Montane Spine Challenger
Report by Colm O’Cofaigh
The Spine Challenger is a 108 mile race that follows the southern section of the Pennine Way from Edale in the Peak District to Hawes. The route is a shorter version of the much longer Spine Race, which continues to Scotland along the full length of the Pennine Way. The race is self-navigating and no external support is allowed with the exception of cafes/shops en-route.
There’s a checkpoint near Hebden Bridge at about 45 miles where runners can access a drop bag, receive medical support and sleep if they wish, and then a further intermediate checkpoint at Malham Tarn at about 78 miles where water and medical support is available but there is a maximum stay of 30 minutes. This year mountain rescue teams provided a couple more additional stopping places where runners could get a hot drink and some food.
Given the conditions overnight on the Saturday this was very welcome. The race started at 8 am on Saturday morning and there is a generous cut-off of 60 hours to get to Hawes, although given the time of year with the weather, dark and conditions underfoot this is not as generous as might be anticipated. The weather was fairly bad on the Saturday after darkness fell with driving wind, sustained heavy rain and poor visibility but it gradually improved overnight and throughout Sunday.
Conditions underfoot were extremely wet. Although I tried sleeping at the CP in Hebden and then again in a church porch in Gargrave this was pretty unsuccessful and the best sleep I had (and it was good!) was ten minutes on the side of Pen y Ghent on Sunday night. John Kelly, the winner of the full Spine Race, which started 24 hours after the Challenger cruised past me as I topped out on Fountains Fell at about 80+ miles in. Phenomenally impressive to see! I finished in 53 hours 48 minutes.