With the London marathon and all other races cancelled or postponed, Rob went looking else were for is hit of running related endorphins writes Pete Harris
Having closely followed the adventures of Damien Hall and John Kelly as they raced across the Pennine Way (both of them achieving FKT - Fastest Known Time - for the route), Rob made up his mind to follow in their feats having discovered there was a FKT along the popular Clarendon Way (a well known route between Salisbury Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral).
Rob's goal was not only to break the FKT for the route, but also to set a new FKT for the RETURN to Salisbury.
On Saturday 22 August 2020, he set off from Salisbury Cathedral at 0530 and headed unsupported along the Clarendon Way to Winchester Cathedral arriving 3 hours 33 minutes 48 seconds later (almost 1 hour 15 minutes quicker than the previous FKT) Having refuelled, he turned around and headed straight back to Salisbury. Rob's return leg aim was not about time; understandably, the target was just to get back to where he started as he knew the first leg would have taken a lot out of him.
With a number of pre-planned stops along the way to refuel and refill his water bottles including ditching his hydration vest on the last stop, he ran into Salisbury with the view of his home Cathedral giving him the impetus, energy and uplift to smash the last mile at a pace of 7:33 minutes/mile having ran almost 55 miles prior to this, totaling a time of 8 hours 43 minutes 25 seconds covering a distance of 55.80 miles.
Rob has had both of his FKT's recognised, approved and uploaded (link below)
He is surprisingly up and running already and is keeping an eye on other FKT's he can attempt.