Actually my second attempt at completing this, having failed 2 weeks ago due to an unexpectedly warm day and going out way too fast. Today the weather did what it was supposed to and I paced it a bit better, so made it all the way round.
Surprisingly, I managed to park right next to a group from a rival club who were also going out and doing a sub-loop at the same time. We had a good chat about upcoming races (bring on the Hilly 100!) to the point where I actually managed to forget to change my shoes and had to jog back to the car to get the right ones. That made sure I had a decent warm-up, I suppose.
My target was about 4h 10-15mins, and I was on pace at half way (2h 4mins), but the amount of rain over the last 3 weeks made the second half very heavy and tough going, and I was pretty drained by about 21 miles. Regardless, I carried on and forced my way to the finish, only to be met by a downpour of rain washing sweat into my eyes that actually made it a little bit difficult to see as I made my way through the village to the finish. Despite all that, I still made it to the end, which is the important thing, and, whilst I'm not particularly happy with the time, I'll definitely take it; it gets me on the board after all. There's definitely time to be had here though. With a dry track and a cool day, sub 4 hours should be a doddle for a top runner (maybe not quite for me yet, but we'll see).