Viewed purely from the perspective of sticking to the original plan, today’s run was something of a disaster. My idea was to join the Millennium Way footpath at the point next to Kenilworth Castle I had left it two weeks ago, and then follow it northwards towards Meriden. I didn’t have a fixed turn point in mind as I didn’t know exactly how far that would be, but once I reached what felt like the right place to turn, I would retrace my steps back to the start.
The immediacy with which I managed to go wrong was actually quite impressive. I started my run in the middle of Abbey Fields, made my way over to the exit closest to the Castle, crossed the road, passed the castle’s car park and then turned onto the wrong footpath. And I knew it was the wrong footpath, because there wasn’t a black and white Millennium Way footpath arrow to be found. Yet I carried on, partly because I didn’t want to turn around and try to find the right path, and partly because this was a footpath I hadn’t explored before. And maybe this footpath would join up with the Millennium Way at some point?
The further I progressed down the footpath, the less likely that felt. I didn’t give too much thought about which direction I was going in, but I knew it wasn’t north as if I was heading north I should have been able to see various small villages along the way. Instead, other than the occasional farm building and the odd distant road, there was very little other than nature to see.
It was a nice environment to run in, but a doubt started to grow in the back of my mind – the further I continued, the harder it would be to find my way back. Retracing your steps on a named footpath like the Millennium Way is pretty easy, but on unnamed footpaths, if you see more than one arrow it can be all too easy to pick the wrong one. I was trying to make mental notes of the turns and the minor landmarks I encountered, but when you approach something from the opposite direction, that picture in your mind will look completely different to the one in front of your eyes.
Ultimately I didn’t need to worry about it. At 7km I arrived at somewhere I thought I recognised, which was confirmed a few hundred metres when I reached the junction I was expecting to see. At this point I took what might sound like an unnecessary risk – there are footpaths in four different directions, three of which I knew, so of course I took the one I didn’t know. But actually it wasn’t much of a risk at all, because having studied that area on a map quite a lot recently, I was pretty confident that footpath had to lead to Hatton, and again, 2km later, that was confirmed to be correct.
Arriving at Hatton was an odd feeling. I knew exactly the route I needed to get back to return to my car, but that route seemed like it would be pretty long. It would also be mostly uphill once I got off the canal towpath, and I knew that not only was the direct route home much shorter, it was also mostly downhill. Going home was never an option – I needed to get my car, but even though I knew I was fit enough to get back to the car without getting into difficulty, I still had to have a few words with myself to keep up my morale.
The fact that I ended up on the route I’d taken two weeks ago was a bit of a disappointment from an exploration perspective, but it did allow me to switch my mind off from navigating and solely towards running. This was particularly useful when I reached some of the more technical sections of the route, where I certainly felt more confident due to the volume of off-road running I’ve been doing recently. Sadly there were no Strava segments on that stretch for a direct comparison, but my average pace was significantly faster than two weeks ago, despite being a few kilometres further. In fact, it was faster than I managed on any run longer than a Half Marathon across the entirety of 2020, which given the number of gates and stiles I encountered is another great indicator of the progress I’ve made in recent months.
So today was certainly not a disaster. I might have felt differently had I travelled a long way to try today’s planned route, but Kenilworth is only 9 miles away, most of which is a 70mph A road. I’ll be back there soon enough and be able to try again. And as a nice bonus, it’s given me a few other options for smaller loops should the occasion arise.