The story of my trip to Flanders in 2016 continues..........

Well that’s day 2 complete.

For those with short attention spans, the short version of today’s events:

I set of at 08:53 from Rugby Travelodge, ran 1/2 mile to the canal, turned right and some time later arrived in Milton Keynes.

And the long version:

I set of at 08:53 from Rugby Travelodge, ran 1/2 mile to the canal, turned right, it rained a bit, I stopped for lunch in Weedon (village name not my condition at the time) and some time later arrived in Milton Keynes.

Seriously though, there’s not an awful lot more to say about spending 8 hours or so running down a towpath. It pretty dull. The most excitement I had was:

1. Stopping to talk to a narrow boat owner who enquired about my destination. ‘Belgium’ I said. ‘Seriously?’ he said, ‘Yes’ I said, ‘Oh’ he said ‘I beat ’em all at running when I were a kid’. I then spent the next 10 mins listening to his boating exploits (while standing in the rain), before excusing myself as I needed to make MK by nightfall.

2. A far more pleasant conversation with a resident of Weedon who, seeing me sitting on the curb munching a sandwich and trying to get white powder into a bottle, enquired as to what kind of adventure I was on.

3. Having to navigate over the top of 2 long canal tunnels at Braunston and Blisworth.

4. Almost treading on a crayfish which was in the middle of the towpath. Although I only found out later that it was a crayfish, thanks to my wife’s googling skills. I was thinking it was strange place to see a scorpion!

5. Finally arriving at my destination for the day, especially as the long slog down the towpath was followed by a never ending, and hilly, cycle path which kept dropping down and back up due to a million subways in the suburbs of MK (maybe a slight exaggeration).

Stats for the day:

Miles covered: 43.56 (83.78 accumulative)

Time elapsed: 8:38:17

Time moving: 7:43:27

Elevation gain: 607ft

Average pace: 10:38/mile

Consumption during the run:

– 1 Apple

– Half a bag of mixed nuts & fruit

– Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich

– 5 mature cheddar sticks with pickle dip (just fancied them)

– 2 litres of Tailwind mix

– 2.5 litres of plain water.