Montane Spine Race women's winner is Carol Morgan

Ireland's Carol Morgan smashes the women's course record for the MONTANE® Spine® Race, a 268-mile footrace along the Pennine Way, England's oldest and toughest National Trail in winter. While the back of the field battles against cut-off times.

 

Carol Morgan (IRL) has broken the women's course record for the MONTANE® Spine® Race, a 268-mile footrace along the Pennine Way in winter, by a sensational 43 hours.
 

The Dubliner who lives in Leeds and works as an advanced practitioner, finished the gruelling race in a provisional time of 109 hours 54 minutes. Morgan finished in joint-sixth overall, with Paul Nelson (GBR).

 

A previous winner of the Lakeland 100 and Fellsman ultramarathons, said she had four targets before the race: “One, to finish. Two, to be first woman. Three, to be top 10 overall. And four, to finish in under four and a half days – which I didn't quite do.”

 

“I didn't know what the women's course was until someone told me halfway though the Spine Race,” said Morgan.

 

Helene Dumais (CAN) is still second woman, with an advantage of around 7km over Gabriele Kenkenberg (GER), as they continue north from the final major check point at Bellingham, with around 40 miles left to the finish at Kirk Yetholm.

 

Sandwiched between the front three, and Morgan and Nelson, John Knapp (GBR) and Johann Steene (SWE) finished together in a time of 108hrs 48mins, placing joint fourth.

 

In finishing ninth, Gregory Crowley is one of a very select group of people who've finished the Spine Race three times. Later in the day Simon Beesley joined him in scoring a Spine Race hat-trick.

 

As of 9.30pm, Friday 20 January, 18 runners had finished the 2017 Spine Race. There have been 43 retirements, while 51 are still in the course. They have till 8.35am Sunday morning to reach Kirk Yetholm. A significant earlier cut-off is at Byrness, which they must reach by Saturday at 12.35pm.

 

The Spine Race continues into its sixth and penultimate night…

 

2017 RACE WINNERS:

 

MONTANE® Spine® Race (M): 99:25*, Tom Hollins (GBR)

MONTANE® Spine® Race (F): 109:54*, Carol Morgan (GBR)

MONTANE® Spine® Challenger (M): 28:00, Dominic Layfield (US)

MONTANE® Spine® Challenger (F): 37:53, Sarah Davies (GBR)

MONTANE® Spine® MRT Challenge (M): 33:40, Alasdair Cowell (GBR)

MONTANE® Spine® MRT Challenge (F): 58:18 Ella Corrick (GBR)

*Provisional

 

LIVE TRACKING & LIVE LEADERBOARD:

 

Available to view at http://live.thespinerace.com/