Oof, tougher than I thought! I'm an ultra newbie who likes the mountains, which don't usually involve that much running... This is way tougher on the legs!
I went clockwise, starting at Thornhill Park & Ride at about 4:45am, hoping to beat the summer heat. I had about half an hour of running in the dark, including a little tumble on the descent from Shotover. Soft landing, thankfully!
The first six hours were cool and drizzly, which was very welcome and meant I could cover more ground than I had expected. A real highlight was a herd of cows near Farmoor Reservoir, who took great interest in me and started following me around! Alarming at first, but they were just curious. One of them licked my elbow, which was kind of adorable.
I had planned to do this self-supported to avoid running out of water, but dehydration was not an issue with the cooler and wetter conditions (and with me being a chronic overpacker...). Still, I stopped at the corner shop in Wolvercote for a Calippo and a coke. While neither was strictly speaking necessary and I could have done the route unsupported, I have zero regrets. A mid-run Calippo is a glorious thing! I later also took a break at the Jolly Boatman just north of Kidlington to use the facilities and get a bag of crisps, more out of politeness than anything.
A sub-12h finish looked entirely plausible for a long time, but after lunch it got warmer and my foot started hurting a fair bit. I had injured that calf previously, so I wonder whether I had altered my gait to compensate, perhaps. Either way, I slowed down considerably and took quite a lot of walking breaks, resulting in a finish just over 13h. Still, considering this was my longest ever run on the flat, as well as longest ever solo run, plenty to celebrate! I look forward to trying more FKTs in the future.