I was near to an Aid station, to put the skin in the bin.

Race Day Part Four

Directly from the Aid Station, I was walking whilst enjoying the juiciest apple ever (or at least it felt like it during the heat), when I found myself walking alongside a female fellow participant.

A good chunk of about the next four miles was spent chatting to her, as one of her past achievement was doing the Marathon des Sables, a five-day multi-stage race in the Sahara desert - something I would never do due to the heat but I am always fascinated with reading about it.

As part of our chat, she mentioned she was going to walk this race and be done in 20hrs, which I responded with "that pace sounds pedestrian"......on a normal flattish path, it probably is but I struggled walking to keep up with her "pedestrian" pace, something I would referenced to her many a time during the race, particularly uphill where I would end being left behind and could only catch up when I choose to run.

Occasionally you could spot a field where the small copse of trees would have a crop circle around it.

 

These never-ending shallow inclines proved to me I am terrible at walking fast uphill - it would take until the latter half of the race to realise my best option was to run uphill as my running muscles were trained for, and my walking muscles were not trained for it.

If you merged these three photos together you would create a panoramic view - the first photo has a power station in the distance, and for sometime it would feel like all I was doing was moving a wide circular route around it.

There was a really sharp uphill directly after this short tunnel.

This sign like the other nine similar signs lie - it maybe just 1km but it always felt like the longest km in every section.....

At this point 27 miles had been covered, meaning everything from now on was a new running distance for me, and I was only 4.5 miles away from the half-way point.

Race Day Part Three

 The early part of this section was easy going although the mars bar was a poor food choice - the cheese and onion crisps was a great choice.

The route along the river was slippery under foot as the long grass had been cut and left on the ground.

I needed to stop here as I had acquired some stone chips in my shoes.  The bridge is a railway bridge and in the space of about five minutes I saw three high speed trains cross it.

Further along across the river was a shop selling ice creams, and in this heat I would have been tempted to find a way across.....

 

warming ham clearly has embraced it connection to the Ridgway, and again the pub was tempting in the mid-day heat.

Streatley is pretty big, and must be a great place to visit and walkabout but also has a never ending uphill incline after this section - it was very tough to push a decent walking pace.

The higher up you go the better the views but I was beginning to think I would never see the 1km to go sign.

at last the third Aid Station where I did my first change of socks having done 21 miles.  The best range of snacks was here.

Race Day Part Two

Early after the aid station was this church - whilst I am not religious I do like church buildings.

A great Gate entrance to a picturesque building.

This is the iconic race to the stones photo that I have recreated - sort of terrain I have trained for, and it was good fun to run.  Ironically I couldn't get a mobile signal at the aid station to give an update (to go on my Facebook page) but I could here.

The bunting was for a village in bloom type event.

Shortly after the bunting, we crossed some nice smooth well cut grass, to then suddenly hear "Four" as a golf ball heads in our direction - fortunately, they were amateur golfers......

There was a technical section that was narrow and tended to have tree roots under foot.  Tough but great to do.

The maps were regular on the Ridgway and show how well people are encouraged to use this national trail.

The building was a water mill - you could hear but not see the mill itself as the water rushed through it into the river.

The second aid station where I grabbed a packet of cheese and onion crisps and a mars bar.