Nikki started well, maintaining position within the top 10 females.

She reported struggling to climb and push through the snow at points. 4-5 hours into the race she was challenging 4th position.

Still moving well by early evening and into the darkness. She reported enjoying the scenery early on but most of the day was fog and rain.

She got to Hebden in 4th place, changed some clothes and left.

I had a brief chat with her, she was in good spirits.

She struggled through the night with chafing and feeling really hungry all the time. By Hawes it had changed to her being sick and not being able to keep her food down. She fainted at one point whilst on the phone to me.

She got 90 mins sleep, hot food and a shower. She was struggling to make herself leave the building. I encouraged her to just get out the door.

After an hour she reported to be feeling more motivated and a bit better.

She called me from tan hill and sounded terrible. Her voice was all croaky and weak. She left there and joined Juha Lehtonen (a Finnish guy who I'd raced against in my first attempt at the race back in 2023) and what looks like a pal of his as they are both from Finland and seemed to have been running together since the start. The 3 of them stuck together till Langdon Beck. Upon review of her leaving Tan hill and arriving at Langdon Beck, I noted she had actually done that section 27 mins faster than I did it last year.

She called me whilst running along next to the river tees, during the last part of the section to Langdon, she sounded amazing and in great spirits.

She had a short break at Langdon beck then continued alone. She caught Juha again but couldn't hold his climbing pace.

She made it to Dufton still easily in third and 1hr 43 minutes faster than I'd managed last year.

She pressed on up Cross fell alone.

She contacted me this morning on her way out of Alston. She got quite emotional when describing the evening she'd had. Alone, in the dark and fog and the sleep deprivation, hearing noises and hallucinations. Juha and Villi were just leaving Gregg's hut when she arrived. She was so happy to see some people, she skipped the noodles for company on the descent. She's had 2 hours sleep now at Alston and feeling better. The enduring nature of this race is taking its toll but it's bringing out some incredible spirit in her and I expect the other athletes in this race.

The weather today has given really mild so that should help. I'll update this post when I know more.