Spine Challenger South, 2026

It’s a few days after the race, and I’m heading back into the office – it’s early, it’s damp, and I’d like some music – so on go the headphones and 6music starts playing the time honoured lyrics ‘…..Back to life, back to reality’ – and it really felt that way.

The Spine as a race is a bubble, whichever of the race distances that you’re doing. Time loses meaning, absolute location outside of where you are on the course becomes less relevant, and the people and circumstances around you sharpen in focus – that, and a constant awareness of the state that you’re in, and what you’ve got to do. The longer you’re involved in the event, the more acute it becomes.

I’ve had this when doing longer stints on the Spine Safety team – to a smaller extent on the Spine Sprint (now ‘Spine Sprint South’), although it doesn’t have a chance to bed in as much. On the Spine Challenger South, it became far more so – and I can only see this increasing on the Challenger North and the full Spine race.

So how did I get to this point?

Background, Race prep and not going to plan

I entered the Spine Challenger South early last year, wanting in combination to get more immersed having supported the race for a couple of years, and also as a chance to push out my distance whilst doing it in a way that aligned with what often helps me escape from the world and slow down a bit – getting on a journey, seeing beautiful places, and time to reflect. At the time, I was running well, feeling fairly strong, and up for a challenge.

All in all as the year progressed, this repeatedly took a hammering – long hours at work has caused issues with stress and exhaustion, I damaged my left calf badly after too much hill training then dyno’ing at the local bouldering wall, then just as I was starting to get back up to speed properly and starting some proper training for the race I badly sprained my ankle running on the 25 Bosses route in the Trois Pignon forest in France (an epic run that’s only 17-18km, but partially scrambling, all sand, rocks and tree routes – it is not an easy run! I strongly recommended it, injuries or otherwise, it’s a staple for when I’m bouldering in Font).

Luckily, the week before that I’d been up recce’ing the second half of the Spine Challenger South route – I knew a lot of sections from my safety team work, but wanted first hand experience and to look for any navigational ‘gotchas’ that can trip you up when it’s dark, you’re tired and it’s raining sideways.

I’d broken it down into two sections – I started in Hebden Bridge on day 1, ran to Charlestown then followed the course all the way over to Gargrave (ignoring the turn off to the Hebden Hey CP1) – full weight kit to get used to it. A train back from Gargrave to Hebden (via Leeds….), the driving back to Gargrave to sleep there overnight. Day 2, Gargrave to Horton–in–Ribblesdale – with a level of risk as the last train from Horton-in-Ribblesdale on a Sunday is mid-afternoon, so I ended up getting a PB up the back of Pen-Y-Ghent and back down to the village, beating even times I’d had doing races in the past……

The Cam High Road, I’d get around to as a day out later in the autumn – at least that was the idea – it didn’t happen due to the injury.

In the end, it took 2.5 months to get to a point where I could slowly jog on it post the sprain in September – foolishly, I decided that (in a state of concern about losing any fitness) a great test of it would be to do the autumn Gods Own Backyard Ultra event in Leeds. The long and short – the ankle held up but my gait was completely off and I suspect that’s what caused an Achilles injury on the other ankle. By the time both had cleared up enough, it was December – 5 weeks to train for the Spine race and to taper……

So that was great prep for the race. As some strength work and rehab, I had been cycling during the recovery, and I’d slowly fed in some walking / hiking with increasing amounts of weight – I’m very glad that I did, as without that, I suspect I’d have been in a far worse shape.

The route and the ‘why’

So, the race – and the mental side of it. If you’re reading this, you probably know the score – the Pennine Way, 108 miles / 173kmish of running and hiking up and down hills (5900 metres of them) carrying all the kit you’d need to be self sufficient (in my case with food around 11-12kg in total), all the weather that January in the UK can throw at you, all the bogs that you could sink into.

Now, I have a confession to make – I’m terrible at reading books. Well, I’ll modify that – I read a lot, but when I’m tired, and the urge to find out what happens at the end or in 50 pages time comes…..I find it very hard to resist. Imagine getting that in the middle of an ultra – I did in this one. There is no ‘skip forwards’ option – it’s very much linear, even if afterwards your brain decides that it isn’t.

Given training and a couple of other health issues, I went into this with no expectations. I wanted to get beyond Sprint distance – I’d done that before, albeit in the Summer Sprint – although going into the Winter Challenger South from the Summer sprint made me feel a bit like a fraud. In my head, the sections between Hebden and Gargrave stretched on and on, everything after that would be more interesting – I had some mental work to do during this.

