On Thursday 5th of June, I managed run the Pewsey Vale Circular Walk, clockwise and unsupported. The run started at 5:07am at The Crown & Anchor pub in Ham, and finished back at the pub in Ham a little after 3am the next day. Most of the run was in heavy rain up until the last third when it cleared up and temperatures were in the mid teens.
This was completely unsupported, with no help or support from anyone, carrying all food and supplies in my daysack (see photo attached) and filling up for water at various church graveyards on route.
Planning for this was limited as I only decided to do this a few weeks prior, after a cancellation of a 24 hour event I had entered. I only managed to recce parts of the route before the run, and had two confirmed water sources at mile 22 and 59. So I was gambling a few of the church graveyards in between to provide water. This resulted in a lot of wasted time on the day looking around various churches and cemetery’s for water, but luckily found one at mile 46. (I’ve uploaded an excel created since that lists churches and whether or not water’s available)
The route is fairly easy to follow, plenty of waymarking throughout. I did however, make a few errors during the run where I had to double back, resulting in an additional 5 miles added. The route was particularly difficult at night on the last leg, where waymarkers were hard to spot in the overgrowth. One section in particular was in Froxield, where I managed to add 0.6 miles onto the journey going around the village having missed the path that leads straight down to the A4 due to overgrowth.
I found overgrowth was a real issue on a lot of the footpaths, probably due to the time of year. Be prepared to crawl under fallen trees and wade through brambles and nettles… Some of the route leads you through farmers fields, which were flourishing this time of year, and on a wet day this resulted in very waterlogged socks. Please note. Dexshell waterproof socks are really good at keeping water in and adding weight…
fuelling went well throughout, only suffering with mild sickness near the end where I had my fill of the lemon flavoured energy gels… Tailwind really helped with this along with minimising cramps.
Overall the run went well, and was only held back by the weight of the daypack. If I were to run this again, I’d invest in a good set of poles.