Summer Spine Challenger 19-20 June
Report by Victoria Morris
As you probably know, the Spine race involves running the whole length of the Pennine Way. That sounded far too hard to me, but for some reason I thought it might be a good idea to enter the Spine Challenger race, for which you only have to run the southern (shorter) half. COVID cancellations meant that the first opportunity I had to run the race after being accepted for entry was the summer race, which took
place last weekend.
The course is 108 miles, from Edale in the Peak District to Hardraw in the Dales, with something like 8,000 metres of ascent. Although I knew the bottom and top parts of the route quite well, I was a bit hazy about what went on in the middle, but I enjoy map-reading so I was happy enough to learn as I went along. It turned out to roughly
comprise four sections: high gritstone hills in the Peak district, some moorland with reservoirs, a lower-level section around Gargrave, then limestone hills in the Dales.
There is very little in the way of support – just one proper checkpoint at Hebden Bridge, and then another check-you’re-still-alive-point at Malham tarn. Plus a surprise bacon sandwich in a tent in the middle of the night, and supportive text messages from my running partner Keith along the lines of “RUN FASTER”.
On both days, the main challenges were extreme heat and the lack of drinking water on the hills; everyone I ran with was also finding the heat difficult to cope with. In the Peak District, the only water on the hills was orange and slimy; we sometimes ended up having to do 20+ miles on 500 ml water. If it hadn’t been for Nicky’s foodbar at the M62 crossing, I’m sure there would have been many more retirements. Needless to say, I ended up with heatstroke, and felt extremely sick in the small hours of the morning. Even though Sunday morning was actually quite overcast and wet, I thought I might have to retire, as the idea of doing another 30 miles thinking I was about to be sick didn’t particularly appeal, so I phoned HQ as a “heads up” in case I needed to drop out somewhere around Malham where there is limited phone signal. The amazing team at Malham tarn, however, let me sit down and gave me a cup of coffee. I don’t know what they put it in, but it settled my stomach so that I felt well enough to continue. The fact that the Malham tarn crew were based in a midge-infested tent
provided an added incentive to get moving…
Keith met me on the descent of Fountains Fell, and forced me to continue up Pen-y-Ghent, pointing out that we’ve climbed it in the middle of the night, in ice, snow and howling gales (sometimes all of these) so I shouldn’t let tired legs and hot weather put me off. By this point, I felt like I was really on home turf, and knew the route well enough to give my map to a fellow runner when he noticed that he’d dropped his somewhere. There was some horrible track surface between Pen-y-Ghent and Dodd Fell – the kind that shreds your feet unless you’re wearing tough hiking boots – but once the Pennine Way turns off Cam High Road it’s pretty much soft grass downhill all the way to the finish.
A race photographer was lurking in the buttercups just outside Hardraw, doing some interval training as he ran between different spots to take different shots. I don’t know what came into my head, but I challenged him to a sprint to the finish line, which felt great fun while it lasted, but distinctly less great when I tried to get my breath back. My dad (who had kindly been my chauffeur for the weekend) appeared bearing a calippo, which tasted wonderful, especially as I’d hardly been able to eat since midnight. He then had to wait around for another hour while I was interviewed and photographed by various people – I haven’t a clue who they were, and maybe I wasn’t photogenic enough, as none of the interviews seem to have appears on the Spine
race social media at the time of writing! Or perhaps I wasn’t making much sense…
Anyway, according to the online tracker, I finished in 32:20:14, and was first woman over the line. Overall, it was a great race, although I think the temperatures of the winter race might be more to my liking.