Another weekend without children, another chance to get down to the Cotswolds and sample another section of the Broadway marathon route. This time, it was the middle miles. If you’ve not yet checked out Part One of my recce, the course is a figure of eight, with the cross-point at such a point that it allows for two equal distance recce loops. Previously, I had done the first 8 miles of the course, and the final 4 (ish). For my second exploration, the plan was to pick the route up at just after 8 miles (where I left it previously) and run until mile 22.
The beginning of mile 9 is in Stanway. Following some Google searching, and Google Maps stalking, public parking in Stanway seemed sparse. Sure, I could dump my car on a residential street somewhere, but I didn’t want to do that for several reasons. So I searched around and eventually found a carpark just outside of the village hall in Stanton. They have parking for the hall itself beyond a hedge, but between the road and the hedge is an area for public parking, and it was free. Result!
Parking what3words: dollars.uniforms.outlawing
This was just over a mile and a half away from where I wanted to pick up the course in Stanway but, coincidentally, it was still on the course. This meant that I would be recce’ing from mile 8 (ish) through to the end of mile 23.
I switched off for the first couple of miles. Doing the course in reverse, there was no point in trying to remember what the turns and the terrain was like. Better to save memory space for what was to come. In reality though, there wasn’t a great deal to take in, or to try and remember. For the first 6-7 miles, it was almost all trail. Some hard packed, some grassy fields, and a few farm / fire track ‘roads’. It was all very easy to follow.
Coming into Winchcombe, you are at the lowest point in the race, at around 100 m. The next section takes you up to well over 300 m as you negotiate around the outside of several fields before hitting some tarmac and the main section of the climb at The Granary Farm. I’m not sure of the size of the farm itself, and how much of this land belongs to it, but it looks like a vast estate here, with a single-track road meandering through it. You go over a cattle grid, climb short and sharp before dropping down slightly, crossing another cattle grid and then slogging it out to the top of the hill and back onto a public road. This section will be the third and final major climb in the race, and will come at around the 13 to 15 mile mark. It will be nice knowing that you’re over the worst of the course by this point, but I wonder how much the first half-and-a-bit of the race will have taken out of my legs.
Another mile and a half of tarmac follows before you get back onto the trails. Although well over half way at this point, this is where you stop heading south and turn back north. Psychologically, this is where you start heading back for the finish, and there’s a nice downhill to come. It’s worth pointing out that, although the third major climb was the final one, it wasn’t the end of the hills. Those to come are less severe than those already tackled, but they are by no means speed bumps.
Back on the Cotswold Way, you follow the perimeter edge of a large, open field and come to Cromwell’s Seat. Here, the Cotswold Way heads straight on, towards Farmcote, but the race route actually takes a sharp right after the rocky, step-like descent from the landmark, back towards Wood Stanway. I had to double check my watch to ensure I was going the right way as the path wasn’t obvious. Neither was it through the next few fields, with different gates to choose from and different lines to take through the open land. This is exactly why I wanted to recce the route. Plenty of admin going on here.
There was a pretty sharp descent through the last field. One of those where if you let your momentum carry you then you worry if you’ll ever stop, but also braking absolutely ruins your quads. Good fun though. Once in Wood Stanway, it was back on the path in which I started the day, through some flat fields and back to the village hall in Stanton. This would be miles 21-22 on race day and seemed easy enough to negotiate.
A full recce of the course done then, and ready for race day. There are just a few sections where I need to be careful that I choose the right gate, the right line, and to ensure I turn hard right after Cromwell’s seat. for these reasons, regardless of marshall numbers and course markings, I will probably run with the route on my watch during the race, just to ensure that I don’t end up somewhere I shouldn’t be. In my first marathon, the last thing I want is to be running over-distance. Well, that goes for any marathon for that matter.