Trail run along the length of the river Wey in Surrey, from Godalming to where it enters the Thames at Weybridge. This route starts at Borough Bridge in Godalming, which is slightly upstream of the start of the navigable river and is where the path starts to give a continuus route to the river Thames. The route finishes on the banks on the Thames, adjacent to where the Wey enters the Thames, having followed the entire length of the Wey's towpath. This is a slightly longer route than is sometimes used for the Wey Path, but is the longest possible route along the Wey and finishes with a view of the Wey's entry to the Thames rather than finishing at the last lock on the Wey (Thames lock), which is slightly short of the Thames.
This route is mostly north of, but overlaps with, the longer Wey-South route on this site.
Comments
I plan to attempt this route on September 12, 2020
I'm going to have a go at this tomorrow morning (26th August 2021) unsupported. Hoping to beat 5 min/km which would knock at least 15 minutes of the current FKT. Will update on progress tomorrow evening!
So I had a go at this today. Weather was perfect; overcast and 16 degrees C. Started off aiming for 5 min/km which would give me a total time of 2h45 if I stuck to the route and kept on pace. I really didn't think this would be too difficult having a marathon pace of around 4:50 min/km....shorter distance should be easy right! Well either I am out of practice for long distance or the terrain took it out of me. It was smooth sailing from Godalming (there is a toilet block in the starting area park if you're interested) to Guildford but I got tricked by the same path closure as others have mentioned just as you enter Guildford, no worries, only a few minutes lost. Then as I went under Onslow Street the river path was closed again, I ended up getting lost twice and spent 5 minutes trying (unsuccessfully) to find a gap in a fence, it was a real bummer and took me from 2 minutes ahead of target to 6 minutes behind. Anyway, as long as I stayed on 5 min/km I was still on for the FKT. Unfortunately, my legs were already starting to tire at around km 15. I was struggling to stay on pace and I was already running low on water. With 10 km left I couldn't even stay under 6 min/km and I had started to alternate walking and running. If I hadn't organised an end of route pick up I'd have been tempted to give up as the FKT was now far out of reach.
Anyway I managed to finally complete the route with an extra 1.5 km diversion in just under 3h30 giving an average pace of around 6:10/km. I'm not sure why it felt so hard to complete. Perhaps it was old shoes, perhaps I didn't take enough supplies with me, perhaps I'm just out of practice for long distance. However, part of me feels like it was mainly the uneven path along the canal. Every step was a different height to the last step and I think that played a role in tiring out my legs. Well done Jonathan Stuart, Rehan Greeff and De Wet Kruger for the great times you have posted. I might try this again one day but it certainly deserves more respect than I gave it 24 hours ago!
https://www.strava.com/activities/5855850699
I plan to try this route today (Sunday 10th April '22) - lovely weather for a riverside amble!
Hi. I am going to give this a go tomorrow (19th Nov). I had been holding off because of the weather. I suspect the path will be muddy but hopefully I won't be swimming! I will let you know how it goes. Mike