Running legend Nicky Spinks told me she is “really chuffed” with her latest win. The 57-year-old, who lives in southern Scotland, took the women’s crown in the Montane Winter Spine Challenger North 2025 in a time of 56:49:55.
She placed fifth overall in the 160-mile race along the Pennine Way, from Hardraw to Kirk Yetholm, which was won overall by Paul Grundy. His time was 48:03:07, which included a penalty of 38 minutes for missing a late diversion at Cauldron Snout.
In joint second place was Jovica Spajic, of Serbia, and Brit Oliver Richards in 53:01:54.
Nicky added: “After a disappointing 2024 when I felt I didn’t really race so well, I am really happy to have won the Winter Spine Challenger North.
“Everything just went so well throughout the race.”
What is Montane Winter Spine Challenger North?
The Montane Winter Spine Challenger North starts 24 hours after the full 268-mile Montane Winter Spine Race. Another race, the Winter Spine Challenger South also takes place on the southern end of the Pennine Way in northern England.
The weather was hugely varied and included deep snow, sleet and cold temperatures before a thaw created very wet, slushy and muddy conditions. A detour had was created to avoid a dangerously icy section later in the race, too.
Nicky Spinks: The race went so well
Nicky, who has achieved many impressive mountain feats, revealed that she had set a schedule of 60 hours to finish the course and she was determined to “reduce the faffing at check points”. She explains: “I felt like I had let my check point admin slip a bit in other races.
“I seemed to take too long to change and sort my kit and also to eat. So in this race, I told myself I would need to eat three bowls of food – one savoury and two sweet – as soon as I got to the check-point.
“Food is crucial to keeping going in these long races and that was something I had not been so good at in other races.
“I tried not to get distracted and to focus on food and then getting other things sorted.
“I had set a 60-hour schedule and that would mean I would only have two nights of running in the dark, rather than going into a third night. That really was a great incentive to be quick at the check points.”
A lack of sleep – but a quicker finish
In the end, Nicky slept for only 10 minutes in one short nap but she did finish the race well inside her 60-hour self-imposed time limit.
She says: “Despite two bad nights of sleep going into race, I was still able to keep going for the full 56 hours. I had never intentionally gone through two nights of no sleep in a race but somehow it worked this time.
“I had planned to sleep at Bellingham – the final major CP – and by this point I was about 90 minutes ahead of the two women in second place (Samantha Lissauer and Rebecca Hormann). However, I was nervous about them catching me if I slept for too long.
“I was also fortunate to be running with Joe Farnell at this point. We had paired up quite early on in the race and he also decided not to have a sleep.
“We both wanted to keep going.”
Nicky, who came joint fourth in the full Winter Spine Race last year, describes the section, after Bellingham, as “horrific”. She says: “I felt so drained and my brain was very foggy. There was a bit where we were on a forest track feeling really fatigued.
“On the same section in last year’s full Winter Spine I was with Elaine Bisson. For some reason, I suddenly started worrying about how Elaine and I were going to park cars in the forest. I thought we were car park attendants. I said to Joe: “What are we going to do about the parking?’
“He looked at me a bit oddly. Later, he told me his brain was struggling and he thought I was called Susan. He couldn’t remember my name and that is why he looked at me blankly.
“This is what extreme fatigue does to the brain, although I know some people have it much worse with all kinds of sleep monsters.”
At the next check point at Byrness, Nicky decided to take a 10-minute nap. There are five CPs on the North Challenger where you can stop for up to eight hours and other CPs where the time limit is much shorter. At Byrness it was a 30-minute time limit.
Nicky says: “I had a 10-minute nap and used the other 20 minutes to eat and sort my kit.
“The short sleep did help although it was still felt like a long way to the finish. No sleep for two nights and more than 130 miles in my legs and it was never going to be easy.”
The key to winning
Nicky reveals that she she was “really good at eating” throughout the race. She says: “As well as my ‘there bowls of food’ pact at each of the CPs, I made sure I was properly eating throughout the race. In between the checkpoints, if wasn’t thinking about what I would eat, I was eating. I had Scottish tablet and salted nuts mainly.
“Getting the calories in is so important in these longer races.”
Footwear choice was important, too. Nicky started the race in inov8 X Talon Ultras for grip in the snow and then switched to inov8 Trailfly shoes.
She says: “I also wore waterproof socks but I found the X Talons were a bit tight on my feet and I suffered a blister, which I popped and taped, so I then chose to wear my favourite comfy Trailflys, which are a bit roomier.
“My feet didn’t suffer too badly. I was also grateful that a knee niggle didn’t cause me any problems. I worked hard on strength and conditioning before this race and it seemed to do the trick.
“In fact, the overall race conditions suited me. I am used to the wet, snowy and boggy terrain. I can cope with difficult weather and I just get my head down and deal with it.
“I also found that having the company of Joe was very good. We were a similar pace and we pushed each other on. We even started being quite competitive at CPs where we would try to be the first to be ready and back out the door.
“We also worked well together with the navigation. Much of the normal well-trodden path of the Pennine Way was deep in snow early on in the race and then the groundd became very wet and muddy with hidden ice patches as the snow melted, so it wasn’t an easy route to follow this year.
“Like others, pairing up with another runner helped in many ways
“Getting to the finish line and being a couple of hours ahead of Rebecca and Sam [they finished in 59:236:26] felt great. It has given me hope again after a tough 2024.”
See full results.
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