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.
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