Day 5 - Bideford to Exmoor

It's been an up & down sort of ride over the past 24 hours. Last night my Achilles was bad (pain 8/10) and I was worried if I'd be able to continue this morning. Thankfully a few bits of treatment, and elevating helped. This was almost certainly caused by camber in the road for a good chunk of yesterday (a few left Achilles tendon issues across the group) Thankfully this morning it was much improved and the strategy for today was to tape it (anchoring on sole of foot and taping over blisters on heel and up leg. Additionally the plan was to run slower. This has helped and whilst there is still some aggravation it held up well today and is much improved (phew).

It was a reminder of quite how challenging this run is, with quite a few of us carrying niggles. For anyone who is injured and/or not hitting cut-offs there is the option of getting "boosted" by bus which a few have done. Sadly this was not going to work for Shane and he's had to retire & head home (hence tracker in South Wales showing just now). Now 20 runners left.

Today was a nice day, with a total of 32 miles and 2,000ft plus of climbing. After 4 days of running reasonably hard, I've realised that this event needs one to adopt a speed which is sustainable for the long haul which is slower than regular "weekend" or single day ultra speed. Much walking and some granny shuffling type running!😉

I ran with a few different folk at different stages today and very much enjoyed that. We crossed into our third county, Somerset & headed up on to Exmoor, which was lovely. Terrain felt very much like Scottish Border hills. From the high point on Exmoor one could see both the sea and beyond that, a first glimpse of Wales🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.

5 days of week one done. Just 2 more to go before Bristol.😎