Lucy Gossage has set a new women's supported fastest known time on the Pennine Way, completing the 268-mile National Trail in 2 days, 22 hours, 47 minutes and 15 seconds. She started on 5 September and finished on 8 September, and her time is logged on the Fastest Known Time website with live tracking and two Strava activities as verification.
The mark is well inside the 72 hours 46 minutes that Anna Troup recorded for the women's supported route in 2021, and it makes Gossage the first woman reported to have run the Pennine Way in under three days. The route runs from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm just across the Scottish border, crossing the Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines and Cheviots.
Conditions were kind at the start. Gossage described the first 36 hours as good, before rain, wind and near-zero visibility arrived over Pen-y-ghent and Fountains Fell. The third day was warm, then from 8pm heavy rain, wind and fog made the final 65 kilometres difficult. She summed the effort up as a proper adventure on the Pennine Way.
Support came from a group of friends who crewed her throughout, and she ran about 40 miles on her own with company from friends for the rest of the route. That fits the supported category, in which pacers and a crew are allowed, and it is a model that has become popular for FKT attempts on British trails.
Gossage is an established name in British ultrarunning, and has finished on the podium at the Montane Winter Spine Race. Her Pennine Way run is the latest in a strong season of fastest-known-time attempts that has already produced records on the GR20 in Corsica and the John Muir Trail in California, and it will give other British ultrarunners a clear target to chase.