E82. SPINE RACE SPECIAL | Montane Winter Spine Races 2023

01/10/23 • 143 min

The Montane Winter Spine Races 2023 begin on Saturday 15th Jan, and in honour of this EPIC event, we thought we better make an EPIC podcast.

Welcome to our Spine Race Special.

Over the festive period, whilst many people were packing in mince pies and wrapping presents, the runners about to take part in #BritainsMostBrutal race were busy thinking about the 268-miles of non-stop racing waiting for them in the new year. And that's just those on the full-length edition. Across all 5 race classes, there were over 500 runners passing a nervous New Year thinking about the Pennine Way. This seemed like the perfect time to call them up and try and distill a little of that pre-race tension into a special edition of Everything Endurance.

In this episode, you'll find past podiumers, record holders, and Spine legends. There are short interviews with Anna Troup, Damian Hall, Ellie Eccles, Eoin Keith, Elaine Bisson, James Leavesley, Sharon Gayter, and the legendary Bobby Cullen. We talk through their motivations, their approach to preparing, their tips for first-time Spiners and more.

Obviously, we couldn't cover all the runners we wanted to across all the races. Check out the Ultrarunning Sam podcast though as Sam has also been interviewing Spiners recently and picked up a couple of people we weren't able to: https://www.youtube.com/@ultrarunningsam

For ease, here are the time-stamps of each interview:

06:15 Anna Troup

28:50 Damian Hall

46:10 Ellie Eccles

01:03:09 Eoin Keith

01:19:33 Elaine Bisson

01:34:25 James Leavesley

01:42:12 Sharon Gayter

02:07:08 Bobby Cullen - Apologies for the slightly lower sound quality during this interview.

The Montane Winter Spine Races 2023 begin on Saturday 15th Jan, and in honour of this EPIC event, we thought we better make an EPIC podcast.

Welcome to our Spine Race Special.

For ease, here are the time-stamps of each interview:

06:15 Anna Troup

28:50 Damian Hall

46:10 Ellie Eccles

01:03:09 Eoin Keith

01:19:33 Elaine Bisson

01:34:25 James Leavesley

01:42:12 Sharon Gayter

02:07:08 Bobby Cullen - Apologies for the slightly lower sound quality during this interview.

Previous Episode

E81. The Long Journey to the Summer Spine Race with Sabrina Pace-Humphreys

Sabrina Pace-Humphreys is an ultra-runner, a mother and grandmother, a founding member of Black Trail Runners, and now the published author of 'Black Sheep: A story of Rural racism, Identity and Hope'. Sabrina will shortly be toeing the line at the Summer Spine Race 2022.

In an episode, Will and Sabrina chat through her whole journey from starting out as a runner in 2009, to her first contact with ultra-running, the creation, and reason behind the creation, of Black Trail Runners, and her preparations for the Summer Spine Race.

We learn what helped motivated Sabrina to begin this running journey and why she thinks so many others could benefit from starting on a fitness journey of their own.

Cover photo --> Roxanna Barry

Next Episode

E83. Ice Ultra 2023 with race winner Kristina Madsen and more

Kristina Madsen of Denmark was a highly decorated ultra-runner and a holder of multiple FKTs already when in February she became the first woman to be the overall winner of a BTU Global Race Series event. Kristina won the Ice Ultra, BTU's 230km, 5-day race across the ice and snow of Swedish Lapland, where temperatures regularly drop as low as -40°c. In this episode, we chat with Kristina about her historic win and about what it takes to be successful when running in the Arctic.

If that wasn't enough, we also catch up with Karl Alvarez, who came 2nd in the same race and is currently part way through an attempt to complete all of BTU's races within a year.

You'll also find a Race Director's Round-Up of the Ice Ultra from Kris King, and a brand new regular feature we're loosely calling the Adam Kimble Radness Update where fellow BTU RD and professional ultra-runner Adam Kimble, brings you an enthusiastic update from the world of endurance achievement!