Anna Troup has broken the women's speed record on the Pennine Way, setting a new Fastest Known Time (FKT) of 72 hours 46 minutes 37 seconds (to be confirmed), to beat Sabrina Verjee's 2020 time of 74 hours 28 minutes by a convincing margin.
She also beats her own ladies' record time of 80 hours 28 minutes on the summer Spine race, only set earlier this season. You can hear more about that on the Beyond the Ultimate podcast:
Over the three or so days of her run, Anna's progress was followed on Opentracking, and Twitter updates were posted with #supertrouper.
Running south to north, she set off on the 268-mile route from Edale to Kirk Yetholm at mid day on Saturday 14th August, and managed to keep ahead of her target checkpoint times, and the record pace, most of the way, only beginning to lag in the final gruelling stages over the Cheviots, where an unscheduled 40 minute nap also bit into her lead.
After a difficult night due to sickness and not being able to eat for a long period, @AnnaTroup4 has just left Malham Tarn and is still on schedule. Pacers @TallmanStu and Amelia are along for this next stretch and onwards to Pen-y-ghent.#SuperTrouper #penninewayfkt pic.twitter.com/P9AaXyPEJh
— Sharon Dyson (@Shaznay999) August 15, 2021
Dot watchers were given a white knuckle finish as her pace slowed and the margin began to narrow. By the summit of The Cheviot she was nearly 2.5 hours down on schedule, while the imaginary figure of Sabrina Verjee crept closer along the border ridge behind. But perseverance paid off, and in a display of incredible determination Anna stormed down the final long descent to cross the line with a new record.
She may only be taking in small amounts, but @AnnaTroup4 is still moving well. Approaching Hardraw where the request is for a double expresso and a bit of tlc to her tender feet! 🏃♀️ @RobTatman back on shift.#SuperTrouper #penninewayfkt
— Sharon Dyson (@Shaznay999) August 15, 2021
Tracker: https://t.co/wbXz53AM1y pic.twitter.com/3C9Ko492Do
The men's record on the Pennine Way, currently held by John Kelly, is an amazing 2 days, 10 hours and 4 minutes.
Comments
Congratulations.
Totally off-this-topic, but following a link or two - is that Sabrina V I see supporting John Kelly's Pennine Way record? Nice to see if so.
jcm
what a feat! just mindblowing. I saw the tracker link on somewhere today and was just gobsmacked at how far the Pennine Way is... and to do it in 3 days!
What is an average amount of time people usually set aside to walk it? 3 weeks?
I suspect that there might be some way to go with the women’s record. Anna Troup’s new record is 25% slower than John Kelly’s record. The usual rule of thumb is 10% to account for physiological differences between men and women, but this is often much less for very long events and challenges like this. Very impressive non the less.
He attempted it towards the end of July when it was really hot but had to pull out sadly. Believe he's back in the States at the moment.
That was the Wainwright's - he successfully beat the PWFKT in May in sub-60.
And I believe Sabrina did do some pacing yes, it's pretty common to see the big names pacing each other on different challenges - Jasmin Paris was did a stretch of John's PW too I think