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 27th overall and 24th male. By the time they reached Hebden Bridge, he had already moved up to 15th position and 10th 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 12th place and 9th 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 11th overall and 8th 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.