The Start in Richmond Park to around 25km
We were due to start at 7:15, so after warming up with the “legendary” Mr Motivator, we set off from Richmond Old Deer Park on the long 100km trek towards Brighton, slightly in awe of the runners who had set off before us. The route took us along the Thames pathway, out of Richmond, through Kingston and down through the south London suburbs and into Surrey.
The organisers warned us at the start that even though we were lucky with the weather on the day, because of the rain over the previous few weeks, the course was extremely muddy in parts. As we followed the Thames path some of it was flooding slightly and some of the walkers that started after us ended up having to remove their boots and wading through the river that had completely covered the path. Perhaps a warning of things to come!
We had to walk through many suburbs before hitting the 12.5km stop, we got quite caught up in having a welcome cup of tea, and repairing feet, that an hour had soon passed, and we suddenly became very aware of how far we had to go, and that we had to up our pace.
