It is that time of year again ... Spine fever is about the hit the UK and beyond. I am feeling extreme FOMO at the moment for the adventures that lie ahead for everyone the start line over the next few days. Dot watchers assemble!! Link to full spine open tracking below and from that link you can see every race in the schedule. So Who should you be following this year!?

Team ESTR include

Graeme Hatcher in the Full 268 mile spine heading from Edale to Kirk Yetholm, kicking off on sunday

Jane Rose and Geoff Quayle are in the South Sprint heading up 46 miles from Edale to Hebden

Fellow Manxies

Phil Marshall ( UK Based) will be in the full along side Graeme. Below is his just giving link - hes raising funds for the hospital who has supported his wife through a double lung transplant in the very recent months. What an incredible story.

Peter Bradley - He will be in the 160 mile Challenger North - heading from Hawes to Kirk Yetholm. Peter was in the Challenger South last year and is heading further up the trail this time around.

Ones to Watch : There are some incredible athletes in all the races to be following:

No stranger to the Spine or the Isle of Man, Jack Scott will be heading out on the trails competing the 108 mile Challenger South. He will be racing against the Incredible Mark Darbyshire whose coming back to tackle the south after having to DNF last year. Set to keep them on their toes is the incredible Sarah Perry - she is running in the Mountain Rescue Team race for the challenger south as well. Mel Sykes, Sarah Page, Anna Gibson and Kirsty Pheasant are all set to go well too! This will be an incredible race to watch!

Damian Hall, Howard Dracup and Jon Shields will be on the start line for the North Sprint. This is a very new race and it will be great to see how the competitors tackle the Cheviots not absolutely battered like every other year!

The Challenger North has some incredible athletes including the amazing Nicky Spinks, Lianne Van Diyk, Elaine Bisson and Alison McGill. Also keep your eye on Harry Firth's dot! I ran on the Spine with him last year - an incredible ultra athlete who has taken to ultra running like a duck to water!

More dots for the full - Soooo many to keep an eye on! Women first of course - Allie Bailey, Samantha Lissauer, Anna Troup and Llinos Proctor are just some of the UK girls tackling the big journey North! Further field Johanna Antila, Sophie Grant and Claire Bannwarth are all no strangers to big big ultras and are set to run really well.

John Kelly returns to the Spine again! He loves the bog... Also running is Chris Cope who was the winner of the Summer Spine - the smiliest spiner ever in my opinion haha! The incredible Joe O Leary will also be on the start line - he won the challenger north in record time the same year I did. No strangers to the Spine - Doug Stewart, James Leavesley and James Nobles are all heading back to the trail. Chris Brookman comes back for another go in 2026 - I ran with Chris and Simon last year for a large part of the end of the race until I lost them both in the Cheviot's. Probs for the best as I was a snotty sniveling crying mess haha! Grezegorz Korsak has been training hard and is ready to go too! Deaglan White is a face we see at many of our ultras, he loves type 2 fun and being out for days in the wilderness - he is no stranger to the suffering of these big multiday events and is all set for his next Spine Adventure!

These are just some of the dots you could follow - the list of incredible athletes in every race can be found in the link below. Embrace the Spine Fever. Send them messages. Like the pictures. Support all the way. The most Brutal of adventures awaits them all.