Ep 52 - The Spine Story of Dot 205

This is the story of Kev’s Spine Race. The tale of a massive navigational error that led to a dot watching thriller for the Ultra running community. Which also resulted in a huge sponsorship success for the Freetobekids charity thanks to the highly invested Spine dot watching world. So just what did happen out there on the Pennine Way to Dot 205? 

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Transcript

Section A

SPEAKER_00 0:08

There it is. It is just it. I can see it. Next legend.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Hello and welcome to the fifty-second episode of AidStation. And of all of them, this contains probably my greatest, weirdest, and most ridiculous ultra race so far. I guess many of you will have been invested in dot watching number 205 on the spine race, which was me. And as such, uh may want to know from the horse's mouth what the hell happened out there. Um so here is a story of my race. It's a bit rambling. Um I've had to script bits of it because I just my mind is a bit muddled over the whole affair, to be honest. So it may be a bit disjointed at time, but I guess that represents my race. And uh my current deeply exhausted mental state. Um obviously I'm still recovering from the race. It's Thursday today, the Thursday after the race, which finished on Sunday, um, and I was pulled out on Saturday. So I've got swollen feet as usual, I've got no blisters, I've got no DOMS, um, but so my legs are pretty good, but just really, really tired all the time and sleeping all the time. And I guess that's the way for most people, um, and when you're of an older age, uh that stuff just takes even longer to recover, so you've got to be good to yourself and take your time and get over it. Anyway, without further ado, here are the cowbells of inspiration. 20 minutes away from race start for the spine race. Um god, it's been hectic uh from starting out yesterday in Woking uh station to get in across here with that about 30 kilos worth of kit. Um anyway, that's a long story. I'm all set to go. Um it's snowing and it's well, I don't know, it's about minus one or two at the moment. It'll be pretty cold at the top, quite breezy. Uh, but it's proper spiny weather, and everybody's here itching to get started. The start, e-dale to checkpoint one at Hebden Hay, 48 miles. You have to arrive in 20 hours and leave by 22 hours of race time covered.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

One minute ago, guys, one minute to go, so if any last minute please needed, it's too late. Okay, so guys, welcome to the 2026 full bunting spine race. You're all a bunch of crazy people to go out in this weather, but that's why you're doing it, and that's why I made it. So uh have a lot of fun out there, guys. Be safe and uh look after yourself and look after one another as well. Okay, now the weather, as you can see, it's uh pretty cloudy up there, very cold, very slippy. I suggest spikes and I suggest waterproofs because it is gonna snow most of the day with a bit of rain. So just bear that in mind, guys. Just um make sure you're prepared. And as Kev always says on the roofing, be bothered, yeah. So make sure you're doing that. Right, I'm gonna give you a countdown from five guys, so good luck on this one. Four, three, two, one!

SPEAKER_03 4:21

So after that start, we trekked out up Jacob's ladder in good snow on the move, didn't need any spikes on. Um, got up the top of Kinder Plateau and hadn't noticed it coming up because we were on the leeward side. But once you get up over the plateau on the exposed side, we had about 60 mile an hour winds hurtling across there. Um, and there was carnage, there were people getting blown over, people getting blown sideways, uh, people having to bum sled down the slopes, I think, after the kinder downfall. Um, it was, I mean, I had a load of fun, it was a riot. Uh, took some videos of it all um and enjoyed the whole thing. Um, I mean, I suppose I was a bit slow over the top there taking my time. I thought I had loads of time to take it all in um and take videos, and then I once that was done, I pushed on a bit harder um out over the rest of the route across to the um Tourside Reservoir. Um, but it was an absolute blast, really enjoyed it. Had a decent stretch across Featherbed Moss to the A57 at Snake Pass, um, and there's a mountain rescue team there doing hot drinks and biscuits and stuff, but um I didn't take anything, didn't need anything at that point, and just kept going. Um, and then ended up in some nice snow-filled gullies of what is called the Devil's Dyke, um, and really enjoyed that, and I made a short recording there. Hi, um, you're joining me after road crossing. Oh god, I don't even know what number it is, but I'm heading out towards Taur Side Reservoir now. The conditions have been absolutely awesome and brutal, as this is a spine race on the top of um uh the oh up Jacob's ladder was alright, and then over the top of the Kinder Plateau was uh mental like 60 mile an hour winds at least, people getting blown over, people bum sled in to let somebody pass and uh it's it's sort of sleety rain now, um but there's been the trails really packed hard, which is great because all the spine challenge yourself compacted it as well as the people that were in front of me on the spine race. Um I hung about a bit at the back, did a little bit of podcast recording at the start, messed about taking some videos because I couldn't resist it, and uh now I've come on here for the first time. So um I got to that road crossing at well three hours exactly actually, and just looking at my watch. How far have I gone? Uh about 11 miles done, and it's now um 20 past three, 22 minutes past three. So trekking on, keeping going over to Tauruside now. Uh it's very difficult to come on here and record anything