The phrase that you hear a lot around the Spine is ‘remember why you’re doing this’ – people have it written down, people repeat their ‘why’ as a mantra – and I was trying to work out what mine was. That wasn’t entirely comfortable. I enjoy a good adventure, I enjoy escaping and being able to get to places others don’t see – but fundamentally I’m not there for the ‘Gnar’, I’m not there to prove that I can overcome ‘Britain’s most Brutal race’. Part of my ‘why’ during the race was…..working out why, and not running on autopilot for once.

Race day, minus one – kit check

I’ll dive into the kit that I used at the end of this, but kit check wasn’t too eventful. I went in with the usual ‘all the kit in a kit bag, loosely grouped’ – getting all the gear itself assembled and double checked in the nights before hand took a solid couple of evenings, reassembling med kits, double checking spare kit, making sure I had the food that I needed.

The standard rule applies though – make your kit easy to check, only take what the kit check is looking for – don’t beautifully pack it. I got chatting to a couple of people in the queue (a chap called John who’d done it a number of times who’d offered to pick up the same person I saw looking like he was about to try and walk from Hope to Edale…), and it was great to compare notes, exchange war stories and generally see how others were feeling.

Kit check itself wasn’t too bad – I had a partial check, and apart from having to remember where my phone charging cable was, I was fine). Suitably passed, hand stamped with a picture of Lindley Chambers (kit check organiser), photo taken, safety briefing done, then back to the car.

The rest of the day was spent actually packing everything including the extras that are not the bare minimum to keep you alive – then printing out pace notes, reminders to follow when going in and out of checkpoints and so on. I got finished by 10.30pm, thoroughly not rested or relaxed and my watch kept cheerfully telling me about it….

Race day.

Due to Storm Goretti coming through the UK and transport being disrupted the day before, the start of the race had been moved back from 8am to 10am – so less time in the daylight, but frankly I was happy as I got a bit more time in bed.

The morning was a blur – a lift into Edale from Ceri, tea and some flapjack at the cafe, a quick interview with the media team, catching up with a few old friends and contacts – then onto the start line, last goodbyes, a quick speech from Kevin (part of the Spine crew) – and we were off.

I don’t know why – the drag from Edale up to the Pennine Way, then up and over to Jacob’s Ladder always feels like a drag (although 10-12kg on your back will do that to you – my gear is fairly light, but I had extra layers packed and as it turns out, way too much food). I start out with a litre of water, a filter flask in my pack in case the MRT teams on course weren’t around.

Heading to Jacob’s Ladder was a good test of the ground conditions – people with spikes on were going faster, but mindful of the tarmac session I kept mine off and had to tiptoe around a couple of sections, before giving in to the inevitable and putting them on at the base of the climb.

It’s probably true for most people that in the UK, we don’t get much need or conditions in which to practice running / hiking in ice spikes (or coils for those that had them). I’ve had some experience and was ok with it, but it was notable during the race that the spikes handled heavy ice more effectively, but the coils (Yaktrax Pros, etc) were easier going when you were in mix ice/mud/snow conditions.

Heading up and over Kinder was entertaining – the snow slowly getting deeper, on the downhill section past Kinder Downfall some contestants simple sledged in their waterproofs down the hill, hoping not to find any rocks enroute! It was a bit of a slog getting across to the A57, at points having to stay in the footsteps a foot deep in the snow to make the going easier. A group casually cross country ski’d in the opposite direction at one point near Featherbed Top……

Bleaklow is usually a wet, muddy slog, sometimes going through the streams, sometimes across and up and over the 6-8 ft high ‘valleys’ of peat. It’s beautiful, I thought to myself, and this freezing weather will make it easier. It didn’t – the usual problems weren’t there (unless you put your foot in the wrong place), but the deep waist height snow was utterly energy sapping, constantly up down around parts of the bog – getting to the more runnable terrain at the end of Clough Edge, heading down to Torside, around 5 hours 30 minutes in – not too bad given the conditions.

A quick cup of tea and a biscuit at the Glossop MRT popup tent, and I cracked on towards Laddow Rocks and Black Hill. For this section, I had my spikes off to try and give the ankles some respite – the hill itself was fine, keeping a fairly constant pace – I gave into the inevitable by around 4.30/5ish as it was now almost dark and I was starting to struggle to see the path, and stopped to layer up and get a head torch on. 5 minutes of getting changed left me freezing cold, so I was glad to get moving. At this point, it was head down and get on with it – the stream crossings after Laddow Rocks were picking up due to snow melt, and after that the section getting over the top of Black Hill took a long time in the dark – tiring legs, relentless fairly deep snow sapping energy and challenging to balance on without constant usage of poles.

