WealdWay 2021 – Day one

Because my preparations for a 3 day schedule had been so disappointing, at short notice I came up with a “plan B” which would allow for a fourth day, by taking a bit of the heat out of day’s one and two. A bit of last minute rearranging of transport times and pick-up locations meant that I could cut the day 1 distance down from 33 miles to 28 miles, finishing at Tonbridge rather than in Southborough. Day two also reduces from 27 miles to a more manageable 22.5 miles. With that being the hastily re-jigged plan, I was on a bus at 7.25 this morning, to make the train connection from Tonbridge up to Gravesend. A short walk to the start and a couple of photos of the river Thames waterfront at about 9.30

before turning and heading south for the day’s new destination of Tonbridge Castle. I’d anticipated some problems with hips and knees, which have been giving me some pain in my recent longer training runs, but they weren’t too bad. Unexpectedly, I suffered almost from the first mile or two with a lot of pain in my left ankle, which continued throughout the run and slowed things pretty badly.

The weather was great and although it was a bit of a slog toward the end, I made Tonbridge Castle in 5 hours 40 minutes.

Feeling a bit tired now, but should be OK to get on with it tomorrow for a jog up and over the Ashdown forest to finish at the village of Five Ash Down. Update tomorrow.

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