We started at the style by the church in Soberton at about 6:40am and ran the loop clockwise. It was fairly warm out, but had been raining during the night and we experienced a couple of mild summer showers enroute. We were unsupported on this route, each carrying our own water and some gels.
The first 4.5km were very pleasant, a mix of grassy meadows, quiet lane sections and some wooded footpaths, plus much of the elevation on this route is taken care of.
Finding the footpath from Amsworth Lane was tricky, but there was a dog-walker in the right place at the right time who helped us out. It's across a field, which contained sheep, keeping to the right of the pylon. We had to shimmy over a gate to access the field in question and at the other side there wasn't a gate either, so we carefully stepped over a low electric fence and found the route buried in some overgrown plants.
We had similar issues after leaving Hoe Street, there were some overgrown sections - still passable, but we picked our way a bit through nettles, thistles, holly and bramble. Again at the farm buildings we ended up stepping over some low electric fences (not sure if this is normal, or if we just went wrong somehow?!) to get on a footpath that wasn't entirely clear.
After leaving Church Road, the meadow section was a tad saturated, so we did end up with wet feet! There was also a series of gates and styles to cross through the section just before reaching the Forest of Bere.
In the forest, we had wide, easy to run trails, so we picked up the pace a bit and continued with it once we joined the Meon Valley Trail. We are familiar with this trail and knew where we'd need to get off to cross the final fields before reaching the finish.
We would attempt this trail again and recommend it to others!