This event was reviewed last year and was very similar this year.
Weather was quite cool, 11°C at the start warming to 14°C at the end. Although there was high winds and lots of rain forecast, it was windy in parts (strong westerly, 15mph?, in the morning when heading west, very strong westerly, 25mph?, in afternoon when heading east, so not as bad as it could have been). It drizzled for about an hour at 1/2way and proper rain for my last 10 minutes (ie when most had already finished). Going underfoot was good, the ploughed fields (3x) were not too sticky although there was some caking on the shoes in one field. There were some puddles at one point, but not too much mud. And a fair bit of the course is on roads and tracks. Signing was better than I remembered from the previous year, although at a few points you needed a sharp eye. ALWAYS best to carry the route description, and use it if in doubt, only use the signs for confirmation. To be honest though, I remembered a lot of it from the previous year. One section was re-routed to avoid a field with 30 playful bullocks. No extra distance added though, but the diversion was verbal, more complicated than it needed to be, with no signs.
Overall a great event. I’ll be back.
My PF seems much better now, no taping and I wore road shoes, not trail ones – knowing it wouldn’t be too muddy. Still a slow one, with instructions and off-roadedness/stiles etc., but happy with 6:42:00.