Following my usual summer of cycling, I had some unfinished running ‘business’ which was bugging me. As part of the Thames Barrier to Severn Estuary run in March and April (Thames Barrier to the Severn Estuary 2025 – Andy’s Running and Cycling Tours), I had reached Reading on the Thames Path before turning off on the Kennet & Avon canal. I had really enjoyed running on the Thames Path and was keen to continue to the source @ 97 miles from Reading. So, needing to get some ‘miles in’ for Chicago marathon in early October completing it in 3 days in mid-September would be good, although not what you’d usually find in any marathon training plans. Nevermind. However, after 2 weeks of stressful parental health issues requiring 6 hospital admissions, it was exactly what I needed.

As the River Thames heads from Berkshire into Oxfordshire towards the source in Gloucestershire, it becomes more rural and hence accommodation options are fewer and further between. That means 33 miles on Day 1 to Abingdon followed by 41 miles on Day 2 to Lechlade and finishing with 23 miles on Day 3 to the source, and then a train back from Kemble.

I had booked my 2 nights accommodation at the end of the long hot summer thinking that the good weather would continue into September as it has done in recent years. However, as I write this the night before, after a couple of weeks of heavy showers it is raining again. While the forecast is looking dry(ish), it will probably be wet under foot. The evenings are also closing in. Still I have a choice and that is to embrace the challenge, ‘viewing it as an opportunity for growth and development rather than a problem to be avoided’, as Google AI informs me.