The Peddars Way Marathon

And so to Norfolk to take in the sunshine, dry air and delights of Easter with a fantastic opportunity to catch up with family and eat. It was also an opportunity to bash out some miles and complete marathon number 8, a route that I have been looking forward to for a long time and even since I first knew of the route let alone cycled it some 8 or 10 years ago. So the plan was to run the Peddars Way from the coast to Castle Acre but as this comes up short, the start was extended round the coast to Thornham and the latter part was diverted to West Lexham to miss out the road section after Shepherds Bush. This would bring us in at 26.3 miles ending nicely at the castle.

We had intermittent cold cloudy spells and hot sunshine with northerly breeze for the first 3/4 turning into blazing sunshine for our arrival into CA. My cousin James had shown murmurings of intent to join me for a long section of the run as one of his long runs in the lead up to the Stockholm Marathon later this year and needed little persuasion to turn his 18 mile planned run into the full distance of 26.2 miles of jogging, chatting and stopping to take photos etc. This gave a lovely opportunity of company along the route and a catch up although this was mostly limited to the flats and downhills.

A point of note to all those who know nothing of Norfolk: It is not flat !! Ok so its not the Peaks but this is rolling hills of farming country and this time of year is special with the vivid colours against big moody skies. In fact pretty much any time of year is special with various different vivid colours against big moody skies hence the reason I rocked up here for a few weeks in the mid 90's and ended up staying a while. Happy days..

The route saw a mix of terrain from tarmac to sand with everything in between but road shoes were fine for the dry conditions and the length of the run and so we set off round the coast. The raised walkways and views of the seaside brought back memories of the longs summers spent on this coastline.

The initial section was the Norfolk Coastal Path and consisted of following the acorns with well maintained paths and signs in situ. At about 6k we turned inland and started the gentle undulations Southwards on the Peddars Way. Looking on a bigger map this route is pretty much as straight as an arrow, however due to chatting and me being preconcerned with not being run over by a van we missed one of the signs and added our own detour between Sedgeford and Fring. Oops. My error!

We then came across a massive group of silver ramblers heading in our direction and holding good pace. On reaching the back markers of the group a hellish yell of 'Runners!' broke free from one petite lady scaring the life out of me and parting the masses to allow safe passage for my running companion 'Moses'. It is probably also time for me to note that whenever we came across other users of the Peddars Way, Moses's pace crept up to somewhat unsustainable speeds where I'm sure that they were left suitably impressed.

Next stop was our stash of water in Harpley Dams, which gave a brief respite to the legs and added more weight to our packs. I can definitely recommend the Dog Hotel and they seem busy if not full. I definitely wouldnt recommend becoming a close neighbour. Happily we strolled up the next hill and cracked on. Before long we arrived at the trig which signified the end of our journey with the Peddars Way and time for our excursion out to the East to keep off the main road.

Due to our(my) earlier error and extra mileage we actually finished our Marathon in the secret little lanes leading to the water mill just before Castle Acre. This just left a pleasant stroll back towards the castle, bathed in warm sunshine and reminiscing over previous marathon times. Our 'run' time came up as 3 hours 39 minutes which we could probably add a few extra minutes to for watering the nettles and filling up on water, but wheres the fun in that. We were happy with an ambling 3:39 for an offroad, uphill undulating marathon. Hopefully this run ticked the box for a long run pre-Stockholm and gave an opportunity to talk and try some different nutrition ideas. No blisters and no whining meant for a lovely day and to top it off both of us felt pretty good the next day with minimal stiffness. Thank you very much, Jim, for the outing. Am looking forward to doing one with you in my back yard later in the year.

Shoe Choice: Nike Icarus Stealths
Stats. Distance: 42.2 km  Elevation: 0.29 km  Total Dist: 348.4 km  Total Elevation: 5.66 km