Quite a hard day's walk (Wednesday)

With the weather forecast decidedly on the wet side and I'd not told anyone to expect me to turn up for the LDWA walk over Pendle I chose to "do my own thing"which would allow me to alter my route should the weather turn particularly inclement.
After sorting a few jobs out I was eventually on my way from Wilderswood with a plan to head via Two Lads over Winter Hill then down to Belmont before picking up Witton Weavers Way on Catherine Edge and then if I felt I had time, off up to to Darwen Tower.
Amazingly the rain held off so I was able to dine at the blustery Darwen Tower before heading down to Hollinshead Hall and up to Great Hill from Piccadilly. Finally at around 2pm the rain started : I think I'd done very well to get over four hours walking in dry conditions overhead. Underfoot of course it was as wet is has been for many months. At least I was on the descent to White Coppice so the strong wind at the top of Great Hill would reduce.
In my head I think of Darwen Tower as being the halfway mark at under 9 miles but you soon realise that it is far from the truth with the climb back from Rivington to Wilderswood being much further than you think it is, despite having run that stretch (or at least to Pike Cottage) so many times on a Saturday morning.
I reached the car just before dusk with the Garmin recording 20.2 miles and 3800 feet of climb in 6hrs 56. I'd hoped to maintain 3mph (including lunch break) but just fell short at 2.9mph. Considering the climb and the conditions underfoot I suppose that is quite reasonable, bearing in mind that today's UTUP run returned only 3.4mph. Below are screen grabs from google earth of the route and the profile.