"D-Day" saw me awake in a hotel room in Leeds, with a headache. The suggested evening before prep for an endurance event is carb loading on brown pasta, lots of hydration, and a decent sleep.  I went for steak and chips, half a bottle of red, an uncomfortable bed, and lots of noise from the street.
Anyway, I got ready in a state of some anxiety, checked out without breakfast, and headed on down to the Royal Armouries via the Tesco Metro, where I bought some pastries, a Red Bull (no coffee), and a "Lucozade Shot" - an impulse purchase, and something I hadn't tried before.
After parking in the Multi-Story at the Royal Armouries, we found the start line in a state of disarray.  It was around 08:40 and BHF staff were unloading bottles of water. They gave me a T-shirt, and said I could start if I wanted.  The route around Leeds was signposted to "Granary Wharf", and  after that it was just towpath to Skipton.

Quite a few walkers seemed to have taken a short cut direct to Granary Wharf instead of following the more circuitous BHF route, which narked me a bit.
Anyway, once on the towpath the showers started, some of them very heavy. This sent folk scurrying under trees and looking for waterproof jackets. I'd got a Paramo windproof which i'd sprayed with Nikwax. It was breathable enough to wear all day, but the water just beaded off, so I just put my hood up and pressed on.

The pace was fast. As fast as any of my shorter training walks. I was having to resist the urge to race people, and try and force myself to keep my own pace.
I was unsure how to hit a 9hr pace, and decided to just walk at what felt to be a natural fast pace, without going crazy. But after about 8 miles, I could feel discomfort in my left heel and under the ball of my right foot. This didn't bode well.

The only toilets I saw all day were at a checkpoint around the 8mile mark.  These were only open by BHF having a key. This would pose a problem to anyone planning to repeat the walk, although there were pubs along the route.

It's difficult to photograph wind, but in the bridge pic below you can see the "white horses" on the waves being whipped up on the canal.  The wind got stronger during the day, and in some of the more exposed sections I was struggling to push against it.

At Saltaire, I began to encounter the front runners walking in the opposite direction.  I crossed over with my friends who had started from Skipton at an indicated 15.5 miles.

The Damart factory!

You can see the rain hitting the canal in this shot of the 5 locks.
At the checkpoint I met my wife, changed my socks, and refilled my hydration system with another 2litres of isotonic, taking a bottle of water as a reserve.
My feet were already badly blistered, but the pain was tolerable,  so I pushed on.

Refreshed from my short break, I was doing OK. Snacking dextrose tablets, I drank a bottle of Lucozade Shot which I had bought in the Tesco Metro before the start. I had never had it before and it was foul. I could feel it burning my throat, and my stomach rumbled violently. I had a noticeable increase in energy, so put some dance music on my headphones, and put in a good pace.  I didn't know how sustainable it was, but decided to go with it.

I probably passed about 15 people at my fast pace (sub-17min miles).   I chatted with them on the way past, and most of them were struggling with blisters, fatigue, or both.
My walking poles were a real point of interest - this surprised me. I bought them around the turn of the century when they were trendy in hillwalking circles, but they've mostly sat in the back of a cupboard until I started doing the longer walks.  I've found them to be a fantastic help.

I was amused by the name of this Narrowboat.

Trouble.
Just after texting through to say I was approaching Skipton, severe stomach cramps kicked in. These got worse, and I had to give up on my hopes of catching the two guys in the walking gear, and slowed right down.
Eventually I was managing no more than 10 steps before having to stop and try to regain my composure.

I was unsure if I was going to finish. I stopped on my poles, and began to panic, when around the corner came a flash of blue.
It was my welcoming committee come to find me.

We walked together to the finish line, finishing at 18:00, where I received my medal, and the key to the toilet!
The BHF rep at the finish commented upon how few folk had finished on time, and that they were planning to hold the finish line and checkpoints open quite a bit later.

I was still struggling badly with my stomach until I remembered I had some pills in the rucksack. I brightened up after that, and after resting for about half an hour with my family, and lots of photographs, I drove home.
I had to stop at the services to loosen my shoes as my feet swelled up massively, but otherwise didn't feel too bad,
I felt like I had 'flu for a couple of days afterwards.  My blisters were pretty bad, but unbroken, so I was able to walk normally after a few days of hobbling. I'm still tired a week later!
Epic walk. The hard paths and strong headwinds made this much harder than my training walks.

The pale blue line is the route off the walk.
So that's the Ultramarathon over with.  I've already had a planning meeting for Nevis on 13th June. Time to start training on some less flat routes. At least for Nevis I can do it in my own time.

