After the Chelmsford Marathon: Essex Countryside and Villages

The Route: Chelmsford → surrounding Essex villages → Chelmsford Logistics: By car; the villages and lanes around Chelmsford are not well served by public transport, so driving is the practical option. Marathon Month: October Duration: Day trip

Chelmsford ──(by car)──> Essex villages / countryside ──(return)──> Chelmsford

The marathon's own middle miles run through undulating rural Essex lanes, and revisiting the same countryside by car the next day, at an easy pace rather than a race pace, offers a genuinely different way to appreciate it. October in rural Essex: the countryside is well into autumn, with hedgerows and farmland turning colour along the same lanes the race itself uses.

Villages and Lanes

Essex's countryside around Chelmsford is dotted with small, historic villages, many built around a green, a church and a pub, connected by the same kind of narrow, undulating lanes the marathon runs through. Driving a slow loop through a handful of these villages, stopping wherever looks appealing, suits a day with no fixed itinerary and legs that would rather sit than walk.

Where to eat: Village pubs throughout the area typically serve straightforward Sunday lunches and easy meals, a natural stop wherever the drive happens to land.

Getting Back

The return drive to Chelmsford retraces whichever route was taken out, with no fixed distance given the open-ended nature of this itinerary.