because the conditions have just you couldn't get anything out. I've I bought a Salomon pair of Salamon over gloves, over mitts, and one literally blew out of the pocket of the bag, the front chest pouch, took off way across the moor somewhere, not to be seen again. So part of the experience of the spine race, it's been absolutely I've loved it. I mean it's a southerly wind, mental southerly wind, but it's blowing us along beautifully. Um, it's almost like skiing with your poles out when you're running. So, um, yeah, all good. It's I've decided I'm gonna play well enjoy it. So, speak to you later. So, after that, it's then a trek out over Bleaklow Head to Clough Edge and to the Tourside Reservoir. Uh, and the descent to the road crossing was a bit sketchy. Um, I didn't put any spikes on but negotiated it okay. But it's quite um uh quite a steep drop, rocky drop, bit more technical down onto the road there, where there's another MRT point, and I had tea and biscuits, and I got there in five hours and eight minutes, and that is 16 miles covered. And then when I came out of the MRT uh point, I got onto the dam on the top of the reservoir, um, and I got a signal and downloaded the videos I'd taken on the top of Kindo Plateau. So I'm putting that in because it was just showing that I was taking the thing pretty easy. Um, hadn't really got a time in mind that I needed to get across other than get in there in 20 hours to checkpoint one at Hebden Hay. Um, and so I was going easy and enjoying the ride. Um, there was no down no snow down at uh tourside, and uh when you go up above that, there's a small wood called the Hollins above Torside where I made another brief recording. Well, I made Tourside Reservoir in five hours exactly. Uh got a coffee and a load of biscuits from the Glossop Mountain Rescue Team who are stationed there, and I'm now walking through the little bit of pine forest that's on the north side of the uh reservoir, and then we're gonna start heading up the valley, another big climb, apparently quite icy now, uh up to Black Hill direction. Um it was very sketchy. Once I'd crossed the road and came over, it was quite nice through the snow, lots of little sort of valley areas, not much running, but and then you come down a clough on the side of the torside reservoir. I can't remember what it's called, the actual moor that you come along the side of, and it's really sketchy. Um uh thaw, snow thaw, uh, and then fro fro frozen snow thaw on rocks. Uh loads of people in the yak tracks were doing quite well. I couldn't be asked putting my spikes on. I thought the spike was a bit too much for it, to be honest. Um I hadn't fallen over, thankfully, but I did go down quite a deep bog at uh part of a small stream and bent bent the pole. Strangely enough, carbon normally breaks the carbon poles, but um bent the actual aluminium at the joint, which is a weird one, so it's hanging at a sort of 30-degree angle at the moment, but uh that's the way it is. I've got three spare poles in the bag when I eventually get to Hebden Hay. Um Steve Bennett said that he was aiming to get there for midnight to night, um, and then have three hour stop there and then set off again at three in the morning for the next section because this section's about 47 miles, I think, 45, 47, something like that. But the next section's about 60. So to press on through the night um could turn into a real slow uh march, and the uh sleep demons will definitely get me. I reckon by then I didn't sleep that well last night in the uh EWYHA. But um, yeah, all going good, seeing a few people. I know I saw um uh Ben and Migsy, two guys off the dragons boat race. Um that's John Roberts and um Ben who I've been out running with before. I can't remember Ben's surname at the moment. Things are gonna get worse. Hello, hi say hello, you're on a podcast. Thank you and uh yeah, some supporters here on the edge of the reservoir. This actually goes over to a village that I've forgotten the name of, and I'm about to cross a pretty busy road up here in a minute, I think. Uh, this is about the only section of the Penn and Way I've ever been on. I was on here with Jill, my wife back in April, and I sneakily brought her over here for a look and a walk up Jacob's ladder. So there we are. Anyway, I'm gonna finish now because I'm coming up to the road first bit of real civilization in the last five and a half hours, and I'll get back on later. So once you're out of the Hollands, you're then heading to Crowden, um, which is on a um concrete and tarmac road. Uh, and just before that section, um, I thought, oh, this is a nice surface. I'll take a run. I took two strides and went down like a sack of spuds. Um, the whole thing was black ice. Um, and when I'm recovering my dignity, I see two women dog donning their traction aids, and just say to them, Well, that was a good advert for for doing what you're doing. Um, and on go the micro spikes, um, ready for the rest of it because it was got a bit icy going up Black Hill on the way out. Uh, you take a 90-degree turn just before you get to Croden and head up Black Hill, and then it's out over Westendon Moor and Stanich, uh, where my head torch goes on for the first time. And uh, really without realising it, arrive at the first of the Spine's legendary non-official catering outlets, which is Nikki's food bar, just before the M62 crossing at Rishworth Moor. Um, this is a converted steel container and it's absolutely brilliant. The atmosphere inside it is well, it was heaving with runners. Um, you you can actually pre-order what you want to eat via their Facebook page when you get there. Um, and I thought I was going to enjoy the whole experience and take part in this, the full spine experience. Um, and here's a recording at Nikki's. It's 10 to 9, and I'm in Nikki's food bar just before the M62. Hello everybody!

