Lucy Gossage, the multiple Ironman-winning triathlete, is in with a real chance of winning the Montane Winter Spine Race, billed as ‘Britain’s most brutal’ ultrarunning race.
As well as all her Ironman successses, the remarkable Gossage also triumphed in two of triathlon’s most extreme endurance events – Patagonman and Norseman.
And she showed last year that she could translate those talents to ultraunning with a fabulous Spine Race debut when finished a superb third behind defending champion Claire Bannwarth and previous podium finisher Hannah Rickman.
Gossage is an NHS oncologist and raised over £30,000 last year for the MOVE charity, which aims to ‘use physical activity and exercise to improve the lives of people with cancer’. She is doing so again and the fundraising link is here.
‘Why’ Lucy returned to the Spine Race
A shocking twist after last year’s race provided the ‘why’ for a return – read more about that here – and meant she headed back to the 2025 renewal looking to “find closure”.
The runners this year have so far been hit with almost every type of challenging weather.
The 268-mile race up the Pennine Way from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm on the English-Scottish border started at 8am on Sunday at which point the ground was frozen and covered with huge amounts of snow.
The majority of that has now melted but that has led to deep bogs and even the threat of flooding which has meant organisers have rapidly had to put diversions in place to ensure runner safety. And added into the mix are wind gusts of up to 70mph.
But Gossage has so far taken it all in her stride and seems to have been smiling throughout. She moved into second place in the first 24 hours as Robyn Cassidy opened up a lead of over 90 minutes in the women’s race.
But overnight on Monday that gap started to close and by checkpoint 3 at Langdon on Tuesday morning it was down to just 10 minutes.
Later on Tuesday, Cassidy and Gossage were running together – and phoning ahead for sausage sandwiches in Dufton by the sounds of the video below!
Here for the women’s race
Nikki Bartlett, a great friend of Gossage’s and fifth in the IRONMAN World Championship last year, is looking after her social channels and posting regular in-race updates like the one above.
That underlines the Spine camaraderie, something which was in evidence long before this year’s race when many of the leading female contenders took part in a three-day recce together.
Gossage and Cassidy now have just under 100 miles to go and if they can make it to the finish then the title looks set to go to one of them as they are currently more than six hours ahead of third-placed Nikki Arthur.
At checkpoint four shortly after 5pm on Tuesday, Gossage had moved in front on her own – just under 15 minutes ahead of Cassidy, though it looks like both were planning to get a bit of sleep there.
We’ll be posting frequent updates on our sister site RUN247 and you can also follow the live tracker here.
