I did Leg 3 (9.4M or 15.2K) for the HRR Vets Team.  I dumped my car at
the end of Leg 3 and Tony Turner kindly gave a lift to the start.  He was 
doing Leg 3 for the HRR A Team.  Just to make sure we weren't late, 
both of us amazingly were 20 minutes earlier than the time we had agreed 
to meet!  There were a lot of people at the start of Leg 3 when we arrived.
We chatted to people from the other teams.  

Later, I did a bit of warming up.  I ran through the woods on the 
other side of the road and learnt from another runner about a 
disputed shortcut at the point where you emerge from the woods.
At OXSRAD, the previous Thursday, Graham Norris had warned me about
this but I hadn't worked out where he meant.  So here I was making a
change to the route I was going to run in the last hour before I started.

Back to the start and by now the HRR Support Teams had arrived.  And 
lots more people had arrived.  And there was a lot of clapping when 
people came in exhausted having just finished Leg 2.  

Roger Thetford was the second runner to complete Leg 2 and so we then
cheered Tony on his way.  Later, Peter Richardson arrived and we cheered
John Cope off.  He was there with his wife (Jacqui): the next time they
would see each other would be at the end of Leg 3 when John would pass
the 'baton' to Jacqui who was doing Leg 4 for the B Team.

I was waiting for Kit to arrive as he was doing Leg 2 for the Vets Team.
He arrived at about the time estimated in Adrienne's rough time schedule.
After a brief touch of hands, off I went.  

It was the first time I've been involved in a relay.  Sometime earlier
that morning it suddenly dawned on me that, when I started running,
I would be on my own.  And, during my 9.4 miles, 
I had just four encounters with other runners, where they caught me up
and sailed straight passed, or I did the same to them.  I saw more
walkers, dogs and cyclists than runners.  I found this weird. 

Some people would get fazed by this as in a race they use the 
accompanying runners to chivvy themselves on.  However, when running,
I have my Garmin watch set to report back how long it takes me to
do each 0.5K and I use this to determine my pace.  So apart from
it being quiet, it didn't upset me.

Leg 3 has a "steep downhill at the start, a significant hill to climb
[Lodge Hill] and descend in the middle, but otherwise it is fairly flat".
It's easy to see where the hill is from my 0.5K splits:
  2m50s, 2m31s, 2m29s, 2m24s, 2m30s, 2m49s, 2m48s, 2m52s, 2m59s, 2m58s,
  4m45s, 2m35s, 2m30s, 3m24s, 2m36s, 3m03s, 2m34s, 2m31s, 2m35s, 2m28s,
  2m29s, 2m41s, 2m32s, 2m31s, 2m27s, 2m40s, 2m43s, 2m49s, 2m45s, 2m30s,
  0m46s. 

There were numerous kissing gates, several road/lane crossings and one
railway line crossing.  Some parts were on footpaths alongside fields
or across fields, whereas other parts were along broad, rutted,
straight, level paths that are common on the Ridgeway.

The organisers put out very few signs and there were just two marshalls
en-route: you're meant to recce the route beforehand.  Bob had been
taken ill at the last moment and so I'd been asked to do this leg the
Wednesday before.  I had just recce-ed the first 5 miles on the
Friday night before the race as these were described as "navigationally
tricky".  That was worthwhile as on the Friday night there were a few
places where I had to ponder for a moment wondering which way to go,
which would not be too good to do in the race. 

The last 4.4 miles are easy as the Ridgeway takes a straight line to
just south of the M40, where the M40 does the enormous cutting through
the Chilterns (near Lewknor).  From some distance away, I could see
someone standing at the M40 bridge.  As I got closer I saw this person
wave back to the masses at the end of the leg.  It turned out to be 
John Cope who gave me some encouraging words as I passed him to do the
final straight to the finish, where I touched Mary's hand, gave her some
encouragement, and heard Laurie say "well done".  It was all over. 

It was a tiring but enjoyable haul.  It was only the third time I'd
done that distance in a race since taking up running again last year.
Adrienne's suggested time schedule had me down to do it in 1h29m.
Last year, the fastest time for this leg was 58m22s and if I were to 
achieve 1.5 times the winner's time which I often do, I would have to
complete it in 1h27m.  Although I had suggested to Adrienne that 
1h35m might be more realistic, I managed to do it in 1h23m which is 
6m ahead of her schedule!  I was very pleased.