The Challenger of a lifetime

Bruised, battered and shattered. Thats how I felt when I crossed the line of the Montane Spine Challenger at just after 4pm on Sunday 14th Jan 2018 after running non stop in a 110 mile foot race. Those debilitating feelings quickly subsided as the wave of post race euphoria washed over me.

I’d set off the previous morning at 8am from Edale in the Peak District with a couple of hundred other hardy soles and run, walked, limped and shuffled my way through the bucolic fells, dales and fields, north, to our final destination at Hardraw in Gods own county of Yorkshire.

The route is a classic, based on the Pennine Way long distance path, it winds it's way north for 110 miles. The Spine Challenger, along with it's big brother event, The Spine, are marketed as ‘Britain’s most brutal’ and believe me, they live up to that marketing hyperbole.

When you factor in that the race is totally self supported, the participants require a solid level of day/night navigational skills and there is a mandatory kit list as long as your arm that could weigh in at upwards of 5kgs, then you begin to realise what a commitment a race like this becomes. Add into that mix that you are taking on a race in an extremely challenging natural environment in the dead of winter when deep low pressure systems race in from the atlantic with all the weather they can throw at you, then you realise the nature of this challenge.

I took a little comfort in the fact I had toed the line in the 2017 edition of the Challenger. That year I was a complete newbie, not only to the Challenger but also to 100 milers in general.

Jacobs Ladder, start of the Challenger 2018

The first thing in our favour for the 2018 edition of the Challenger was the weather. I was actually stood on the start line in Edale with just a thin long-sleeved top on having made the decision at 7:55am to stuff my hardshell and my hat back in my pack. The weather was still and, well, warm, for this time of year. The thought of sweating it out in a hardshell while running up Jacob’s Ladder, the first real steep section out of Edale, was enough to make my mind up. A few others had made the same call and were doing similarly.

I’d run pretty much the whole 110 miles in 2017 on my own. Reflecting back on that race the lone running thing had been circumstance rather than by design. Never quite matching the pace of any other person and being very focused on running my own race, I simply found myself out on my own much of the time.

This year was a little different, I ran with small groups of people from the start line pretty much all the way up to Malham Tarn. Looking back on it this ended up being a bit of a revelation to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it helped me maintain a good pace, slightly quicker than I might have done if I'd been running alone, and secondly, it was great having company for much of the way, not only because it helped with the monotony of the passing miles but also for the sharing of navigational responsibilities.

Now, there is a balance to strike here when deciding to run with others. Too fast and it becomes unsustainable and you begin to fatigue much quicker than if you’d gone your own pace. I’d experienced this at the 120km Ben Nevis Ultra earlier in the year. In that race I’d rather stupidly gone out with a group that were just a little too quick for me and over around 50 miles of that race it killed me off to the point where I did a DNF. And if you end up in a slower group you feel you simply haven't pushed your pace enough.

In the Challenger this year I ran with a few people who were at my race pace or just a little quicker which was brilliant for keeping my overall pace up and stopped me slipping into any periods of running drudgery which can happen when running long distances like this. While running with these guys I was very conscious the whole time of managing my heart rate and was always ready to pull back if the pace ever got too spicy.

The other significant point around running with others was just having the company, especially through a long dark, cold night in the southern Pennines. Running in these small groups helped massively in keeping ones moral up in those wee dark hours of Sunday morning. It also really helped manage those low points you inevitably hit when on your feet for over 24 hours.

Navigating at night also becomes a lot easier running with someone as you are able to just have a quick discussion and make a joint call on route taking. I had the advantage of knowing the course fairly well this time round and was pretty confident of my navigation but just to have that confirmation from someone you’re running with really does help. And when I compare to last year where I got horribly lost on a couple of occasions, making the right navigational decisions keeps your pace up, saves you time and, crucially, keeps your moral up. It's amazing how quickly your head drops when you know you have gone the wrong way for 2 or 3 ks!

This year for the Challenger the organisers had, quite rightly, put a stop to any support. In 2017 there were so many support teams out on the route that any little road or lane that crossed the route in the deepest darkest reaches of the Pennines was chockablock with a variety of vans and cars doling out hot drinks, food and a change of clothes to the runner they were supporting. I know, as I was one of these supported runners. I was going to do the same this year but then realised fairly late on that it was unsupported and had to change my plans accordingly. This actually turned out to be a massive positive. I had the luxury of support last year and at around 6 points along the route I stopped to take full advantage - sometimes stopping for 20mins to take on food and down a cup of coffee.

This time round I just ran straight through only stopping for food at Hebden Bridge and Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Again, I’m always amazed at just what the body will take when you push to the extreme. I thought it would be a real slog without support but it wasn’t. Yes I carried a little extra food and gritted my teeth a little more through the pain but it was just so much quicker. Keep a constant pace up and the miles just tick by…

So, as I crossed the line of the 2018 Spine Challenger, bruised, battered and shattered, those debilitating feelings quickly ebbed away as I realised I’d placed 5th overall, in a time of 31 hours. What was even more sweet was that i’d knocked 6 hours of my previous time. How things can change in a year!