By the time I got over the top and down towards Dean Clough (not too badly in spate luckily), I was tired, my water bottle straws had frozen (I’d not realised it was getting that cold – wind taking temperatures down to -5 to -10 degrees c apparently at points), and wanted to sort those out so I’d drink properly (and remember the old trick of blowing back into the water bottles to avoid them freezing). Luckily, the burger van on the road at Wessenden Head was there, just off track – I grabbed a hot chocolate and the people there very kindly gave me hot water and defrosted my bottles whilst I had the drink. I also learnt why it’s called the Isle of Skye cafe – it’s the site of the old Isle Of Skye hotel that used to be there many years back, demolished in 1958 – https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Isle_of_Skye_Hotel,_Upperthong – and yes, Upperthong and Netherthong are both areas near Holmfirth….

After this, it was a blur – a bit more running in the dark down the paths down the side of the Wessenden reservoirs, the slog down then up to Black Moss before dropping down to the Oldham MRT stop at Brun Clough Reservoir. A handful of chips and a bottle of coke gladly accepted, then it was onto Standedge and the section that rolls on for quite a while before getting to the oasis that is Nicky’s Foodbar, in a shipping container just off the M62.

Nicky’s is an institution – and they stay open until the last competitor has come through across the various races that come through on the weekend. For many it’s a chance to rest and reset, albeit it’s always very busy with an MRT group normally nearby, the Spine Safety Team (SST) maintaining a presence, and everything inbetween. It was fairly sane this time around – a couple of people receiving care or talking to the safety team, weary after the snow drifts earlier on – others comparing notes, eyeing up each others food choices and trying to get some calories to stay down. Nicky’s is great, and it’s a trap – I left after 15 minutes catching up with some old colleagues from the safety team, and got back on with it in the cold.

The section from here to Charlestown is fairly well behaved – a hike up and over to the White House pub where the Rossendale and Pendle MRT were providing tea and biscuits, aided and abetted by more of the safety team members that I’d met in the past – then it was on to the section around the reservoirs, up to Stoodley Pike (mercifully only moderately windy for once!), then down to Charlestown, greeted by more of the safety team that I’d been with in previous years. Note the rather odd traffic lights…

If you were doing the Spine Sprint South, you’d have peeled off on the descent and gone into Hebden Bridge – if you’re doing the full Spine or the Challenger South, you have the unbridled joy of a steep climb, some rolling hills then running back down towards an icy chute that signifies you’ve reach Hebden Hey, around 48 miles in – time to reset, eat, and debate your life choices.

The Checkpoint staff were spot on – they were tracking who was coming in, had your drop bag ready for you, and showed you to a seat where you could sort yourself and kit out (albeit there wasn’t much space to play with). I had a checklist that I’d printed out precisely expecting the state that I’d be in, so after a minute of staring blankly, did my best not to faff – got clothes ready to change, put watch/phone/GPS on charge, brushed my teeth, put my bag to the side for a while, and went in search of some food and a warmer part of the building. The medic at the checkpoint had been told by the safety teams on course that I was having ankle issues, so it got checked over – and was advised that there wasn’t notable swelling, and to try some paracetamol and keep an eye. I was doing better than the guy opposite me who was on the edge of….well, let’s say reason, after he realised that the can of Irn Bru that he’d left in his bag had exploded all over his spare kit.

I had a brief catchup with Kirsty from the Bad Boy Running Club (great to see her!), then went in search of some stew and rice pudding. Suitably fed, I decided to make use of somewhere dry to try and rest – they had limited dorm space, but I ended up with a top bunk in a fairly busy room (sleep mask and earplugs ready for this eventuality. What I wasn’t ready for was no ladder or chair to help get up to a top bunk without waking others…..but made it eventually. I set my alarm (vibrate only! I’m not a monster) for 1.5 hours, then proceeded to wind down for a while – I’d struggle to call it sleep, but it helped.

I wanted to stay there. Sure, it was a bit cold, sure it was noisy, but it was rest. I had an easy 5 hours before I had to be out of the checkpoint, right? But a) I wanted to make sure I actually gave the section after this a try before kicking it in, and b) I wanted to give myself enough time for a fighting chance. So – I got up as quietly as I could, ate another load of rice pudding in the canteen, got dressed, kit checked (you have to be before they let you leave), then strode out into the rainy, windy dark to find the start of dawn.

