Since I came back to Scotland in August I had my eyes on an FKT. I noticed that the Pilgrim way which finishes just 11 miles from my house had been done as a supported FKT by Billy Gibson, local athlete, marathon runner extraordinnaire and budding ultra-runner. I thought my time would probably be 1.5 hrs slower than his so that's what goal I went in with. I contacted Billy prior to the run day and he mentioned how the route has difficult navigation sections. I went into it fully expecting to go 'of course'; I just didn't appreciate quite how many times that would happen (about 10!). I had my map with me but no gpx. file as my garmin isn't fancy enough to do such things....
we left the house about 5.20am to head to Culross where I planned to start. There was a petrol shortage and as we stopped in Glenrothes for petrol we found none to be had. A bit panicked we continued on just as our petrol light switched on. We made it to a Gulf station in Rosyth which luckily had petrol (but was out of diesel!). Fully taken up and bathroom break done I was ready to run.
We met Sylvia in the west car park and handed off food and water.
I started the run sometime around 6.55am with Lee in tow. He agreed to run 4 miles out with me and then turn back for the car and head home. The path stayed close to the coast for the first bit and was nice as it was a quiet warm morning. When I got to Cairneyhill Lee said goodbye and I was off on my journeys solo. I managed ok until I got to Pittencrieff park in Dunfermline whereby I got very very confused but finally gained composure and managed to find sylvia just before the bike path to the station. She assured me all was well and I continued on to Keltyhall woods where I was able to meet up with Frank and Margaret. Frank got me through the next section and we made it down to meet Margaret to helped me through Glenrothes. I got horribly lost again in glenrothes even with Margaret, the sign posting was no good and my map while pretty good wasn't small enough to see the tiny paths that diverted from the main path. Finally we found ourselves at an intersection with Nikki and parents and Frank and Sylvia waiting for us looking the way we were supposed to have come. We made it! Nikki picked me up from there and she did have the route downloaded on her garmin but I found that it didn't really help much especially when we were taking a lot of turns because it wasn't updating fast enough to keep up with our turns. I think i got more lost relying on her garmin than I did with my own map :)!. Anyway we continued on, we had a big diversion at one point when we missed a signpost and headed up a very steep hill and farm track. Finally checking out Nikki's phone we realized we were way off course and headed back down said hill to follow the grassy farm track.
It was a long time before we were to get to Ceres and I was feeling low so we stopped in Kennoway and bought some Coke at the petrol station. Oh that tasted so good!! Nikki made me take her coffee flavored torque gel at this point because she said i hadn't eaten in quite awhile. This was a very good idea. Onwards towards Ceres where Frank met us about a mile outside with very much needed bottles of water. He accompanied us down the track (one I know well from FIFE AC Hill of Tarvit races) and into Ceres to see the crew. My choice of nutrition is hummus and spinach wraps with red pepper so I refueled with one of those. Sylvia went home at this point and Nikki said she'd carry on with me a couple more miles.
The next section was actually quite pretty until we got to a cow field with moms and calves. We found ourselves in a hilarious situation of climbing over a barbed wire fence to run 'on the other side' of the cows onto to come upon an open gate which led straight back to said cows. We carried on carefully but Nikki fell right near a milking mom! I stopped and she said 'go on'. There wasn't anyway I was going to leave her there!!! Her hamstring was a bit sore by this point and so just after the cow field her mom and dad picked her up and she headed home. I carried on and made it to the golf course just outside st. andrews but got horribly lost again trying to find the entrance to craigton country park. When I finally found it (several golfing encounters and queries later) Lee and Margaret were waiting for me but frank was no where to be found. He'd gone out to look for me but would never find me because I got so off-course. I wanted to carry on quickly and Lee gave me his phone to help navigate through Craigton as everyone had said it would be quite tricky. I really wanted to get in just under the 10 hr mark so I put the gas on and pushed it through the park onto the path that followed the river and onto the cyclepath paralleling the streets of St. Andrews. When I looked at my watch and had 10 minutes to go and 2 miles to do I knew it wouldn't be possible, even in the best of shape I wouldn't run a 5 minute mile, so I continued to keep my speed but didn't worry about the time. Down into town, through the archway of South Street and past the old Madras campus and past hoards of late summer afternoon folk enjoying an unusually warm Saturday, down through the archway at St. Leonards to see Lee, turned left and stopped my watch at the Cathedral.
10 hrs 6 minutes. What a journey.
Phoned Margaret to find out Frank was still not back to the car, so Lee and I drove back to Craigton to help Margaret look for Frank. Just as we pulled in he jogged up looking utterly exhausted. He was so kind to continue to look for me. What an amazing bunch of friends I have here to help me do these crazy things. Sylvia McGoldrick, Nikki Gibson, her parents, Margaret and Frank McLaren and Lee O Connor I owe you!! Thanks Billy for the warning of navigation. :). Hope someone else has a go sometime!