What a perfect day - lovely route, good weather, good company. But I should say a huge kudos to Neil Beacher who set a fantastic time on this route - it really put me out of my comfort zone and was only possible (for me) with a few pacers in the last 20km.
I started sunday morning to the chimes of the Winchester cathedral and apart from the odd wrong-turn (nav is an issue as everyone has said before), it all went well up to about 30km. The wheels started coming off as I came into Alton but meeting Chris and Hylton at the station was a big boost. As I said, I was ready to knock it on the head at this point as my pace was slowly dropping but they kept me honest. With 10km to go, I had about 58 mins in hand, which should have been fine but there are still some nasty surprises in the last 5km.
I nearly lost out waiting for the traffic lights getting across the dual carriageway right by Farnham train station but in the end, we just had enough.
As I said though, Neil's unsupported run will last for a while - that is a top time for this course! Chapeau.
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Thanks for the kind words Mike. Congratulations on your time - sounds like you did amazingly well to get through to Farnham so quickly. I was thinking of doing the route again as training for an event. Not sure I have the urge to clock watch for 5 hours though so I think your time will stand for a while yet!