I’d switched to my newer, slightly heavier weight waterproof (a Montane Phase Lite) – largely because the weather forecast was now predicting rain and 50 mph wind across the tops of the hills. After trying not to fall over on the ice getting up to the road above the checkpoint, it was head down and get on with it. I switched places repeatedly with a guy called Anthony, and we ended up doing sections past Top Withens together – having to put ice spikes back on due to the sheer amount of ice on the course, then talking as we went. He kept a decent pace up, and after what felt like an age, we dropped down to Ponden Reservoir where we caught up with Kirsty again, and moved up the course together for a while. The snow was mainly a dusting at this point, but the ice kept on showing up in slabs, so it was a frustrating case of needing spikes but not wanting them for much of the time. By the time we got down to Cowling, my ankle injury from before Christmas was really hurting and I was tired from the terrain and persistent wind – Anthony stopped at a barn enroute to get shelter and cook himself some noodles, I pushed on to get to the Hare and Hounds in Lothersdale – where I promptly inhaled a burger and a pint of coke.

Impressed ‘morning, day 2’ face.

For the few who have got this far in the write up and are thinking ‘how do you eat a burger mid run????’, it’s relatively simple – it’s more a combination of jogging then power hiking up the hills at this point, it was 2pm on Sunday so I’d been on the go for 28 hours minus the 3.5 hours or so in Hebden Hey, and all calories were good.

Some food rebooted the brain, and I was flipping into the mindset of ‘if I can get to Malham Tarn tonight, this is on’ – the challenge is that Malham Tarn feels like a bit of a step into the wilderness when it’s dark and you’re tired. As I stomped away from Lothersdale I had a decent pace – I was a touch concerned about torch batteries due to my Nao+ not fully charging overnight properly (I wasn’t in the CP long enough for a full charge), but in retrospect it wasn’t an issue. As it got dark I went over Pinhaw Beacon – I’d love to say that I did my usual run down from there to Thornton-in-Craven, but I was getting creaky and running my torch on low – still, a spirited power hike, some passers by shouting encouragement then a push onto the Cam Lane tuck shop before the rain came back in with a vengeance was welcome.

Whoever setup the Cam Lane tuck shop is a wonderful person – it’s saved me before, and although I didn’t need too much food and drink (I bought a banana and some Kendal Mint Cake), it was 5 minutes to sit and sort out some bag admin whilst the rain hammered down before heading out just as others were just coming in. You don’t know what luxury a shed is until you’ve done this type of event.

NB. Picture from a summer recce!

After this, a push onto the Leeds and Liverpool canal where I ended up meeting Tim Payne when crewing him, 30 seconds shelter under the Triple Arch Bridge, past East Marton then after some epically muddy fields, Gargrave.

I’ve been part of the safety team at Gargrave a number of times before, generally trying to convince people to get some food and a drink from the Co-Op, get some rest in the bus shelter and move on – and not quit. The section from Gargrave to Malham isn’t hard and it isn’t long but it’s dark, a bit featureless and boggy in the dark – I grabbed a hot chocolate from the Coop and suitably gave myself my own advice an after 5 minutes lying with a buff over my eyes, got on with it.

Malham‘s an odd place to reach late at night – a number of people grab food from the pubs there – it was getting a bit late for that and frankly I didn’t want to stop for long. I caught up with another runner, Andrew, and had a chat on the way through – there was an option to get shelter outside the visitors centre in Malham itself, but I wanted to push on to Malham Tarn. 5 minutes of lying down on a bench and resting, then we both got moving to find out how much ice there was at Malham Cove – in the long run, they’d put in a diversion around the back of it but once we were on top of the cove, it became clear that running spikes were going to help, so back on they went, and on Malham Tarn we trekked. I got a bit of speed up, then to be wasted by my watch dying repeatedly then losing my route, leaving me to switch to my handheld GPS and also switch out my torch battery. We came into the checkpoint 1.5 at National Trust visitors centre at the back of Malham Tarn to be greeted by the Craven Energy Tri Club, and the maximum stay of 30 minutes passed fast, eating a rehydrated meal (there’s a kettle there) and catchup up with people.

At this point, I was a touch concerned that there wouldn’t be space in the bird watching shelter just down the road for getting some rest before Fountains Fell – but we got lucky, and it was emptying out as we arrived. Phone alarm set for 1.5 hours, bivvy bag out and gear on charge, I got some rest, listening to the rain and wind hammering the shelter.

