Kristina and I met up in Windsor on Sunday morning and set off from the gates of the castle at 9am - just in time before the rapidly growing crowds of tourists took over the town (which was flagged out in French as well as British flags ahead of the state visit). Julien’s description already covers the route in great detail - suffice to say that the first couple of miles (through Windsor and Eton) are the most picturesque, but at least you get the least pleasant part (along the dual carriageway between Slough and Uxbridge - with a couple of miles without pavement) out of the way early on. The route remains surprisingly undulating even through the long string of outer London suburbs. The mid-run selfie shows us at Harrow, the highest point of the route, from where it is mostly downhill - although the stretch through Wembley still goes on and on.
Route navigation with the gpx is fairly easy aside from a few roundabouts where you need to keep your wits about you to find the most efficient way around. We had to stop at a couple of roads for a few seconds but largely managed to keep moving.
It’s debatable whether this route should be an FKT entry (not just because of the 1908 Olympics but also because of the many decades of the Polytechnic Marathon and the recent “Original Marathon”), but since it has previously been accepted as an FKT route, we wanted to give this a go and came in 24+ mins under the previous mixed-gender record and 16 mins under the all-male record. Plenty more time can be shaved off this (we took it at steady pace, both having recently come back from injuries).
We ran unsupported, both carrying running vests (with a total of 3l of liquids plus nutrition). The weather was muggy and humid (the promised showers didn’t materialise) but at least we had cloud cover for most of it.