Royal Wedding bank holiday weekend, and I was due to do the last of my big training walks. I was bang out of walks ideas, and was "on call" from work. A bit of a calendar reshuffle, some inspiration from my wife, the rejection of the idea of doing the first two legs of the Pennine Way in one day, and I was in the car, heading towards Edwinstowe.

As a youngster I visited Sherwood Forest many times, including a night-time navigational exercise in the woods. But I hadn't been back for years (despite visiting Center Parcs nearby).
The Robin Hood Way long distance path has an appealling looking loop at this end of its 107mile length, and by cutting off a short section, it looked to me as if I could work out a marathon-length loop around Sherwood, Clumber Park, and Creswell Crags.
Armed with an OS Explorer map, I parked up by Edwinstowe Cricket Club, and headed towards the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre.

I was a bit early for the visitor centre to be open, so made my way towards the Major Oak, rumoured hiding place of medieval insurgent Robin Hood.

Big props to the Oak.

Routefinding got... interesting. 
I couldn't find any Robin Hood Way markers, just markers for the Dukeries Multi-User Trail. This was not marked on my map.
I hate walking holding a map and compass, especially when in an area frequented by locals walking dogs.
Eventually I picked up what I thought was the correct path, and checking bearings and junctions against the map, I was able to check where I was.

The gnarled and twisted ancient oaks were really impressive. Some of them were little more than the shattered core of the tree with a thin ribbon of bark feeding the remaining branches.

Eventually the path left the woods and headed out towards Clumber Park, passing the outskirts of Budby training range.

Not the most useful signpost in the world.

The path running along the southern edge of Clumber Park begins in a heavily wooded area, then straightens out and runs between hedges of young trees for a number of miles. This would have been a rather dull section, were it not for the fact that I was being followed about 1/4 mile behind by a man wearing dark clothing, with his hood up, on a warm sunny day.  Not good for the paranoia, especially as I hadn't seen another living soul for about an hour. Eventually he dropped back, and I relaxed a little.

Bluebells in Clumber.

The path eventually left the woods and passed through fields before dropping down to a ford, then climbing back towards Hardwick Village.

As I skirted Hardwick heading to the lake, I encountered an instructor from a "Boot Camp", who was looking for his trainees - I'd passed them a little earlier, shambling along through the woods. He asked me if I was orienteering!

After following the lake, I rounded the main buildings at Clumber. I had intended to stop for a coffee, but decided to press on, and eat lunch on the hoof.

I managed to hit the right path, but list the contents of my sandwich as I bit into it. Not ideal. I was really quite tired, and less than half the intended distance. The decision to dodge the cofffee wasn't a great one.

The path running out towards Welbeck Abbey was extremely quiet, I only met one other person - a runner heading the other way, who did not acknowledge me. As the route dropped through a carving in the rock, my imagination ran riot.

Very Lord Of The Rings.

The carved graffiti had dates, some as early as the 1830's.

Passing South Lodge, the path headed out across fields and towards Welbeck Abbey.  Pretty much every turn I passed was marked as private, although the path remained clear ahead.

Looked like a disused (WWII?) airfield just outside Welbeck.

Pretty soon I reached the new visitor centre at Creswell Crags.

I didn't really have time for Archaeology, but I did make time for a coffee.
Unfortunately, as I sat down to enjoy it, I somehow managed to sit on the bite valve of my drinks system, and so had the misfortune of sitting in a large puddle on the plastic chair. It took a few miles for my shorts to dry.

Climbing the crags is strongly discouraged, and the kid in the red was about to get an earbashing.

I stopped at this disused stile heading from Creswell to Holbeck to top up my snacks, empty a bottle of drink into my water system, and change my socks. 18 miles down, 8 planned miles to go.

After Holbeck, I hooked up with what had the feeling of the driveway for a large house, presumably the Welbeck estate.

I bypassed Norton, and once again crossed the A616 between Cuckney and Budby. 

Total route-finding fail. I picked up the wrong path just before the 24mile mark, and instead of heading directly back to the car, I speared out towards Meden Vale.  I knew I was wrong when I reached a train line.  My GPS watch battery had died without my realising, so I started a trace on my iPhone. I used Google maps to double check my position and the map to plan a route back. A short tantrum later, I was heading back towards Sherwood Forest.

I took a shorter route back, and was soon back to the car.  28.8 miles in 9hrs34.  I little further than intended, especially as I am training to complete a 29mile walk in under 10hrs 30.
Some good highpoints on the walk, more than made up for the mishaps, even my discovery (at home) that my shorts had completely disintegrated at the rubbing points. And the blisters.