After what felt like no time at all, we quietly got up (gaining Jonathan who’d caught us up at the checkpoint), packed up, and headed out onto Fountains Fell in fairly high spirits, albeit at 5am on a windy, damp, cold night, for some reason all of us wearing very similar orange jackets.

Fountains Fell was uneventful – it was windy, there was a lot of ice, and early navigation took some effort, but after an hour or two we were up and over, trudging around sheets of ice before getting a reasonable jog on down the hill, stopping briefly to chat to another contestant who was waiting for the sunrise over Pen-Y-Ghent. On a cloudy, dim start to the morning….

Not much to say for a while – the road up to the Pen-Y-Ghent turn off is dull give or take some good natured heckling from a safety team – I suddenly ran out of energy and both ankles started hurting badly – we took the Pen-Y-Ghent diversion that was in place due to wind and ice on top, and I followed the other two down to Horton-In-Ribblesdale, with them getting ahead given how slowly I was going.

You’d expect that the place where most people start and finish the Yorkshire Three Peaks would have a good range of cafes and pubs – but most of them have closed, and the remainder were not open on a Monday morning – however, the others noticed a sign at the Church saying ‘come in for a cuppa’ – so we did. It was a touch cold in there – but a cup of tea, some biscuits and some paracetamol fixed me (picture from Andrew) – having told the others to go ahead as I was slowing them down, as soon as we’d moved on through the village (I stopped at the public toilets), I overtook the other two who were losing some layers when the sun made a rare morning appearance, and promptly gapped them for a couple of hours, jogging more than I had done for ages on the path up to the Cam High Road.

I would have likely kept this gap, if I hadn’t then started to feel massively mentally tired and starting to forget how long I’d be running – I remember stopping to admire the waterfalls at Ling Gill then….some road…then I was sheltering behind a wall from the wind, 600 metres up, having to close my eyes for a bit. About 15 minutes later (having managed to just remember to set an alarm, I surface just as the other two I’d been with over Fountains Fell came past) – suitably refreshed I leapt up (wishful thinking), and we cracked on over the Cam High Road together, occasionally getting glimpses of the view across the valley through the clouds.

In retrospect I should have taken some more painkillers towards the end (I try to avoid them) – as the seemingly endless descent through bogs down to Hawes went on, and on, and on. Eventually though, we hacked in through the back of Hawes, gentle jog being achieved, and gave the post box at the end of the route a traditional hug (near Checkpoint 2 for the main Spine) a hug, 53 hours and 18 minutes in.

Job done. Didn’t think I was going to manage that given the injuries and other issues, and I’m curious as to how much faster I’d have been if I’d managed to get the training in. I hoped for / expected a bit more of a feeling of elation for completing, but honestly at this point having wanted to get it finished for a few hours, I got as far as quiet satisfaction. Maybe it’ll sink in more at some point.

Ceri had taken the day off (thank you!) and driven up to Hawes to meet me (thank you even more!), and was there to watch me finish – due to the logistics of the checkpoints though, she wasn’t allowed in – so I didn’t hang around getting changed and throwing some warm food down my throat, the checkpoint staff making sure we were fed and warm.

So that was the Spine Challenger South

Disconcertingly, apart from my ankle pain, I had reasonable energy at the end, albeit legs that were at most up for a power hike apart from easy terrain. Would I recommend it? Yes, it’s a change to drop into a slightly more basic state and check in with yourself – and keep yourself moving. I broke down the route into chunks in my head, ate when my mood got low, put on music when I’d had enough of my brain becoming an echo chamber. Apart from my ankles and some slight ligament/tendon pain in my feet, I was surprisingly functional by the end, just fairly sleep deprived.

The sections talking to others whilst running / hiking made the time go faster, and everyone I spent time with managed a good balance of being social alongside companiable silence whilst we were just getting on with it. Many thanks in particular to Anthony, Andrew and Jon from the various parts of the race!

As ever, it’s now a couple of weeks past the race, I’m back at work, and my heart….is still out in the hills. There’s an old comic series that I really like called Transmetropolitan – it’s about a journalist in a near future dystopia, called back from the mountains to honour a book writing contract – most of that is irrelevant here, but his thoughts when he realises that he has to leave the mountains resonate.

Kit.

There’s a lot of it – both for the mandatory kit, and everything else that makes it more pleasant, achievable and safe. Getting through researching and buying the kit feels like an endurance race in itself, and it’s not a cheap one!

