120k by bike - scouting the route

15 May

Wowsers - what a day! Yesterday I set the alarm for 4:45am and set out at 5:20am to scout the whole route for the run in October. The first 70k or so were familiar as I'd walked those last year.

Dulwich to Rochester is fiddly. Take the fifth left, then third right, bear left, 7th left, fourth right, across the park and so on and so on for miles. All easy though from a running perspective, if I don't get lost!

Rochester to Detling is undulating with a couple of big hills, only one really steep one and it's pleasant.

But after Detling the North Downs Way path is very vertical, overgrown and in short would make a hard walk, let alone run. With a bike it was almost impossible! The section from Detling to Hollingbourne was so tough it could derail the whole run. It isn't a long section so I will look at doing it on the road, not ideal, but far more realistic. After that there are occasional hills, but none so steep and the way is mostly clear and very good. There is one monster hill and one less monstrous right at the end which will be tough, but if taken slowly might be ok.

It took me 14hrs 15mins to cover the route. I stopped for 45mins for lunch and stopped many, many times to check the route. Strava had my moving time down as 10hrs 30mins.

Ultimately I think what this has shown me is that the route is far more pleasant and pretty than I had imagined, there are loads of places for the support team to get to me and it isn't going to take me 15hrs to run it - more like 20!

Finally it was really great to catch Mum and Dad at home when I arrived as they'd just got back from holiday - thanks for the lift back up the station Dad! My legs were shot! Home by 10:15 last night - shattered!