Two fundraisers have made an emotional return to Moray after a massive 2,500-mile run on the road.
A tunnel of willow branches welcomed Simon Clark and Rachel Winter back to Findhorn yesterday after the couple’s athletic trip around the coast of Ireland.
More than 50 well-wishers hugged the duo in an emotional embrace as the runners wiped away tears.
The campaigners were initially expecting to be back in the village before Christmas, but a miscalculation with the distance left them with 500 miles more than they thought they had to do.
Last night, supporters gathered to sing hits from Bob Marley and The Proclaimers at the Findhorn Foundation to celebrate their eight-month expedition.
Miss Winter, 45, revealed that she had struggled to run during the last three months as a result of an injury to her hip – but managed to stretch her legs during the final few miles from Kinloss.
She said: “It’s incredibly hard to do it again and again every day when maybe all you want to do is lie in bed with a book.
“And then you think it’s not as hard as what other people have to go through in their lives – we just put one foot in front of the other again and again.”
The runners raised about £7,500 for the Findhorn-based Ecologia Youth Trust while on the road in Ireland.
The charity organises projects across the world including a hairdressing school in Kenya to help sex workers get off the street, helping to fund a new school in Uganda and running sessions to boost the self-esteem of teenagers in Scotland.
The run was Mr Clark’s second undertaking for the cause in recent years after returning from a 5,100-mile run around the British coastline in July 2017.
Yesterday, the runner revealed he plans to hang up his running shoes for the immediate future.
He said: “Last time, I felt like I wanted to keep going but I think it’s time to stop now for a while. Ireland was a beautiful country but the coastline was hard to get to at times. During the first part, we climbed rocks but then stuck to mundane roads to cover the mileage.
“The generosity was amazing. When I ran round Britain, I got about 10% of donations on the road compared to online but this time it was well over half.”