First things first: thank you to Jane, Louise, Paul and Julia for your generous contributions. The total is now up to £425 with a further £120 of Gift Aid. The people of Haiti need to rebuild with confidence, so if you are reading this and have not already donated, please click the link on the right.
The Basque sailor Juan Sebastián Elcano, completed the first navigation of the globe in 1522 after his captain Magellan had been killed on route. Last week I completed my first circumnavigation of Coventry arriving at the Queen’s Head in Meriden, climbing the steps and seeing ahead of me the kissing gate where I started back on 28th November.
Map 18 involved a fair bit of FM, but also some pleasant run’s across fields where I encountered serious walkers out on what, as the sun came out, seemed like the first spring morning of the year. The final stretch was mercifully down lanes and largely down hill. I reckon that I completed the first circumnavigation in a total of 7 hours 40 minutes. If I do that on April 18th I will be quite satisfied, but of course then I will be doing all in one day.
However the 5k of Map 18 was not enough at this stage of my training schedule, neither do I think that one circumnavigation is sufficient to make me sufficiently familiar with the Coventry Way. So, almost without pause, I was off again on my second circumnavigation (can you tell how much I like that word?). This time without the benefit of maps, trying to test my memory and the trail of waymarks to keep me on course. And I am remarkably successful; it all comes flooding back to me with just the odd moment of apprehension.
So its across Back Lane, down to Carol Green (where I have to check with a local that I am on the right road), down the Kenilworth-Berkswell Railway (where some tree felling has happened but no other work on the Connect2 scheme), through the back end of Kenilworth (the only serious uphill stretch on the whole route as far as I can recall), across the Kenilworth golf course (which this time has flying golf balls to beware of), and up to the Stoneleigh junction.
This week maps 18, 1, 2, 3, 4 completed
21k at a pace of 7.05 min/k (an improvement on recent weeks)
All 64k of the first circumnavigation completed
17k of the second
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