SPEAKER_01 15:52

You're on the A Station podcast.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

So I've got I'm gonna get out of here at 9 o'clock. It's gonna be about another four and a half hours or something, over to Hebden 8, and we've got then gonna have about four hours um spare um to get changed uh fed, and I'm I'm eating here, so I'm probably gonna eat here and not there. Get a drink there, and then um get my head down and get out of there, hopefully, with a couple of hours to spare. Because the next leg is 60 miles, so there's no way it can hit that without some kit. Uh the weather's been absolutely brutal, which is why I haven't been on here. Um, howling gales between well, 45-60 mile an hour gusts. Um, luckily it's been southerly mainly, sometimes across. Um, but you lift your foot off the ground and then you can't put it back down where you want to put it, it just blows it around. So it's all been a bit mad. I've been on the um Coutula spikes now for about the last uh what is it about five hours on them actually. So somebody else has just entered the den. So well done. So uh anyway, I'm gonna get ready and get go in and get out of here back into the weather. So after my Halloumi burger and chips, it was then out over the M62 to Hebden Hay, which I don't remember much about this section, um, but I arrived in checkpoint one uh in 18 and a half hours, um which put me an hour and a half inside the time I needed to get there, um, and uh three and a half hours inside the cutoff time. Now I think um you may have heard me previously talking to James Elson on the Centurion podcast, where I said I think I got two hours' sleep there. I've in fact managed to engage the brain, and remember I didn't get any sleep there. Um I did one of those staring at the bag things because I wasn't too sure what to do. I didn't think there was enough time to take any sleep. Um I was in the checkpoint around about two hours, maybe just under two hours. Hi, uh you're joining me at about five o'clock in the morning on Monday, so second day of the race. Haven't done 24 hours yet though, that'll be at 8 o'clock, and I've just yomped up out of Hebden Hay first checkpoint. Um I didn't get in there till 3 o'clock in the morning, which was only three hours before uh the cutoff and they chuck everybody out. You also had to be in there two hours before that to give yourself some turnaround time. So I only made it by an hour. Uh we had well it lived up to its name, an absolutely brutal day yesterday. Um and really made slow going. Mainly, I mean although the wind was southwesterly or south southerly, which was behind us, it just seemed to make the going really tough. And then um you had loads of melt water and uh ice on the slabs and water spikes for about six hours in the end. Um when I got to the checkpoint uh it was carnage in there, loads of people. Um and I decided I had a kit faff as usual, um, and I decided just to sit in the chair for basically two hours, get my feet organised, change the underwear, do all the chafe prevention, and um um head out uh without any sleep. Um a mate of mine Steve Bennett was came in oh I don't know ten minutes after me into the checkpoint and he went to the bedrooms uh and he got 20 minutes. He said there was so much snoring going on, he didn't sleep obviously. So we're into well I suppose it'll be another what is it say eight o'clock, it's probably light. So um it'll be only about another lesson through uh uh five hours and it'll be light so hopefully um I'll still wake up then um and won't fall asleep beforehand. So I'm now trekking out. We've got 40 miles to go to Malam Tan, which is where there's uh what they call checkpoint 1.5, and that is the uh it's just a security checkpoint, really. I think there's some hot drinks and stuff there, but nothing else. So, and there's a diversion around there because they're forecasting between 40 and 60 mile an hour winds again up there, and a load of rain today. Oh joy. Um, this is why it's Britain's most brutal ultra race. Um, can't imagine I'm gonna run a lot of it. I've tried to run all the downhills and Some of the flat, but eventually got to the point where I was so knackered, it was even walking the flats. Um, anyway, I'll probably get back. So off I went, and I um on the way stopped in this was a quite a bizarre thing, really. I coming down into Lothersdale, and I was met by the lovely Nicola McNally, um, who I know from the Dragons Bank race. Uh lovely woman who said, Come on, come in the pub, loads of people are in the pub, um, which is called the Hare and Hounds. Um, and it was lovely in there, uh, log fire burning, lovely atmosphere, everybody eating meals, and it felt a bit bizarre to be in a race and yet be sat there as if you were having a Sunday pub lunch. Um, so the next moments I remember are on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, uh near Barn Oldswick, where I dropped my mobile phone in some mud, and the phone dropped straight down, so that all the connection elements of the phone, which were on the bottom of the phone, filled with nice clay, wet mud, um, which was going to be a bit of an issue in terms of charging the phone in the future. Um, but sort of started to uh trip all the things that were slowly going to start building up to going wrong uh on my race. Mallam Cove is the next point that I really remember being in. Um around about 40 hours it took me to get there. Um, and I was met by uh Phil Bristow, a guy from Hove near Brighton in Sussex. Um, and we were he actually met me in Mallam Cove, and it wasn't till I looked lifted my head torch up around that I noticed that we were in the cove itself, great high limestone, high high-sided walls. Um, and we had a bit of a detour up around to Mallam Tarn because they weren't taking us over the limestone pave at the top of uh Mallam Cove. Um but this was all new to me. I had no idea where I was, had never been up there before, never wrecked any of it. Uh, but Phil had been, I don't know whether he'd done it on the um spine challenger south, maybe before, but he knew we were on a different route to one that he'd been on before. Um but it took us a little bit of n scrambling and negotiation to find our way up there. We got a little bit lost wondering about to get to the uh point at um Malam Tarn where there is a small I don't even know what it is in in in part of farm buildings or something, not much more, bigger than an office to get about eight people in, uh, which was really well heated, and there is a toilet there, and you get half an hour there as a stop. So we were there in about 40 hours. Um completely exhausted by this time, of course, because had no sleep, just wanted to doze off. Um, but you don't get time to do that because you only get, as