Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 1, day 6 - Exford to Bridgwater
Can the rain remain in Spain?
Distance: 55.26km (total so far 317.6km)
The rain was still swirling on top, so I paused just long enough to get a photo:
The next stage was all downhill - the first feedstation of the day was in Dunster, close to the coast. So all that hard-won height we claimed outside Barnstaple came off in an hour, running through the woods above Wooten Courtenay. Somewhere in there the rain stopped enough to lose the waterproof trousers at least, and the sun started drying things again.
Downhills are always painful on blistered feet, but I got into Dunster in good order and hit the first feedstation. Rain was clear, so the rainproof got packed away again, along with a second breakfast, and I filled my pockets with chocolate and cereal bars again to make it through to lunch. We were burning something like 5000 calories a day, and never going to be able to take on anything like that - but you certainly needed to eat between the feedstations as well as at them.
The next section was fairly flat - along road and coast path alongside the Bristol Channel and the West Somerset Railway. It wasn't the most interesting section - there's a reason the formal Southwest coast path starts at Minehead - but Watchett Docks were nice to run through.
The rest of the morning was less memorable - the path was full of brambles in places, although we passed a couple of people with strimmers doing something about that (which meant we got to walk along a path full of loose brambles instead, which wasn't a big improvement), but it stayed dry. I chatted to Bruce, who I was running with - something of a high-level conversation, as I'm only the second-tallest person in this gang - Bruce has a good couple of inches on me. It made for a pleasant morning, and we duly hit the lunchtime feedstation.
I passed a group of sheep who had obviously taken cover from the rain earlier and then just got chatting, as you do. Unfortunately, they were clustered around the gate I needed to open, so I had to disturb their deep conversation:
But the views from the top, now that the weather was clear, certainly made up for the rain on Dunkery earlier.
It was a cold wind on top, so the waterproof jacket came out again - but once the initial climb had been completed, it was moor walking and running and great fun all the way to feedstation 3.
Total climb: 956m (total so far 7127m)
Steps: 67,024 (total so far 392,086)
Also:
Number of good views in morning: 0
Number of good views in afternoon: Many
Number of chocolate bars eaten: 13 (approx)
Number of times waterproofs in and out of running pack: 2
We had two moors to go over today - the rest of Exmoor, and the Quantock hills. So this was never going to be a flat day. It was also our first wet start - the rain was swirling fairly strongly in the wind on top of Exmoor. Although I was excited to get to Dunkery Beacon in the first hour, as another memory of my youth, the weather meant that it was a cairn in the mist rather than anything else. Its the highest point on Exmoor, and one of the highest points in the south of England, but this wasn't immediately obvious.
The rain was still swirling on top, so I paused just long enough to get a photo:
Downhills are always painful on blistered feet, but I got into Dunster in good order and hit the first feedstation. Rain was clear, so the rainproof got packed away again, along with a second breakfast, and I filled my pockets with chocolate and cereal bars again to make it through to lunch. We were burning something like 5000 calories a day, and never going to be able to take on anything like that - but you certainly needed to eat between the feedstations as well as at them.
After Cornwall, I had a warped idea of what constituted "steep", so I was slightly amused by Dunster's version:
The next section was fairly flat - along road and coast path alongside the Bristol Channel and the West Somerset Railway. It wasn't the most interesting section - there's a reason the formal Southwest coast path starts at Minehead - but Watchett Docks were nice to run through.
The rest of the morning was less memorable - the path was full of brambles in places, although we passed a couple of people with strimmers doing something about that (which meant we got to walk along a path full of loose brambles instead, which wasn't a big improvement), but it stayed dry. I chatted to Bruce, who I was running with - something of a high-level conversation, as I'm only the second-tallest person in this gang - Bruce has a good couple of inches on me. It made for a pleasant morning, and we duly hit the lunchtime feedstation.
The Quantock Hills were new ground for me - we were clear of Exmoor now. It was another tough haul up into the hills, including the return of the dreaded steps.
I passed a group of sheep who had obviously taken cover from the rain earlier and then just got chatting, as you do. Unfortunately, they were clustered around the gate I needed to open, so I had to disturb their deep conversation:
It was a cold wind on top, so the waterproof jacket came out again - but once the initial climb had been completed, it was moor walking and running and great fun all the way to feedstation 3.
After that things got a bit more mechanical - we needed to reach Bridgwater, and so we just descended the Quantocks on initially forest roads and then more and more major roads until we came into Bridgwater itself. I didn't get any photos of that bit - to be honest, there wasn't much to take photos of.
Anyway, day 6 done. Normally, that would be it for the week, but this one had an extra kick to it - see the blog page for week 1 day 7!
Song of the day: "Drive by" by Train, after a morning running next to the railway.
Next: The longest day
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