Fife trio complete Pilgrim Way run in just one day

If you are an ultra-distance runner and long to run over the mountains and glens, what do you do?

Well, if you are Mike MacDonald, James Hall and Olivier Pennachio you run the Fife Pilgrim Way, all 55.5 miles (89.22km) of it – in one day.

The Fife Pilgrim Way follows one of the routes taken by pilgrims to St Andrews, one of the main pilgrimage destinations in Medieval Europe for 400 years.

Pilgrims flocked to be near the bones of St Andrew, one of Jesus’ disciples.

Cupar ultra man Mike MacDonald had set his sights on running the Glen Ogle 33-mile race but that event was continually postponed.

Inspiration came to Mike and the quest of running the Pilgrim’s Way on the shortest day of the year took root and plans were made.

Mike said: “90km should be do-able in nine hours. That’s an easy average pace of six min/km, which basically takes you from dawn to dusk plus a little bit of nautical twilight on either side.”

Mike recruited Ceres athlete James Hall, a constant training partner plus hardened Pyrenean Mountainman Olivier Pennachio to form an ultra threesome.

Also recruited was the multi-talented Wendy Ritchie, of Pitscottie Agricultural Crop Services, an experienced runner, official, time-keeper, coach, who would be able to authenticate any performance. The three duly arrived at Culross for a 7.25 am start giving nine hours until dusk .

The opening stage from Culross to Dunfermline yielded the fastest km of the day passing through Newmills in 4 minutes 51 seconds reaching Dunfermline on schedule as the sun rose above the Abbey.

The second stage to Lochore began from Dunfermline and on to Kingseat before traversing Keltywood and tp Lochore.

The trail out of Lochore and up and round Hare Law for stage three proved more challenging with the trail wet and muddy.

Conditions improved, however, by Woodend forging on to Kinglassie and passing the marathon point in a respectable 3 hours 45 minutes. The Leslie viaduct roughly marked the half-way point before continuing to Kennoway.

The trails through Balbirnie proved pleasant enough arriving in Markinch for a water stop.

The tough climb to Clatto Hill saw the slowest km of the day at 11 minutes 27 seconds.

Now five minutes behind schedule the impetus of a mostly downhill course to the finish spurred the three on heading along the Waterless Way, which didn’t live up to its name, to James’ home village of Ceres. They arrived in Ceres still five minutes shy of schedule.

From Ceres to Craigtoun Mike reflected that every step was now painful but support from Fife AC club members at the start of the Kinninmonth climb helped the uphill slog to Ladeddie where coach Wendy provided encouragement.

Digging out sheer will-power along the Drumcarrow Road the trails of Craigtoun soon appeared but still with that five-minute burden knowing that the pace needed to stay under 9 hours in total was now gone. The home sprint to the Cathedral eventually came arriving almost exactly five minutes over nine hours, the five-minute water stop at Markinch had proved costly. The total nine hours 04 minutes 51 seconds was still a superb effort.

Mike said: “We had agreed it was about finishing, not the time, so those five minutes didn’t detract from the accomplishment. The main feeling was simply relief at being able to stop. It was only 24 hrs later that I could start to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.”