Most Brutal

The Montane Winter Spine, Britain’s Most Brutal endurance race, is happening at the moment. It is a non-stop 268 mile race following the Pennine Way, starting in Edale, Derbyshire and finishing at Kirk Yetholm, in the Scottish Borders. Can you imagine what the terrain is like at those heights at the moment - madness.

Anyway we get quite excited about it because, as our house is on the Pennine Way and one of the checkpoints is in Dufton, the runners have to go past our house.

And the great thing is that anyone can follow the race as it happens - each of the runner’s positions is updated all the time. This is a screenshot from the tracking showing the positions of some of the runners earlier today. I like how if they stop, say at a checkpoint, there is a ‘sleeping’ symbol. Maybe they do nap, I can’t see how they can go on without - but maybe they do. Given the numbers of the runners you can then find out about them.

Sadly the front runners will pass us during the night. I’ve just seen the current leader approaching the A66 at Bowes. High Cup Nick in the snow and the dark!!!

This tracking can be very addictive - but it has made a dismal, damp day of house stuff more interesting. Hopefully tomorrow I might catch a picture of some of the later runners as they come past our house. I managed this a few years ago.