I said, 30 minutes. Um, then we were out again on the uh out on the route over towards uh Pennygent, uh which was um detoured for us due to high winds. I think it was that or the ice, I'm not sure which, but we were able to uh traverse round the base of Pennygent um and out onto the Cam High Road, where I was really glad to have Phil with me for company. That is one really long, boring stretch um out of there over to Hawes. Um and you end up well at one point you get on this lovely piece of straight, long, perfect tarmac that's about 1,500 feet up on top of the uh Pennines. Don't know why it's there or why it was built. Um but I found that I was getting quite cold by this time. I mean, daylight had come up, we were it was early morning, and I started running up the hills just to keep warm. And then Phil was, you know, staying at his pace and then catching me up, and then I was running again, doing this all the way over. Um then we came down on Cam, I think it's called Cam High Road West or something that brings you down into Hawes, and as we were coming into Hawes, um outside Gale somewhere, um, I could see the Wensleydale Cheese Factory, um, and there was a gate that um I pulled on not realising that it wasn't hanging on any hinges, and the gate fell over towards us into the mud, and we hauled the gate back up again. Um and this will become known as the gate incident, spine gate. Um, and I'll just leave it at that for the moment. So we went through the gate, got down into Hawes, then got interviewed by the media team on the way into Hawes. Um, and in doing that interview, during that interview time we came off the course a bit, so we weren't entering Hawes on the actual Pennine Way route or on the spine route. Um, but we contoured round Hawes, came in over a bridge and um came into Hawse about 52 hours 36 minutes, I think I got as my split. Um, and I got I think I got about three hours sleep at Hawes, um, did loads of charging, changing kit, changing clothes, plenty of time. I had a four hour and fifty-one dwell time according to the tracker. Um, and as I was leaving Hawes, uh I was in a group of people in the foyer of the youth hostel talking about the green runners, a little bit distracted, I guess. Uh, came out the front of the youth hostel, and instead of turning right, I turned left, looked at my watch, saw the blue trace on my watch, and just followed it. Um and I followed it through Hawes, through some very specific features like um narrow corridors between buildings across paved slabs across fields I hadn't been over before, um uh constantly thinking that I was on the right route and was in fact heading south. Um back up towards the Cam High Road without realising it. It was in the dark. I left the checkpoint shut s at eight at night um and I left at six, so I left two hours before the checkpoint closed um and headed south the wrong way down the course. Um when I got up above Gale again, um I got lost getting lost going south, uh, turned on my phone to get up OS Maps and received two calls, one from my wife Jill and one from Lizzie Gatherer, a good friend of mine, uh, who both told me that I was going the wrong way. Um and at this point I was going the wrong way, but going the wrong way, going the wrong way. Uh so I told them both that I'd got OS maps out, got it worked out, and I was now going the right way. And I proceeded onward the wrong way. Um and I carried on, and unbeknownst to me, and by now the dot watching world was starting to go mad, um people screaming at their computer screens, um, or at my dot 205. And uh I just carried on and I came to said SpineGate once again, opened the gate very gently because it came loose on one side, and just said to myself, Well, what's the chances of that? And I really believed, God knows why, that there was another gate without hinges on it, and I was still travelling north, when in fact I was going through the gate had already been through hours earlier. And so it went on, and I went deeper and deeper up the Cam High Road, um, until uh it also included an area of uh icy, snowed up part of the road that you couldn't cross without spikes on. I put my spikes on to cross that. Um that also sort of further convinced me that I was going the right way because I was told that you would need them on um oh what's it called? Um was it Fountains Fell? I can't remember. There was another one on the way out of Hawes that I would have needed my spikes, and I just thought I was on that fell and not going up the Cam High Road. Anyway, eventually I could see some headlights in the middle of the track way up the Cam High Road, um, and I proceeded towards them just thinking it was a farmer out at night tending to his sheep, um, and it turned out to be the checkpoint manager for Hawes, who closed up the checkpoint, uh phoned around and borrowed a 4x4 vehicle off a farmer, grabbed a tracker so that he was trackable off an athlete that had retired, um, and driven out, bless him, to come and save me from my misery. Um he said he'd been calling me for ages and loads of people had because I'd stupidly kept switching my phone back to airplane mode to save the battery, which was just ridiculous, because I was carrying a power pack as you have to anyway for recharging all those things. Um and I reached that moment when you're told you're going the wrong way and you're about five miles out of hawse. Um, and it was literally just oh fuck you idiot. Um you know, that dawning moment that comes upon you. But at no time did I think, oh well, that's that bin this off, or just get back to whores and jack it in. Um and I said to him, What are the chances of getting back in? He said, Well, if you're travelling a really good speed that you have been travelling at, you're gonna have to keep that up for most of this leg now to get back into the race. So with that and with my apologies to him and thanks for coming out and intercepting me, um, I hurtled off back down the camera high road back towards Galen Hawes. Um, I overshot a turning, stopped, turned the phone on again to get OS Maps, and with that I get my son on the phone, Lyndon, my eldest son, um, who's also been tracking me and said he'd called me about 60 times and said that I needed to backtrack again. Um, but I noticed on OS Maps that there was a handrail um wall going straight up across that would cut the corner of the triangle off and get me back on the Pennine Way. Um, and I decided to take this with much to his consternation because on the map it said shake holes all over the place. Um so I stuck to the wall like glue or to the handrail and powered up there. It was quite a climb up, and got me back onto the Pennine Way, and then I hurtled back down as fast as I could, back in towards Hawes, and when I got down near to