I'll try to make greater use of any passing trains.
If you're riding full value you won't see any IME. The only one I saw later on was a slow, ill-disciplined group of randoms which I avoided. I did pair up with riders for a while at times but didn't ride in any groups. I had a good tow from a local on a mountain bike at one point, he was a strong rider but we must have looked a right pair!!
My riding plan was wildly over optimistic. I thought I could maintain 21-22kph average and after a quick run to Louth I wasted too much of the gained time faffing there. I should have had a nap and carried on. I paid for that error for the rest of the ride, being one control behind all the way really. If you can do the Brampton - Brampton loop in one day that would be ideal. In the end I was consistently averaging 18kph on the legs which was enough to stay ahead of time but not fast enough to get much sleep.
Always have one set of dry kit with you. In my brain addled state I dumped all extraneous kit at Brampton to reduce weight knowing I had more kit at Pocklington, the apocalyptical conditions over Yad Moss was nearly ride over, if the Sun hadn't come out at Barnard Castle I would have been stuffed. As it was it was a long, hard and late ride to Pocklington having started at Innerleithen at 3am.
My gomadic AA battery box kept my Wahoo going the whole way with battery swaps as required and one Anker PowerCore 10000 kept my iPhone going and was still half full this morning!
I used a Hope 1 front light with three pre-filled battery holders ready to swap as required. It was perfect on the middle setting and lasted all night.