Really enjoyed the route, although it was a bit 'central'....
Had a nice run down to the meet point, albeit it was a tad chillier at that time of day than i'd imagined!
Good to see a few had trekked across to brekkie to meet the 'runners'...let's face it, too good a day not to get out and about!
Did some man maths, to work out if i could get home without refuelling - i had a 1 gall can as a spare, and have had issues once the tank gets about half empty...i reckoned it'd be close, but what the heck. Well.....managed 5 miles before there was a slight stutter ( the car not me)...dropped into Maresfield and brimmed the car. Going through the Ashdown Forest it didnt feel right, and def didn't feel right at the first hill i came to. Nursed it home with a gentle throttle - think the rest of the car wondered who was driving it!
I knew i had 2 more hills between 'here and there'....first wasn't too bad, few hiccups but all was fine......the 2nd two miles from home was a sterner test. But again, got to the top...and stupidly grinned and thought that i'd 'won'....had i hell.
A mile from home it conked out....when it had done this before i'd let the system pressurise/get fuel, fire it up and it would 'go'....today, erm, not quite. I managed about 10 yards before it gave up.
But the end was in sight ( kind of), 1 small crest, if i could get it to the top of that it would be (just about) downhill from there.
Thing is - this is 'lanes', single track with a few passing places....i got the frigging thing within 50 yards of that crest and a bloody car came the other way....had to roll back and attempt it all again.
Finally conquered the incline - wow, now i know how Sir Edmund Hillary felt when he got to the top of Everest....
Had enough 'ummph' to get it onto the drive and down to the garage - which is where it'll stay until the Doctors can see to it.
New tank, new fuel pump should sort it......
I suspect that the pump is knackered after trying to pull through a blockage too many times.
Banter at brekkie was bang on as always......looking forward to 7 days of that on the road trip