Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 1, day 4 - Bude to Bideford

 

Cutting the corner

Distance: 44.58km (total so far 208.64km)
Total climb: 752m (total so far 5087m)
Steps: 52,167 (total so far 263,291)

Today was our reward day for the exertions of yesterday - we only had to run 44km, and all on road. It was one of the parts of the journey where we were away from the coast path - simple logistics meant that if we'd have gone round the coast path it would have been far further and we'd never have made the destination that day.

Getting feet back into the more cushioned road shoes was a nice change from the trail shoes I'd used for most of the previous three days. I ran and walked all day with Andy, and it was a fairly simple navigation day.

We finally left Cornwall behind:


And seemed to be in no-man's land for a long time before we finally got to Devon:


No idea why there seemed to be a 5k gap between the two - it may be an old DMZ, a legacy of the Great Cream Tea Wars of '03, or something.

I wasn't sorry to leave Cornwall behind - it was undeniably beautiful, but also undeniably hard work,  and a bit of a change from climbing high steps with sheer drops was going to be nice.

Roads were mostly empty, and the Devon drivers seemed to be more relaxed than their Cornish versions, meaning that when you did meet a car there was usually an easy decision on how to let it past with a wave at both ends. We did remark some interesting local wildlife, though:


Feedstations went through in a relaxed fashion, and even if we were walking more in the afternoon than we were in the morning there was no feeling of distance pressure today.

We finally left the road with about 3km to go to move over to an old railway line which was our route into Bideford, and had time to take a couple of photos while in the fields:



And the final jog into Bideford was down the tarmacced ex-railway line, making it very easy on the feet.


44km, job done. A pleasant day rather than an exciting one, but pretty much what we needed.

Song of the day: "Stay on these roads" by a-ha.


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