Leg 6: Tower Arms Hotel, Iver to Brooklands Hotel, Weybridge (15.5 miles approx., or should have been).
Wrting this from my plush room at the Brooklands Hotel, which is next door to the Mercedes Benz Museum and a far cry from last night’s cosy down to earth accommodation at the pub in Iver. A bit too corporate and ostentatious for my liking really but very comfortable and good to indulge in what I wouldn’t normally. All done in a very chic ‘art deco’ style to reflect the founding of the Brooklands car racing track (the world’s first purpose-built car racing track) on which this hotel stands.
Started off quite early, around 10.30, knowing that the 15.5 miles I’d estimated was a bit ambitious as I had 5 junctions to get through, the first being a major one, the M25/M4 interchange at Junction 15. After a bit of a false start (a dead end in a riding school’s field, I managed to get some good directions from the owners and was on my way across a heath that is apparently popular with runners (didn’t see any but saw several walkers). This took me round the interchange no problem and also through to the next junction (no.14) at Heathrow, most of which was quite straight forward- again some public heathland with several footpaths and bridleways. Running was not too bad, but I went steadily to preserve my energy.
The junction I’d been fearing the most was number 13 after the Staines turn off, because of a stretch of water, which it seemed from my ‘Google earth’ research, would necessitate a big detour to get across. In the event, it was amazingly simple as the main bridge had a footpath along it. Unfortunately, this did not reflect in what followed and I found myself in the second half of my journey increasingly frustrated by dead-ends, false turns and inaccessible barriers that even I in my dogged resilience was unable to negotiate. This invitably took up alot of time and energy, especially since it was quite a warm day. The 15.5 miles I thought I was going to do soon turned into 18, 19, probably 20 miles in the end.
Not too many life-threatening adventures this time- apart from having to cross a small brook after having partially tresspassed on private land (so I could not go back). Luckily for me, this time it was not boggy- quick-sinking mud, but it was unpredictably deep in places, so I was rather nervous about venturing across. Too wide to jump, I eventually noticed a small island of solid mud/rock in the middle, which I would be able to reach and with the aid of a branch to guage the depth I managed to jump onto it. But I was only half way- I still had to jump to the other side. I reached for the branch I’d used and tentatively tested the depth with it and also with my own feet. Initially it seemed impossibly deep- my feet reached into a void- however, to my right I could see some solid rocks below the surface, which meant that at that point the water was more shallow. So I was able to step on that (as it was the depth was up to my knees), and get across to the other side- phew!
Following that I knew it wasn’t too far to my destination- just a treck through a heathway and some small housing estates before reaching the Byfleet road that would take me into Byfleet and to Brooklands. A very frustrating route though- which emphasised an over reliance and emphasis on cars as the route to the hotel, basically was a circular bypass surrounding the town. Maybe this is deliberate given the homage to the Mercedes Benz that Brooklands basically is. It felt quite strange as a runner approaching this environment and as I entered this newly-built corporate glass building in my muddy clothes and shoes, there was something quite satisfying about the fact that I did not really fit in.