Hawes, I was um there was again a set of lights in the middle of the road, which was shining onto a huge puddle, which was then bouncing up into my eyes, um, and I was trying to travel quickly, and this was shining in my eyes, and I was cursing the guy with the van, thinking I'm trying to go as quick as I can here, and I can't see a flipping thing. Anyway, there was no getting past him anyway, because it turned out to be the head of um safety on the event, um, who stopped me, calmed me down, uh, asked me to produce my compass and demonstrate to him that I could show where North was on the compass bearing, um, which I don't blame him at all, made me seem like you idiot. All you had to do was get your compass out and look which way you were going. Um show him um a grid reference on my GPS device. Uh, he wanted to see my maps. Um, and I was basically getting what amounted to a dressing down, I guess, or a reality check about what an idiot I'd been. Um, and then set me on my way, told me that I needed to keep travelling at a decent pace and to navigate at all turns at all points on the GPS device. Um and then sat in his van watching me run around like a headless chicken. I don't know if you anybody's ever looked at the trace close up around Hawes, but as I said to James on his podcast, I did have the place surrounded. Um I really couldn't find my way out of there. I got there in the end, but every time I came to a junction I got it wrong. Um I felt a bit under pressure actually because uh this I can't remember his name, the the lead safety guy um turned up at every junction in his vehicle, uh tracking me all the way back to Hawes and through Hawes, and every time I saw him I wasn't getting it right. But eventually I arrived back in Hawes um and um the whole world, stock watching world seemed to have gone mad. I mean I I didn't know any of this, but a a group that had been uh volunteering on the event in the checkpoint poured out of a pub in Hawes, beers in hand, they were having a good time obviously celebrating that the checkpoint was shut, and shouted, here he is, it's Kev and uh proceeded to lead me the correct way out of town and out of Hawes. I think everybody was glad to see the back of me in Hawes, um, but I was so relieved to have their help and direction get me back on track um and out of town. So after much travelling around the the area of Hawes, um James told me on the podcast that at one point when I got to the turnaround point on the Cam High Road, I was exactly where I was ten hours earlier. Um so including the checkpoint rest time of you know four hours, fifty one, five hours, whatever it was, um, I'd had a detour um and it had cost me around about um ten hours, I suppose. Um I got back to Hawes uh at ten o'clock, which was two hours after the checkpoint had closed. So I'm now at least two hours behind Juan Pajan, who was the last guy in the field at this point. Um, and just well, nothing more to do but put your head down and get stuck in and get it done. I mean, there was no way I was stopping doing it or getting stuck in the horse. Um, and then I came to one of the great features of the race, which is the great Shanafel. That was the one I was trying to think of earlier. Um, and it's frozen, foggy, wild, remote. Uh, and I'm conf cocooned in five layers. I've got on uh tight ski pants, uh, waterproof trousers, two base layers, two mid layers, uh waterproof for snood, neck warmer, and ski gloves. Um haven't got everything on that I've got, but just about. Um, and it's bitterly cold. I'm really tired, I've been pushing quite hard. Uh, the slabs are a mix of frozen and summer underwater. Um, I've got my spikes on, and uh just keep pushing on. Um, I'm getting more and more sleep deprived, and the mild hallucinations start to come in. Uh I see wonderful pictures of famous people, and winter scenes, and landscape scenes with animals framed in portraits by the f the uh firm shapes of the slabs. So the slabs are all laid towards me in uh a portrait, and all I can see is portraits in every one, and without fail in each one, there is a different picture. Uh it's really weird. But I in a weird way I'm really enjoying it. It's like a sort of strange chemical high, not that I've been on many of those, but yeah, I was it was still it didn't stop the motion or the move forward movement, but like even the ones that had ice underwater had these uh amazing pictures in them. Well, to me anyway. Um, but I was never focused on them each one long enough to take it in, and then each time, like we're talking like microseconds between each slab, a different picture would come up, which is really weird stuff. Anyway, I eventually get off of uh Great Shanafel and drop into Thwaite as day broke on Tuesday the 13th of January, and there's a rocky traverse around Kidston to Keld, uh, where I catch up with Juan Pajan at the tale of the race. And then we take the long gradual ascent up to Tan Hill and the highest pub in England at 1,732 feet or 528 metres above sea level, and it's just getting light on uh Wednesday morning by now. Um, and there's a very quiet but warm welcome at the inn with the only two there by the checkpoint team. Um, get some coffee and some snacks, and on the there's a it's like a large entertainment room at the pub, and there's a stage there, and on the stage it's a big double mattress, and we both climb onto that uh and crash out for some sleep, get my kit together, and about 7:30 in the morning I set off again for checkpoint three at Langdon Beck and out over the bogs of Slate Home Moor. Uh I call Lyndon again to thank him, my eldest son, for trying to help me during the previous night. Uh, because I think at times I was a bit confused and maybe a bit short with him as well. Um, so felt that I should get in touch. Um and then when I finish that call, I get a voice message of encouragement from James Elson, and this is a real lift for me. Um I love James, he's a great bloke, a really, really ultra mad guy, as everybody knows, who's listened to their podcast or been on any of his Censurian events, and it gives me a real boost to think that people like him are invested in my dots. He tells me that the well, so did Lyndon, that the um the social media and dot watching world has gone mad and they're all encouraging me on and um saying lovely things, um, and that gives me a real boost. And I try to reframe my thoughts again uh and push on to a higher output. Uh I decide that I I need to feel more like a runner and less like a hiker, so I make a plan to run as much of a Rigvus section as I can, which is somewhere out near Middleton in Teesdale, towards Langdon Beck. And I arrive at Middleton around 4 pm and strip off my layers, load up the bag, literally having to ram it to get it all in. And