As ultra races go, the Spine race must be amongst the toughest. Runners have to complete the 268 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland carrying their own food and water, in addition to changes of clothing and a tent. There are only five check points on the route where they can get a hot meal and a rest.

John Boothman has completed this race on numerous occasions and it was perhaps the fact that he could not get into the Winter Spine Race that he decided to take part in the Summer race.

John’s tactics are always pretty similar. He does not rush off at the start, but just goes at a steady pace which he can maintain and as others tire or drop out, he works his way through the field.

The route goes over many summits which are races in themselves. Stoodley Pike, Pin Haw, Pen y Ghent, High Cup Nick are just a few and demonstrate the challenge faced by all competitors.

There were 158 starters and by the first check point, three and a half hours into the race, John was 27^th overall and 24^th male. By the time they reached Hebden Bridge, he had already moved up to 15^th position and 10^th male.   He continued in this vein until he reached Alston where he was lying in 9th place overall and 5th male.  He arrived there over two days after the start, two days in which he had very little sleep. He had made it over Cross Fell to Alston with fellow runner David Town and the two had worked together for some distance.

At Alston, both runners agreed that they needed to catch up on some sleep and they stopped there for four and a half hours. When they arrived there, John was feeling good and David was struggling a bit. After their rest, the positions reversed. John was not feeling at all well and his legs were giving him problems, particularly on any uphill sections. As the two runners approached the Greenhead checkpoint at the start of Hadrian’s wall, John was not looking good and his head was down. John decided to take a break at Greenhead, leaving David Town to press on ahead on his own. One of John’s problems besides his legs was the fact that he did not feel that he was digesting his food properly and what he had eaten was not turning into energy. After taking a rest at Greenhead, John set off following the Roman wall and as he did so, his demeanour improved and although he was still struggling with his legs, John was starting to look more like his old self. However, he was not achieving his early pace, allowing two runners to pass him and by the time he reached Bellingham He had dropped to 12^th place and 9^th male. He took a long rest of five and a half hours at Bellingham to prepare himself for the final push over the Cheviots into Scotland. He was not passed again and as a result of a runner dropping out, he gained another place finishing 11^th overall and 8^th male. Once more, it was quite a performance from John.

Special mention should be made this year of the women in this race. Most of the competitors in this race were men, in fact women only made up less than 14% of the starters. Yet the first two finishers in this race were both women and five of the twenty two women starters finished in the top twenty. Long distance ultra running appears to be a sport where women can compete on equal terms with men and if more women start to enter this competition, the day may come when they dominate the top twenty finishers.

Full Results

It was a warm day for this race, but the ground underfoot was firm and Buckden Beck was down to a trickle.  Young Callum Lambert cycled from Ingleton via Ribblehead and Cam Fell to take part in this race.  He easily won it, collected his prize and his cup and then cycled home again. Quite some athlete.   Lex Whittaker of Ambleside had a brilliant race to finish second overall and first lady.

It was good seeing some old hands returning to this race such as Colin Valentine, Pete Dugdale and John Thompson. 

The Barlickers finished as follows;

14 Robert Cranham 49:50 (2nd M45)
16 Andrew Smith 50:24 (1st M60)
44 Nick Kendall 1:06:04

Men's Race
38 David Mirfield 17:33
64 Carl Nevison 18:39 (2nd M55)
71 Robert Cranham 18:55
111 Shane Muller 20:51
129 Raymond Banks 22:45 (1st M70)

Women's Race
8 Emma Law 20:04 (2nd W40)
10 Laura Craig 20:23 (3rd F35)
32 Nicola Muller 25:12 (2nd W50)

94 Ben Whitehead 1:00:16
141 John Mason 1:09:28
154 Andrew Smith 1:12:02
195 Nick Kendall 1:33:26

1 Jimmy Craig 17:03
15 Lucas Payne 21:26
92 Richard Starkie 27:18

36 Derek Walkden 21:52
156 Richard Shilton 27:58