How one key piece of triathlon advice helped Lucy Gossage win Britain’s most BRUTAL ultrarunning race

Lucy Gossage is a hugely popular and successful former pro triathlete, winning multiple Ironman titles and many other races through the course of her career.

But she’s now arguably just as well known for her remarkable victory in the Montane Winter Spine race last month, which is billed as ‘Britain’s most brutal’ ultrarunning race and covers 268 miles up the Pennine Way in what are usually incredibly challenging conditions, with this year no exception.

Even Gossage’s ‘back story’ was astonishing – much more on that here – and that meant she had a powerful reason to return to the race 12 months on from her superb debut when she finished third.

She had said she was looking for “closure” after what happened soon after she crossed the finish line in 2024.

But as things turned out that came when she stood on the start line this year, rather than at the finish.

‘Race with joy’

What followed was an incredibly accomplished display, all the more impressive given her relative lack of ultrarunning experience – she moved into the lead just past the halfway point and went on to claim an emphatic victory in the women’s race as well as finishing fourth overall.

And having taken a couple of weeks to gather her thoughts and process her emotions, not to mention returning to work, the NHS oncologist – who has again raised over £20,000 for her MOVE Against Cancer charity – has penned a heartfelt blog.

And swim, bike, run learnings feature heavily as she starts it by saying: “As a triathlete, someone once told me to race with joy, and looking back, I’m convinced that my performance at the Spine came from the release of this pure, unrestrained joy, a feeling that had been buried for a year. I wasn’t racing for closure; I was racing for me.”

She also reveals that the build-up to the event had been far from smooth, explaining: “I had struggled with sciatica for eight weeks leading up to the race, making running painful and incredibly slow. The first time I was able to hop on my left leg was just five days before the race.

“Under normal circumstances, I might have deferred my entry. Any coach would have told me to rest. But in my mind, I had convinced myself that this race was the key to moving forward and because of that, I kept shuffling.”

Power of mindset

And again there was a triathlon parallel as she added: “Back in 2016, I broke my collarbone just eight weeks before the Ironman World Champs.

“It was psychology, not physical fitness, that carried me to a 9th place finish, and what has stayed with me from this experience is the power of mindset in performance. 

“The Spine is a bit about athletic performance but it’s more about mindset, decision making and problem solving when it matters most. Mindset matters and, despite the sciatica (which had completely cleared up by the start) I knew that psychologically, I was ready.

“There have only been a few races in my life where I felt I truly squeezed every ounce of performance from my body, and this is one of them.”

She’s already shown she is a force to be reckoned with in the biggest ultrarunning races and it will be fascinating to see what she tackles next as it’s clear she’s been well and truly drawn back into the competitive arena.

For writing about leaving checkpoint four and “nervous about the night ahead” she said that was a pivotal moment, adding: “Realising that, for the first time since I retired from triathlon, I was fully embracing being competitive.”