Top 5 moments from the winter Spine race
From lost dogs to broken hearts - the women's race had it all ❄️
I’ve been avidly dot watching this week. For the uninitiated this means looking at markers on a tracker app to see how runners are progressing along the route of a race.
This week has been the almighty Spine Race - a series of six races along the Pennine Way varying in distance from 46 miles to 268 miles. One mad runner even ran the Spine Sprint (46 miles) before driving back to the start to embark on the full Spine (268 miles).
Spine Race: 268 miles
Sprint Race: 46 miles
Challenger South: 108 miles
Challenger North: 160 miles
MRT Challenge South: 108 miles
MRT Challenge North: 160 miles
The event - known as Britain’s “most brutal” race - has been living up to the hyperbole this week, with endless miles of snow drifts and ice, which ultimately melted into waist-high bogs.
As always many incredible stories of resilience, reflection, kindness and curiosity have emerged from the race, which continues until 8am on Sunday. As I check the dots right now there are still 35 people out on the course.
You can see some great footage on the Spine Race Instagram account and many of the winners have made it into the mainstream media.
In the meantime here are my five top moments from Spine Race Week, which unsurprisingly all feature female athletes.
1. Women doing it for themselves
OK, so this actually pre-dates the race but back in November 12 female runners took part in a three-day recce of the Spine course. Many of these women were favourites to win the 268-mile race or at least make it into the top five. But rather than hide their training runs on Strava (as some elite athletes do), they did the complete opposite and grouped together to provide mutual support.
There were no egos and no trying to run faster than one another. Just problem solving, sharing experience and having a good laugh along the way. As Will Roberts says in his excellent post on the recce, this type of collaborative behaviour is unheard of in the world of male elites.
These women demonstrated the power of community and the strength that lies in co-operation. When it came to the race itself, frontrunners Lucy Gossage and Robyn Cassidy continued the support by snuggling up together during a brief night time nap.
2. Winner Lucy Gossage and her ‘why’
![Lucy Gossage Montane Winter Spine Race 2025 [Photo credit: The Spine Race]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2b3c360a-3f2c-4daf-bfbc-7058d4869a8e_1280x720.jpeg "Lucy Gossage Montane Winter Spine Race 2025 [Photo credit: The Spine Race]")
Talking of Lucy, she had an amazing race. And when you hear her back story you really understand why. Lucy was third in the women’s race last year, her first attempt at an ultra marathon of this distance since leaving the world of triathlon.
Despite struggling to nail her sleep, she was pleased with her performance in 2024. That was until she discovered her partner - who had spent months training with her, and had also finished the race - had been cheating on her.
Like something out of a podcast series, his deception came to light during last year’s race when a woman watching the coverage realised he was also in a relationship with Lucy. Suddenly Lucy’s world fell apart and her race experience felt tainted.
Lucy has spoken candidly about this on her blog and explained that she needed to return to the Spine this year to reclaim her memories. This Spine attempt was her story - not a joint story embroiled with lies.
And what a story it was! Lucy pulled ahead of Robyn Cassidy half way through the race and never looked back. Her comprehensive win was almost seven hours ahead of Robyn who came in second. It was also 19 hours faster than Lucy’s 2024 attempt which just goes to show the power of her why.
3. Rebecca Devereux blazing a trail
While there is a lot of talk about levelling the starting line at ultra marathons to increase female participation, there are other ways in which the sport needs to become more inclusive. Black Trail Runners is an organisation pushing back boundaries to enable more people of colour to take part in what is a predominantly white male pursuit.
So it was heartening to see their work coming to fruition when Rebecca Devereux - one of their members - took third place in the Spine Sprint. Despite being nervous about the race she turned up in heavy snow in a pair of shorts and nabbed a podium place.
4. Sarah Perry running her own race
As the overall winner of the 2024 Backyard Championships (plus many other records) there was a lot of pressure on Sarah Perry as she pulled away from the start line of the full Spine Race. But Sarah was adamant that this was an event she would be running not racing. She was one of the women at the November recce, and Allie Bailey had pinpointed her as a podium contender on her podcast Running Won’t Save You.
During her four and half day experience she stuck to her own pace and didn’t get caught up in race politics. She finished the race as fourth female in just over 115 hours, an amazing result for someone simply out to enjoy the experience.
5. Cleo Bishop-Bolt and the missing dog
We all love a happy dog story and I was a sucker for this particular one because the pooch in question looks uncannily like my own dog (who also loves to sod off into the wilds). When Cleo Bishop-Bolt was 100 miles into the race she thought she might be hallucinating when stumbled across a shivering dog in the Cheviot Hills.
Unable to leave it behind she made a lead out of a spare piece of clothing and took it to the Spine safety team waiting in a nearby refuge hut. The owners were tracked down and reunited with their hound, while Cleo received a time credit for her compassionate detour. She went on to win third place in the 160-mile Montane Winter Spine MRT Challenge North. Now that deserves a round of a-paws 🐾
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Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. If you have any running news for me, let me know! Send feedback to lilycanter@yahoo.co.uk or suggest topics you’d like me to cover.
