Spine fever took hold of much of the UK and the Isle of Man this January 2025. The series of races on the pennine way kicked off at 8am on the 11th of Jan with the challenger south 108 mile route to Hawes. Followed by the sprint 46 mile route at 12pm headed to Hebden bridge. The full spine headed off at 8am on Sunday the 12th with 268 miles ahead of them to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland and the series finished off on Monday 13th at 8am with the 160 mile Challenger North Route starting in Hawes and also finishing in Kirk Yetholm. The Pennine Way starts in Edale in the Peak District and continues north all the way to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. The route is challenging and gnarly at times taking in the “Spine of England” , it is a self supported race, with an extensive kit list and only 5 main checkpoints.

The aim of the race is make it to the finish line in the fastest time possible to you, therefore competitors limit sleep to a very bare minimum. Sleep costs time.

The conditions in the UK had been very harsh in the run up to the race. There had been heavy snowfall and the majority of first miles of the race was knee or waist deep in snow. There were diversions in place around Peny Ghent, Hebden, and Cauldron Snout to accommodate the dangerous conditions.

The spine race draws a lot of big names from the ultra running community. This year saw spine vets like Kim Collison, John Kelly, Dougie Zinnis and Eugeni Roselló Solé in the race.

I chatted to Kim whilst waiting for kit check - he had a great 2024 season and was gearing up for his fourth attempt at the brutal route. He was ready.

John Kelly led the start of the race but that only lasted until checkpoint two when Kim took the lead which he would maintain throughout the rest of the race.

Dave Philips, Tiaan Erwee and Sam Skinner worked together for a lot of the race in 3rd position. Eugene unfortunately DNFd at Tan Hill. John Kelly had dropped back from the chasing pack but this again was short lived as he progressed through the terrain to hunt the pack down. He overtook the trio of runners and moved into second before Langdon beck. John missed a diversion after checkpoint 3 and incurred a time penalty. Initially given at 26 mins but it was cut to 13 mins as it was deemed a genuine error.

Despite having a bit of bother at Langdon beck Kim moves onto Alston Checkpoint 4 Kim, still in first position but John had closed the gap to 55 minutes. John had struggled on and off with sleep deprivation and an issue with his shin.

Moving to the final checkpoint Bellingham it was clear that this was Kim’s year as the gap had expanded to over 2 hours but second and third were all to play for. Dave, John and Tiaan were all within minutes of each other with only Sam skinner dropping back.

Finally on Wednesday evening Kim’s hard work and resilience finally paid off after four years trying- he won the Montane Winter Spine race 82 hours and 46 minutes — the third fastest Winter Spine Race time on record!

Finishing off the podium in second place was Dave Philips and then Tiaan Erwee in 3rd. John Kelly finished in fourth crossing the line with the woman’s winner Lucy Gossage. Fifth position was Max Moberg.

Here for the women’s race!

2025 was undoubtedly one of the most competitive female races on record for the spine. Hannah Rickham, Lucy Gossage both Spine vets having coming 2nd and 3rd respectively in 2024. Elaine Bisson is well established on the pennine way with a number of finishes in various races on the route. Sarah Perry backyard ultra champion, Robyn Cassidy - Dragons Back Champion, InoV8 athlete Laura Swanton-Rouvelin, and Mel Skyes 2nd female in the Lakeland ultra 100 miler ( Mel has an incredible back story following on from

Brain surgery - link below) all on the start line.

It was going to be a fast start from the girls and the lead pack took off with the top boys heading out of Edale.

Robyn took an early lead ahead of Hannah and Lucy and was ahead by 43 minutes at checkpoint 1. Hannah whizzed past me on the run back out of checkpoint one gave me some well wishes as she headed into the first night. When I got into Hebden bridge Lucy was still in there munching on some dehydrated meals and brushing her teeth.

I was in a bit of a panic in this checkpoint and didn’t take as much food and fuel on as I should’ve. I had some soup and headed to kit check - these are the most stressful things on the planet!

Myself and Lucy are putting our shoes on together and I say hello to her and well done . We chat about her article ( link below) about her reasons for tackling the spine and I explain how inspirational and motivating I found it. She says thanks and heads off into the night but I very quickly bump into her again as she has managed to lose one of her poles! She goes back into the checkpoint and I leave with Tim and we find her pole at the bottom of the stairs - we giggle about this and I head up to give her the pole. She comes out all in a tizz exclaiming how much of a disaster and a fluster the checkpoints are! Glad it isn’t just me. Tim and Lucy started trucking up the hill - I’m not feeling great and definitely can’t go with them so I wave them good bye. I never see Lucy again after that except on the finish line!

Robyn maintains her lead all the way to checkpoint 2 Hawes with Lucy coming in an hour after, unfortunately Hannah Rickman had to DNF just before Hawes ( she wrote a great blog about it linked below). I came into Hawes in third, suffering badly, nearly 4 hours later.

On the way to checkpoint 3 Langdon beck Lucy and Robyn team up and are both well ahead of myself and Sarah who have again swapped 3rd and 4th position.

Lucy and Robyn worked together to Checkpoint 4 where they finally parted ways with Lucy heading off onto the route and Robyn having a rest break.

Lucy pushed on relentlessly to checkpoint 5, Bellingham and put a two hour gap into Robyn who also had an almost 12 hour gap on me. Lucy fires her way through to Kirk Yetholm to win in a time of 87 hours and 41 minutes - 3rd fastest female time on record. Unbelievable. Especially in the conditions at the start of the race and the relentless bog, slush and ice that followed.

Robyn maintained second position and finished in a time of 94hours and 31 minutes An incredible spine debut and the first time ever to touch such a large distance.

I picked up in the second half of the race and took a little bit of time off the 12 hour gap finishing in 103 hours and 36 minutes.

Sarah Perry finished in fourth in 115 hours and 7 mins. A fantastic finish considering Sarah wasn’t at full fitness.

9 incredible ladies finished the race this year. Laura in 120 hours, Mel in 132 hours, Kate Farley in 151 hours, Hannah Mackinnon in 152 hours and Emily Mills in 160 hours. Full results found in the source link.

Congratulations to all competitors it was an incredible race.