So, in no particular order:

Sleep system

• Sleeping bag – Sea to Summit 32F / 0
• Sleeping mat – Thermarest
• Bivvy bag – Alpkit Hunka XL

Rucksack and storage

• Osprey Talon Velocity
  • (a little heavier than some alternatives, but it combines hip support and storage along with front chest holders for waterbottles like on my running vests)
  • Waterbottles – Ron Hill waterbottles (they fit better than Osprey ones!)
  • Spare Waterbottle – a spare Katadyn BeFree filter flask
• Geeky Hiker chest pod – easy access to snacks and charging kit

Clothes

• Leggings – Rab Modulus thermal tights
• Spare warm leggings (same again)
• Spare warm base layer
• Spare synthetic down mid-layer – Montane FIreball Lite
• Another slightly lighter mid-layer – Alpkit (I wore this from Black Hill onwards through the race)
• Gloves – Dexfuse 2.0 (these were very good in the conditions, and had enough dexterity)
• Gloves (backup) – Montane Respond Dry Line gloves
• Beanie – Dexshell waterproof
• Peak cap – Sealskins waterproof cap, good in the rain
• Socks – Dexshell compression knee length socks + Injinji liners (plus spares)
• Gaiters – Alpkit
• Waterproof Trousers – Inov8 Storm pants
• Backup waterproof trousers – OMM Kamleika (didn’t need to use them in the end)
• Jacket – Montane Spine (older jacket, a little lighter)
• Jacket 2 (from Hebden onwards due to wind) – Montane Phase Lite
• Various buffs for when it was windy at higher ground.
• Sunglasses! With the snow on the first day, I took a cheap set of BBR glasses – did the job! I also had some clear Rockrider wrap around glasses in my drop bag, which I’d have used if I’d carried on for the main race
• Shoes – Inov8 Trail Talon Max (with spare Prodigio Pros a half size up that I didn’t wear in the end – I wanted the extra grip from the Trail Talons even if they’re slightly low rise and I was concerned about a bog taking them….)

Other kit

• Ice spikes – Snowline Chainsen Lite spikes (very good!)
• Poles – Black Diamond Carbon Z (With a backup pair of Harrier Helyvelyn Pros in my drop bag – I ended up lending those to another competitor who’d broken one of their poles)
• Head torch – Petzl Nao+ (a little old)
• Head torch (backup) – Petzl Actik 300 (with a spare battery that did get used! I also ended up buying spare AAA’s just in case when in Gargrave but didn’t need them)
• Watch – Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar
• GPS – Garmin eTrex 32 (didn’t use it too much – the watch is good)
• USB batteries – 2x 10000 mAh ones (one for the first half, ended up with both on the second with one charging my Petzl Nao+) – and a 20,000 mAh large one in my drop bag for charging whilst at Hebden, as I didn’t trust there being space to plug in a charger – a proper charger might have charged my head torch faster
• Usual kit – mug, spork, safety blanket, mandatory med kit, goggles, spare chest light on the Geeky Hiker pod, some spare tape and cable ties for emergency fixing of kit

It’s worth mentioning – it tipped it down with rain, it was subzero – I did not get cold or wet. From the first night onwards, I was wearing more layers than I ever normally would, regulating heat by zipping / unzipping / putting the hood up – it worked well. My gloves took a few minutes to get warm, but once there, however wet they got, my fingers stayed warm and dry – I wouldn’t be able to wear those gloves in warmer conditions, but they were brilliant in the race and fitted enough for my fingers to remain fairly dextrous.

Food – I had a mixture of SIS Beta gels and their more normal ones, interspersed with boiled salted pototoes, flapjacks, pork pies, sausage rolls, rice pudding, salted peanuts, active root, some electrolyte tabs, malt loaf – pretty much a picnic, I ate probably 1/2 to 2/3 what I planned, which is a lesson for the future in terms of weight.

Race prep:

Moisturising my feet overnight for the month before the race – I think this made a large difference. I also had some powder based foot lube that helped reduce friction issues – I had one very small blister that I dealt with at Gargrave and was fine for the rest of the race, although I found a blister on my little toe on one foot at the end of the race.

I’d taped my back (with help!) where I often get chafing, although some of this came off mid race – I didn’t get any bad chafing.

Addendum:

I started to hallucinate all manners of oddities by the end of night two! Nothing crazy – although the fields full of floating cows gets close, the giant rabbit and seeing faces in every rock…..