He’s done it!

For those of you who haven’t been following the story over the last few days, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie has had a combined mid-life crisis/election substitute. He has run four and a half marathons in the last 3 days, 117 miles, around the Fife Coastal Path.

He finished just over an hour ago. He ran 44 miles today. I can barely drive that distance. It’s absolutely incredible. About 10 minutes ahead of him, I walked up the last part of the path – a not very steep, but long hill. I knew it was boing to be tough for him at the end of that uber-marathon stint.

I’d seen him at his penultimate stop 17 miles and 3 hours earlier. He was in good spirits but clearly very sore. His left ankle was protesting pretty severely at having been put through about 150,000 steps.

It was almost funny when he was asked by the photographer to go back down the hill a bit and run through the arch and ribbon (held by his wife Janet and son Stephen again) so he could get a better shot.

At least, though, he had had decent weather today. The sun was out but it wasn’t too warm. Yesterday, he told me, he had had lashing rain, hailstones and snow and a biting wind in his face. Ever the optimist, he’d told his team not to worry, once they’d got past Fife Ness they’d have the wind at their backs. Sadly it changed direction and they had it in their faces again.

He’s raised over £7000 for Scottish mental health charity SAMH. Actually, if you add in the Gift Aid, it’s almost £8,500. If you want to show appreciation for his amazing effort, then please give here.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social