I’m getting married in July in the USA. A short trip to the UK recently for another friends wedding gave me the opportunity to do everything I love in one go. My best man Kieran organised a Bachelor Party ( Stag Do as its known in the UK) that was perfect for me.

Lycra Lord of the Rings, Eds First Ultra, the Dunsfold Pain Cave and running with an Umbrella came to symbolise my idea of the perfect day in the UK which also came with the setting of 2 new trail records on the Wey South Path despite ourselves with an Official Fastest Known Time for the trail.

The Wey South Path

The Wey South Path follows the route of the old Wey Canal from Amberley in West Sussex to Guildford in Surrey in the UK. Its 32 miles long and follows the route a now disused canal used to take. There is currently a lot of voluntary work via a Trust also working to rebuild the locks and one day have it as a functioning

Old Friends and Old Trails

This trail has a special connection for me. I regularly used to run on sections of it when I lived in the area for 15 years. It also tips it hat to the three main UK trails I hold Fastest Known Time Records on . The trail starts at the town of Amberley next to The Monarchs Way and later north crosses the Sussex Border Path and eventually The Greensand Way. As no one had set any kind of time record on this trail we had the opportunity to physically link up all my past trails with the added bonus that any time we did it in was a record, which gave us the freedom to visit as many pubs as we fancied on the way. Friends, Trails, Records and Beer. It was the perfect ‘Stag Do’.

The Lycra Lord of the Rings

We set off early and it was raining. All of my UK trail records involve biblical rain or a heat wave or in the case of The Sussex Border Path both. The torrential rain from the start was to set a feature of the rest of the day , a repeat of old glories and stories.

After a brief amble down the road to see a section of The Monarch’s Way we set off. Kieran (my best man) and friend Charles (who we call Ladygarden…its a long story) met up with some of my friends at the start. Jason Rhodes (inspiration of ‘The Rhodes Approach) was there, who I hadn’t seen since he dropped out of the Monarchs Way 105 miles in with a bad knee. I was also met by Eddie the Producer from the Bad Boy Running Podcast, Spike who had done his first Ultra by accident on the Monarchs Way with me ( we slept in a bus shelter in Wookey Hole after having only met 4 hours before) and Tom Walker who had once run 13 miles of the Monarchs Way just to leave sarcastic post it notes on gates and fenceposts for me as I went through on my adventure.

We were an assembled group that looked like a lycra Lord of the Rings quest complete with an umbrella and beers. It was magnificent and very British.

How a Jacket Bagged a Record

Russell Banks arrived a few hours late. He had left a jacket at home and had to travel back to get it. As a result he ran harder than us ( we were walking in the rain) to catch us up at the first pub. As a result he was now set up to bag the Fastest Time for the trail as an individual because he would have a different time than the rest of us.

Definitely done by 7pm

Kieran was convinced that we would ‘definitely be done by 7pm’ and remained reasonably sure of this throughout the day even when we were 13 miles from the finish at 8pm. We ambled along the canal trail, with the rain letting up occasionally and talking and catching up on what we had all been doing since I had left the UK for the USA. Jason had to leave early ( as he did on the Monarchs Way) and so did Tom Walker.

We drank and shared the odd beer as we headed north and stopped for an occaisional whisky stop complete with special ‘race cups’ that Kieran had.

Eds First Ultra

Having recently done his first Marathon we we honoured to watch Eddie complete his first Ultra with us that day. An Ultra is defined as anything over marathon distance so at 26.3 miles (0.1 more than a marathon) we stopped to shake his hand next to one of ‘Englands Ugliest Farms’ and he promptly went home victorious and crippled.

The Dunsfold Pain Cave

Things got serious from Dunsfold. After a day of being soaked the trails had taken its toll on knees, feet and sense of humour. From the third pub at the Three Compasses in Dunsfold (next to an aerodrome and within a few miles of where I lived for 15 years) we found that few of us simply couldnt be bothered to carry on. This left Russel Banks soldering on with a dodgy knee for a solo FKT and Spike and I left with the honour of the team FKT despite his horrific blisters. The 8 miles we ran (yup actually jogged and ran) from the pub to Shalford were some of the most ‘interesting’ any of have done.

As we came past Cranleigh Kieran and ‘Simple’ (from the Guildford Hash House Harriers my old hashing club) had organised a rolling ‘aid station’ with kebabs (like all good Stag Dos) and we carried on to Bramley with the sun setting.

We never planned to be out that late. So when the sun set around 9.30 Spike, Russell and I were left in the dark on trails with one head torch and one working phone light between us. It was hilariously useless and despite that the darkness wasn’t the toughest thing to deal with, the combination of ailments, drinking beer and rain had left us in a ‘pain cave’ for the last few miles. It served us right. It was brilliant in just how awful it was.

Rule Britannia

And eventually just before last orders we got to the Britannia Pub in Guildford which is in sight of the end of the trail. Our friends Gaz and Heather were there to look on in horror at the state of us. It was over. Like every Stag Do at the end, a group of haggered men sat round a pub table hardly saying a word. I ordered a cup of tea, others had gin. The usual rule is ‘what goes on tour stays on tour’ . Being in the USA I had been reminded of the things I missed in the UK, trails without giant rocks and things that want to kill you on them, pubs every 4 or 5 miles and the open views from hills. But the UK had reminded me that all is not rose tinted here either, endless mud and one months rain falling in a day ( fact) showed me its not all cucumber sandwiches and glory there either.

Records and Memories

This run was a microcosm of everything I love about trail running. It felt like a ‘Greatest Hits’ album of the friends I’d met, adventures Id had and the chance to revisit some of the trails that have come to define and educate me on long distance fastpacking, self reliance and resourcefulness. Its never rosy all the time on long distance runs and the ‘pain cave’ from Dunsfold and the various injuries and blisters we had at the finish were a reminder that Ultra distances come with downs as well as ups.

It was a fitting send off for me before I get married in the USA and a reminder that I’m now very much straddling being a New Englander and an Old Englander but that in both places its the adventures and people you meet on trails that forge some of the best friendships you have.

But I did have to finally give my arm sleeping bag back to Jason Rhodes so it wasn’t perfect.