A pleasant mixed terrain route through the Forest. A slight tailwind with sunny spells, turning to light drizzle by the end.
A steady paced effort- aiming for around 2:20 and well under that pace on the tarmac and gravel tracks. I had less experience of the route before Lyndhurst and sometimes missed the turn or had to slow down to take the right route, especially as some of the sections had a less than clear pathway. The recent downpours of the preceding week meant some of the grassy sections were very boggy slowing me down over the first half but able to make up some of the time lost along the Ornamental Drive section. Decent trail shoes are highly recommended for this route unless run in the height of summer after a long period of dry weather.
Managed to go off route on the final straight section (Cut Walk) to Lyndhurst- it's very muddy along some of the tracks and there are not so clear to follow. Realised my deviation and lost some time going off-piste to get back onto the route.
As experienced in one of the previous attempts on this route, at around 27/28k the original route sends you onto a path that is clearly signed posted as private with 2 gates in the way. As the other attempt I tried an alternative path nearby but again found private land signs- Not wanting to trespass I took the longer deviation via the road for 1.5km, eventually joining up with the route a little later on (again noticing a private land sign on the gate where the route rejoined the road).
One bottle (500ml) of SIS mix plus 1 gel taken at the hour mark.