Having eyed up this trail for a while, everything went wrong!
Having just recovered from Covid I decided to make a go of it on my first day back out on the trails. I approached the start of the trail in Shide, the weather came in, raining for the first 3 or so miles. The next problem came at Blackwater, birchmore lane was closed for resurfacing, this meant a diversion using a bridleway 75yds behind me, passing the field next to the lane. This diversion only cost me about 3 minutes but annoying none the less.
The next 4 miles were easy going although a tight calf muscle was on my mind, my pace was ok though for setting a time on this route so I carried on.
Approaching Gat Cloff under Stenbury down the weather was flexing again, heavy clag, rain, the path was slippy. As I turned to take the path up, I somehow picked the wrong one! As will show on my gpx file I decided to take the field on the wrong side, so I came back on myself to the path junction and corrected my mistake, this annoying mistake coat me another 7 minutes and added 0.6 miles to the route, and some choice words with myself!
As I climbed the visibility got worse, no more than 10ft. I entered two fields with the signs 'Bull in field' brilliant....thankfully I got out alive, he would never have seen me in this clag!
I pounded the top of the down to make up for lost time, this resulted in my taking two changes of direction too fast and my shoe's grip gave way both times, now covered in grass and loss of pride I went downhill towards the botanic gardens, through the gates and finishing outside the visitor centre in the car park. All in all a poor run, probably wasn't fit, no visibility, got lost, fell over....ahh type 2 fun eh!
I made it with just over 4 minutes to spare on the set time, my aim for under 2hrs was gone but a good adventure all the same.