Some 20 hours later it was time to start again. I was feeling pretty good at the start, not too stiff or sore from the day before, and I bumped into an old running mate Malc in the car park which was cool. It was going to be another hot and hilly day, so I set myself a broad target of 4:30 which I was pretty flexible about. All I really wanted from the two days was time on my feet running, so I didn't feel under any pressure for a time which was nice. And just as well as it turned out. Although overall the ascent was about the same as the day before (3300ft), the terrain was much tougher. The climbs and descents were sharp and the going was really technical and rocky/rooty in places, making it really difficult to speed up on the descents without turning an ankle. After a while the going was starting to frustrate me, I felt ok to run a lot quicker, but couldn't. It meant a lot of walking breaks, a few scrambling on all fours breaks, and eventually added up to a time of 4:50. The finish was a bit mean, the last km or so was a big loop of the car park/finish area with the finish line in clear sight, and overall the course was nearly a mile short which upset a few people. The race has the billing of "UK's most scenic marathon" which I can't argue with, it was beautiful, but I'm not sure I'll be doing it again. Ok, the route was well marked I got a "free" photo, and the start/finish was bustling with good support there, but there were a few too many negatives for me. The course was short, too much of it was un-runnable (for me at least), there was one 14km stretch with no water stations which was really long given the conditions, the technical tee was a generic one for the marathon and the half marathon, and it was £4.50 for a burger at the end. It's hard to see what there was for the extra £25 compared to Hamsterley Forest the day before, or any of the equally scenic LDWA events that you can run for under a tenner.

The next stop en route to Berlin was a marathon double, starting on Saturday with the Hamsterley Forest marathon. Lured in by the hilarious pre-race notes and the £15 entry fee I thought this would be the perfect warm up to the Lakeland Trails marathon the next day - until the race organiser sent out the gpx data of the route the day before. The "only one hill" in the race notes was actually 3200ft of climbs up and around the same hill three times! Anyway, I decided to take it easy, aim for somewhere around 4:30 and leave plenty in the tank for the next day. The route was basically two miles or so out from the start, then three times around/up/down a big hill over 7 miles, and then a couple of miles back to the start. Oddly, the first loop was the hardest, although not knowing how long and steep the climbs were the first time around may have had something to do with that. Knowing what I was in for the next two times around seemed to help a bit. As the first in a double it was a pretty uneventful race. I lurked at what I thought was the back, chatted a bit at the aid stations, pootled up the hills nice and slowly, and enjoyed the scenery (and the breeze) at the top of the hill. Towards the end I started passing a few people, lots without water bottles which seemed a bit silly on such a hot day, and was surprised to finish in 4:07, even more surprised to finish in 18th place. I hung around a bit at the end, had a sausage roll and plenty to drink before the drive home, and start freaking out about doing it all again the next day.