Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 1, day 5 - Bideford to Exford

From the coast to the moor

Distance: 53.70km (total so far 262.34km)

Total climb: 954m (total so far 6241m)

Steps: 61,771 (total so far 325,062)

Also:

Number of counties: 2

Number of coffee shop feedstations: 1 (to be encouraged!)

Number of feedstations completely missed: 1

Number of times we got chips at a feedstation: 1

Back on the normal distances again, this was a mixed day of running and walking, roads and trails. The difference today was the climb - often when you know you have 1000 of climbing in a day there is some expectation that you will get most of them back,  but we were finishing on high Exmoor in what was described as "the middle of nowhere" (actually about 5km north of Exford) and most of the climbing was just to get up there.

The start was very different, though - the Tarka Trail from Bideford to Barnstaple, a continuation of the railway line at the end of yesterday's route. It meant a very flat first 16km, and I was feeling good enough to run that straight, which got a good distance under my belt in the first hour and a half of the day. We did have to avoid more local Devon wildlife in the railway tunnels:

But the path ran beside the estuary, and being an old railway track it was flat. After 2km I'd gained exactly 2m of height, which is a sensible sort of incline that should be found more widely on run routes!

We'd been promised a surprise in Barnstaple,  and that duly turned up in the form of a coffee shop for feedstation 1 that day. I don't actually drink coffee while I'm running - the caffeine doesn't agree with me - but it would have been rude not to have something, so I had a very nice decaf latte, filled up my running pack and got on with the next bit.

Which was up. After a flat first 16k, I knew we were going to pack in some height soon, but coming out of Barnstaple we were climbing for the next couple of hours fairly steadily up the road. The road in question had been recently resurfaced, which was fine with careful drivers and somewhat of a hazard with the speed merchants - a tarmacced stone at speed leaves a painful bruise, as most of us found out. I was run/walking with Ash, apart from when he got distracted by the station and old viaduct from a long-defunct railway line, and we cranked along fairly well up into the hills.

This was a shoe-change day - we definitely wanted road shoes for the run to Barnstaple, and the roads up into the hills, but needed trails for Exmoor later in the afternoon, which meant a shoe change at lunchtime. Not a problem, and we'd already done that trick once before this week (day 2), but it did involve actually finding the lunch feedstation where the bags were waiting. I don't know how we both separately missed it, but we did - the rest of the gang found it fine, so it was definitely down to us missing it, but I still don't know how we did. Having got 5k past it, I was going to just go on to feedstation 3, but instead we got picked up by Rat Race, taken back to the feedstation for lunch and the shoe change, and then dropped back where we were.  They're a helpful bunch!

The first part of the afternoon was still road, over to Simonsbath and the edge of Exmoor. We were starting to come into a area I knew, albeit 30 years ago - our family holidays were on Exmoor during my teenage years, and I've always loved the area. The style of the buildings and villages was getting more familiar as we got closer to the moor.

We got to pick up our third county of the trip - we'd been in Devon for about 24 hours:

Simonsbath I knew for two reasons - it was the end of a walk we'd done every holiday as a family from Withypool to Simonsbath along the river, and it was where Andy and I had had a very expensive night's B&B while on a walking tour of Exmoor many years ago. However, one building that hadn't changed much was the Exmoor Forest Inn, which was our feedstation 3 that day. Its still a great place to stop. The temptation to indulge was quite high, but we still had the Exmoor leg to go. I did have time to take advantage of the rather nice chips that were a very welcome addition to the feedstation.

Finally we were onto the high moor. They weren't being shy about letting us know about the hills:

There was always the odd natural feature to work round as well:

(and yes, I know - after 6 days in the Isles a couple of years back, I should have just run through that. After the first week on Scotland on this trip, I probably will again!)

We were in big country now, with views both ways. And some more friendly local wildlife - Exmoor ponies came over to take a look at what we were doing.

A bit of grass running and walking - heavy on the ankles after a day on the roads, but nothing too bad - took us to the end, which was, as advertised, in the middle of nowhere. If a very beautiful nowhere.

Song of the day: "In a big country" by Big Country. Because Exmoor.

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