I set off for the it's about seven and a half or eight miles to go from that point to checkpoint three at Langdon Beck. And I go at a good running pace wherever possible, all the way out there past Low Force and High Force Falls. And I arrive into checkpoint three at Langdon Beck just before 8 pm, three hours ahead of the cutoff time, which is at eleven. And to give an indication of how I travelled that section, including all the navigational cock-ups, um Phil Bristow left Hawes at um 57 hours of race time and arrived in Langdon at 8353 of race time, and I left Hawes at 57.30, so half an hour after Phil, and arrived at checkpoint three in 8357, so four minutes behind Phil. So with my Sat Nera Navera, I'd given him four and a half and a half hour head start and arrived four minutes behind. So I didn't realise at the time until I'd looked this up, um, but I knew that I had put in a strong effort to get over there and deliberately had tried to make up some time so I had some more time to rest at Langdon to give myself any chance of moving on to the next um checkpoint without any uh too much further delays because you know it was no way I was going to keep going without some sort of sleep and rest, so which I managed to get at Langdon. I think I got about an hour there in bed, um and the cut-off time in Langdon is 87 hours. And um I then did everything that I had to do as usual. Um, of course, I had the issue with my phone and getting it charged. Um I must interject this with this now while I remember. Um when I got there I went to plug my phone in to the charger. I'd already cleaned out all the ports um after the previous incident of dropping it in the mud. But when I plugged it in somehow, and I don't know how because they were double bagged, my um charging block um was uh damp and wouldn't send the charge to the phone. Um the brilliant people at Langdon Beck got me a hairdryer. I started blowing uh hot air into the um charging unit, which obviously attracted some attention as I don't have any hair, and uh people were giving me some strange looks, I'm sure. Um and then the wonderful Jacko Schwartz, who happened to be in there as well, um, said that he had a spare phone and charger that he would lend me. Um he would get the number transferred by Rachel's Q, so somehow it would relay to my phone. Um, all this technical stuff is way beyond me. Um I was still trying to sort out myself and my race, and Yacko um such a selfless act in the middle of his race to do all this, organised it all. Um and I'm uh internally grateful to him for getting it done um and getting me out with a mobile that was working. I mean, luckily another chap uh had the I had the oh what do you call it remote charging capability on my phone um and he had one of those chargers, you know, a base charger that you can just put your phone on. So I did get my phone charged, but as Yacko rightly said, at the next aid station that might not be available. Um and if it doesn't dry out, you're still gonna need it. So he got it all organised for me, and I I'm so thankful to him, and I'm so pleased that Yacco got the race done and completed and thoroughly deserved uh that and and thanks again for him for doing that for me. So Langdon Beck to checkpoint four at Alston. Um it's 31 miles across to Alston from uh Langdon Beck, and this is as James has said on his podcast, is the classic section of the race. Uh it includes a climb up uh Falcon Clintz, past Cauldron Snout, um, which is an amazing waterfall in full spate, which it was during the race, up over High Cup Nick, uh into Dufton and then over Nockfell, Great Dunfell, and the fearsome, awesome, mighty Crossfell. Um the setting out along out to Falcom Clint's, um I couldn't believe how bad the uh pathway was along the edge of the river, rocks pointing in all directions, all going the wrong way, it seemed, seemed to take ages to climb over there. I was chasing two guys that I was desperate to catch up with just for a bit more or keep their red light um in eyesight for a bit more uh security, if you like. Um I couldn't catch up with them. Um you then have to do a climb up the face of the Falcon Falcon Clint. Um, I went through near Cauldron Snout, there's two like rock pillars that are about a human width apart, not much more. Um, and you can see Cauldron Snout through there, and I went through to take a look, slipped and banged my head on the left side on one of these pillars. Now, I didn't know at the time, but even the tracker isn't visible, it's a black spot. Um so you really are out there on your own. That's for future reference and knowledge. Uh, there's no phone signal. Um, so whatever you do out there, you are doing it pretty much alone. Um I got my phone out again to have a look at OS Maps to see where the route took you up, Falken Clintz. Um, and I r couldn't find my phone. Um and I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. Then I thought, right, shit, that's the end of my race. Um thankfully Juan's behind me. I'll go back and um and tell him. So I went back to Juan, uh, who was about, I don't know, mile back maybe, um, and told him he tried to call race HQ to tell them, but there was no signal. So we carried on anyway, uh, got to the climb on Falcon Clint's. I managed to find the route up. Um, it's a sort of one of those funny things where you find a handhold, then a foothold, and then suddenly you realise you've opened the door to the climb. Uh Juan told me that there's no way he would have even gone up there. Didn't think a race would go up such a place. Um, so I'm not sure what he would have done, whether he would have turned round and gone round it or what, but uh anyway, I felt at least I'd helped in some way in this race and helped him get up and over there. Um and once we'd climbed up past uh Cauldron Snout and up over the Clinz, um, we came to a guy coming the other way. Um and uh we uh where are we? Um I ought to tell you a bit about Juan, actually, Juan Pajan. He comes from Mexico City, uh lovely, gentle, uh incredibly determined guy. Um I asked him how it was that he'd heard about the spine race, um, and he said he'd just seen videos while he was at home in uh Mexico City, and thought to himself, could you do that? Um and decided that he could. Um and came all the way over here. He said he looked to see if there were any other Mexicans doing it or had done it or there was even any information on it, but he couldn't find money much information, so he'd come purely on his own all that way, um, to take on the spine, which was blimmin immense thing to do. Really awesome. So uh really nice guy to spend some time with. We didn't have an awful lot of conversation because his English wasn't that good and my Spanish is even worse. So we were um spending time together