After last week’s 80 miles I did have plans this weekend to attempt a 26 miler however when I woke up in the morning I thought better of it and thought maybe somewhere in between over 20 miles might be a good compromise.
I left the house about 8:30 as there would be no need to travel to the starting point. I headed on my my route that I would usually take to add up to the top of the hill above Chiltern forest golf club then took a right across the field with the trig point passed the windover woods cafe. There was a centurion event going on where people run straight walk some ridiculous number of miles when I walked past the start and finish tent I noticed that the clock was at sometime between 25 and 26 hours elapsed.
I kept up high walking along the Ridgeway then left it to pass through lordling wood and baldwins wood and then followed a direct path towards prestwood passing through leegate and Lee common. The going was quite good but because of the recent rang there were some quite muddy patches so I had to be b&m ball on my feet because I wasn’t wearing my normal heavy-duty walking boots had gone for my lightweight Salomon trail walking stroke running shoes.
I passed the eyesore causes by the countryside devastation caused by the I’ll advised project that is HS2, I reached Great Missenden, which I passed through to get to a cafe in Prestwood. I took a rest and enjoyed a very nice cheese and onion quiche. It had a real cream texture and flavour. The pain au raisin also went down a treat washed down with an americano. I would save my cheese sandwich for later.
I have been following a trail of orange dots most of the morning but had not seen anyone else following them. Part way up the penalty minute he’ll on my walk a person in running gear appeared from the side walking I managed to catch up with them and ask them what they were up to. There was a 50 km circular run strike walk happening which was to finish in Princes risborough. A few more passed me in the next Milo to but it’ll run wild catch up and when they walk I could certainly on catch up with them a little bit perhaps that is the sort of event I should aspire to participate in. I caught up with some of them at a refreshment stop and and check in point soon after their path diverted from mine and I stopped to eat my cheddar cheese sandwich
It started raining a bit which meant that the weather forecast is were slightly out bed predicted rain earlier beating off at about 23 oclock but it has not rained all morning so I guess it was settling in for to rain until early evening. It turns out I was wrong, the rain soon stopped and the sun almost came out. Along the ridge to Coombe hill the path that is forever muddy was especially muddy after the recent rain.
I was getting quite tired by the time I reached Wendover so I stopped for a coffee and grabbed a wedge of English blue cheese from Two Poundland for degustation later. Then I sat on a bench and watched the world go by before heading home for the last 6k.
The final stretch was along the disused Wendover arm of the Grand Union canal. It is a wildlife haven becasue of the water and no boats using it. There were plently of ducklings all very used to humans so when I came across any they all came forward expecting food. I jogged a few sections becuse I was getting a bit bored at this point, I had been out for a while and was in familiar territory. I eventually got back home just after 16:00 and had walked over 21 mile. My choice of footware was my Salomon light weight trail shoes which ceratinly heped compared to my heavy walking boots. All in all a great walk and not too difficult am I encouraged to try a bit further next time.