trying to nav around this course. Um, we got to uh a guy uh I think it's at Halstead's farm. A guy was coming down off a hike up Nick. Um, he wasn't in a great state health-wise. I think he'd got a virus or something, seemed to be full of cold. He said it was absolutely freezing up there, couldn't see anything, um, and he was baling and jacking it in. And I said to Juan that I should do the same as I didn't have my mobile phone. Um, but Juan, I think Juan wanted me to travel with him. He said I may as well go with him over to the next uh checkpoint uh Dufton and pack it in there. So I agreed to do that, went with him and we went up hike up Nick and in serious thick clag. Uh we both got lost, dithered about at the top there for quite some time. Um Juan wanted to go one way and I wanted to go the other at one point. Um luckily I persuaded him and we made the right decision. Um, but we lost a good, I don't know, 20 minutes, half an hour, not really making any decisions or going anywhere. Um and eventually came down out of the Klag into the morning light. It was getting light, and we were met again by the safety team coming up just to check us out. It wasn't an emergency, but they were just checking up on us to see um that we were okay. Um and so we set off and I I sped off downhill um into Dufton uh to look looking for the uh Dufton as a sort of one of these halfway checkpoints. It's not a full checkpoint, but it's a safety point. Um, and I went on through Dufton and I went up all through this horrible muddy track out of Dufton, all up the hills, before I realised that I just wasn't getting to what I thought was going to be the checkpoint. Uh, then stopped and called a good mate of mine, Paul Telford, who just finished the spying challenger south. Um, long-suffering Paul received yet another call from me. Um and he said to me, Yeah, you've passed Dufton. And at this point, I wasn't sure whether officially I was supposed to have checked in there. So I called HQ, uh, who were really good, um, and said that due to being met by the safety team, they were happy that I'd been seen and was in fit condition to move on and keep going forward. Um, I let out a big sigh of relief because I wasn't looking forward to going all the way back down that muddy truck about a mile and a half to Dufton, um, and was allowed to press on. Um, and so on I went. Uh somewhere up, knock fell by now. I really am getting sleep deprived. I can't stay awake any longer, and I take a micro nap in the lee of some cairnstones. Um, I'm not sure how long these micro naps were, but it felt like two or three minutes, and then you'd suddenly wake up and feel the urge that you needed to press on again. Um, and I was slowing fast, but just keeping going, and then somewhere around Nockfell Old Man, which is the top of Nockfell, um, I was caught by Juan again, who'd put in a really strong finish up the fell uh push, sorry, up the fell. And uh so we stick together across the best part of the whole race, Crossfell, which is in full Arctic glory, it's hard underfoot, uh, with a light snow covering which would take the tread of your shoe rather than a spike. Um it was wild, it was windy, remote. Juan was totally in awe of the scenery. Um, I'm sure he'd not been anywhere like that before, and he found some time to take a video of the section because he just couldn't go back to Mexico without taking the scenes um in from the top of Crossfell. Um, and we were able to navigate it fairly easily, there was no mist or fog, um, but it's an absolute tundra-like terrain up there, um, which I really enjoyed crossing, and eventually we arrive at the haven that is Greg's Hut. Now, Greg's Hutt is everything that the myth and legend says about the race. I mean, obviously, I know nothing about it other than seeing it on films and hearing about it. Uh, it is just amazing. I I think it's because of the point it is in the whole journey having crossed um Crossfell. Um, it's basically a bother with two really dark um log smoke-filled brooms where we are met by the amazing John Bamber and his fantastic chili whack noodles. Um, and Juan had not as a Mexican had nothing but praise for them. Thought they were delicious, and so did I, best noodles I've ever eaten. Um, and there was just such a lovely quiet moment. Sat in front of the log fire eating these noodles. We were the last two on the race. Um, and everybody in there was so supportive. They cut all the stuff up there for this and camp and stay in there for the whole week. Um, you know, everything I presume, all the provisions. John cooks up, I don't know, 250 portions of these noodles. They have to carry all that in there, all the logs for the fire and everything. It's just an amazing, amazing uh thing and experience and something wonderful to take in and appreciate. Um, but I am on the radar, so I get a check, another nav check. I have to give a reference, a grid reference of where Greg's hut is. I do get out the northern map, not the southern map. Um, but oh god, I couldn't bloody find it. It's all in sections. Um I was turning the map round and round trying to find the actual section that Greg's hut was on. John Bamber shone a torch on the map because it's so dark in there. Um but I think it was pure fatigue and embarrassment having to do this. Got me a bit flustered, but anyway, I did give them the correct grid reference. Um and was allowed to move on. I mean, Wan stood there like he thought he was next, and I had to explain to him that this was me who was having to do this and not him because of my navigational ineptitude. Um so I think he was a bit relieved because I don't think he realised or was sure what was going on at this stage. Anyway, out we come into the daylight again and off down to um Garragil, where we're herded into Annie's for coffee and flapjacks. I mean, I shouldn't have stopped at Annie's really, but I just it's just another one of these places you have to have the full spine experience, and I was having it. Um shouldn't have gone in there, probably had about 20 minutes at least there that I could would have been better kept in the bank. Um, but they were lovely there as well, and got walked all along on the way out back in to checkpoint four at Austin. Uh 185 miles journeyed in. Um, I was now 107.5 hours um into the race. Uh it was an 11-hour leg from Dufton, um, and I had two hours and 41 minutes at the checkpoint, which included a one hour sleep, and only two portions of the famed Auston Lasagna. Austin to Bellingham, checkpoint five, forty two miles. Uh leaving the checkpoint, it was really cold, white frost and clear skies. I had my usual five layers on and three lots on the legs, two hats, uh hood up, head torch on, and I zombie marched my way across to Slaggyford. Um dozing all the time, uh, micro napping all the way. I kept having to stop and lay down in the frost, uh, just sleep and then wake up suddenly and move on. When I got to Slaggyford, there was a uh green in the middle of Slaggyford with a children's play area on it, which had one of these um ladders with a platform you climb up, or the kids do, covered in um hoar frost. I laid just laid down on this platform, um, took my pack off, lay down on the platform and looked up at the sky. And oh my word, the constellations were just perfect. An incredibly clear sky. This is a national dark sky area. So I hadn't seen anything like that in years. Um, it was just beautiful laying there. I fell asleep. I didn't I suppose I didn't sleep much more than a micro nap there either. Um and got up, was guided out, and then then there was a long, long slug through some real boggy stuff out to Greenhead, where I got to Greenhead car park and was met by safety team manager again, um, different guy this time, really nice guy, had a very dry sense of humour. Um, and I had a coffee there, got some snacks, used the toilet. There's nothing there, it's all just in the car park. Um, there's some hot water left that he's got in um flasks and things, so that you can make yourself a coffee and grab some snacks. I grabbed a few bits to take with me. Um Race HQ had informed him that I needed to travel at 1.55 miles an hour across this section to get into Bellingham and checkpoint five on time. Now I had no idea how I was going to work out 1.55 miles an hour. I just knew that I had to keep pressing on the sort of pace I was going. Um, I was getting messages that I was around about the Lantern Rouge or the Black Trophy for the um slowest ever completer. Um, so I knew that I had a pacer as it were. I wasn't looking at it on my phone, but people were telling me. Um, and it was just the most stunning day. I mean, obviously, we'd had a lovely clear sky night, um, and it was a stunning morning. Hadrian's wall just looked beautiful, um, and spent the day in the sun on Hadrian's wall trying not to make more Naveras. I was still making small Navarras. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to stick really close to the wall. There are some what looked like shortcut bits, so I just tried to stay wherever the most muddiest sections were where the people had gone through. Um, but eventually I'd got to a turn off point which turns out to be uh Hot Banks Crags and Turret 37A, if you look on the OS map. None of that meant. Anything to me at the time I hadn't realised, and instead of taking a 90-degree left-hand turn to stay on the Pennine Way and go out off the wall through the forest, I went straight on for quite a way. Again, called Paul Telford, the long suffering Paul Telford, in a panic, um, and just ended up tearing around the moorland out there. Uh got back towards the Roman Four, which is near there, had to scramble down quite a deep, uh steep descent, which included a bit of bum sliding, to get myself back on the Pennine Way. And just as I got myself back on the Pennine Way, there was the lead safety guy telling me that I'd had messages from Rach Hugh and I'd been withdrawn from the race. And it was no surprise at all. Um I had it coming really. You just can't carry on like that, get more and more sleep deprived, get worse and worse at navigation. Um, and that was my race. I was ferried by him back to Bellingham, uh, met by lovely people at Bellingham, got to sleep on a settee in their own separate room for a while, so that I was out of the way of the competitors, uh, got a shower, uh, then got put on a mattress in a tent inside. So I'd heard the horror stories about how cold Bellingjam was, but I didn't feel that at all. Um and slept I don't know how long until Lyndon, my eldest son, who had driven up all through the night, appeared at the tent door to wake me up in the morning to take me home, um, which I'm it' also eternally grateful. Incredible thing to do to drive through the night to pick your old man up. Um and so that was my race done. Um I'd caused a hell of a lot of trouble with the race organisers, I think. I caused quite a stir with the dot watchers, uh, dot watching community. Um hopefully I added some value to their race and their evenings of viewing. Um I uh delighted to say that um I had some wonderful messages. Um on the I had 660 messages on the uh tracker message page, which I've read through them all now. Thank you all so very much. Um it's very humbling to think somebody like me is an inspiration or a hero or whatever. Um, but you know, thanks, thanks for all your support and effort, and big thanks to um Fran Telford, Paul's wife, who jumped on there um big time with the charity element for Free to Be Kids Charity. Um it's up near£6,000 raise now. I've had 250 donors. Thank you all so much uh for giving. I've replied to each and every one of you individually. It's so wonderful you're gonna make a huge difference to these children's lives in the spring and summer when they can get out into the countryside and enjoy the countryside. Um just so many people to thank. Uh I'm gonna leave somebody out and I I hope I don't, but I want to just say um also a big well done to uh uh to um Ashley Ward uh for completing. I haven't I don't even know the times they did these in. Um to Ben from Petersfield, who completed, he came 12th, which is just absolutely amazing. Um and you know, just great job. Well done to Jacko Schwart, who also completed, and to all the other people that were around the tail end who got there when I didn't. I'm so pleased. Uh, to Juan, who I was so happy to travel with. I hope you come back, Juan, and give it another go. Um, and finally, I just want to thank all the wonderful people that uh are in this Ultra community. It's a really wonderful place to partake in a sport. Uh, it's full of wonderful supportive people who get it. Um and there's none more so than the spine family. There's always a lot of glowing talk about the spine bubble in the community, and now I've been in it, it is totally justified. The link between Edale and Kirk Yetelm is not just a linear trail, it is also a community connection of wonderful humanity. Um, dot watching is such a great armchair sport, and it's so wonderful that all of you have been able to get involved like this. Um, and words like legend and hero have been used to describe me, and of course, I'm none of these things really, I'm I'm just a back-of-the-pack runner, uh, an old guy giving it all my all I can while I still can. Um, but I will say this though: in our new tech world of running influencers, sod off you lot. This is what a real run influencer looks and acts like. So until we reach the next aid station, this is Kev saying bye for now. To the next bloody age station.