Spine Race 2020

opus

Time to start watching the dots again to see how Enduro is getting! Started this morning.

https://live.thespinerace.com/

mloc123

Interested to see how John Kelly gets on in this

opus

Checked this morning & Enduro is up to 2nd place not too far behind John Kelly. Don't envy them as storm Brendan will heading that direction.

woody1

opus wrote: »

Checked this morning & Enduro is up to 2nd place not too far behind John Kelly. Don't envy them as storm Brendan will heading that direction.

seems to be a magnet for bad weather this race.. dont think last year was too bad, but the previous 2 i think there were storms and bad snow

Jakey Rolling

Kelly took a wrong turn after his rest stop in Hawes. That plus Enduro taking a short stop means they are now neck and neck. About 3k ahead of the Andre in 3rd now. Incoming weather will make it a real miserable slog overnight.

opus

The leading two are very close, seem to be swapping places each time I check. Fiona Lynch is in 5th in the women's rankings as well.

shotgunmcos

Bonkers racing in that weather, through the night, over mountains, with sleep deprivation...

Sab Verjee catching the boys. Had the pleasure of trekking with her and her team during a race a few years ago, as tough as they come.

Interesting how it always seems the leaders of these races miss the worse of the weather. Perhaps thats a skill in itself, reading the falling barometric pressure, understanding weather cycles and how to manage where you push etc..

opus

Less than a mile separating the top three currently.

TFBubendorfer

opus wrote: »

Less than a mile separating the top three currently.

It's amazing how addictive it can be to track a mostly static dot, isn't it?

Itziger

I think the Catalan lad has retired. Eoin in third after a kip. English fella has put a few miles between them. Kelly still leading but not by much.

shotgunmcos

The volunteers in these races are as crazy as the racers! #Respect!

opus

What's amazing to me is that the leader (John Kelly) is ~100 miles ahead of some of the participants!

robinph

This looks like it's pretty close. 20 minutes between the first two and about 10hrs left to go.

Might need a photo finish, or whatever the equivalent is in daft length ultras... maybe someone could do a stone sculpture in the time between them crossing the line?

hillsiderunner

robinph wrote: »

This looks like it's pretty close. 20 minutes between the first two and about 10hrs left to go.

Might need a photo finish, or whatever the equivalent is in daft length ultras... maybe someone could do a stone sculpture in the time between them crossing the line?

Jayson (who was 2nd) is retired now , there was a 'jump' with his tracker showing him moved very quickly up to Byrness (probably by car) and then moved to the 'retired' list. Very sorry to see that as he was running a great race but no doubt he has pushed John Kelly to work hard and he should end up setting a nice Men's record ... may not be too far off the Overall record from last year either.

John went straight out of Byrness 40mins ago and I'm guessing he didn't know about Jayson's troubles at that point.

Itziger

Looks like Kelly is home and hosed. Eoin might come under pressure for 2nd but should be ok for podium. Can't imagine heading out into a third night of dark, cold, wet hilly ****e.......

Itziger

Scratch that! Only 2 miles ahead of 4th........

Itziger

The end game..... Eoin should hold on for 2nd unless he's suffering badly. The only worry would be that the other two lads work together and get a big push on but I'd be surprised if he lost out to them at this stage. Women's leader isn't far behind those two either but again it would take some effort to bridge the gap now. Good showing from the Irish woman Fiona Lynch. Mad event though when you think about it.

The Noble Nudge

Some athletes...I was only out in the dark for an hour last night on open mountain and had me thinking of my own sanity!!

opus

He's on the home straight with 5 or 6 miles to go, a solid 10 miles ahead of the person in 3rd place & imagine they'll be take a break in the last rest stop in any case. Fantastic result!

average_runner

The mental strength he has, must be something else. Well done Eoin

opus

All done! Video if the finish is here along with a chat with John Kelly.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSpineRace/videos/853776601722871/

Congratulations Enduro!

Roadtoad

Well done Eoin, 100h 11m and Silver. (about 12h 20m from John Kelly USA
1st.)

Shout-out too to Fiona Lynch, who's still 'out there'.

Itziger

Roadtoad wrote: »

Well done Eoin, 100h 11m and Silver. (about 12h 20m from John Kelly USA
1st.)

Shout-out too to Fiona Lynch, who's still 'out there'.

Delighted to see Fiona L finish it. I have a feeling the last 'bit' (say 120 miles!!) was tough.

Enduro

Thanks for following. It was a good old ding dong race out there. I'm delighted with my result. John Kelly is a legend, so to even poke in front of him once or twice was more than I expected to manage. For once I've managed to get the race report written close enough to the race finish, available for reading https://eoinkeith.wordpress.com/2020/01/23/the-spine-race-2020/.

It was great to see Fiona finish it out for a 100% Irish finishing rate.

mloc123

Great racing Enduro, always fun to follow.

Have you any suggestions for races for somebody that wants to dip their toe into multi day stuff? Some "easy" ones I guess

I notice that most of them require a CV of similar races on the entry form.. have you any pointers where to start building that CV.

Enduro

mloc123 wrote: »

Great racing Enduro, always fun to follow.

Have you any suggestions for races for somebody that wants to dip their toe into multi day stuff? Some "easy" ones I guess

I notice that most of them require a CV of similar races on the entry form.. have you any pointers where to start building that CV.

The stage races are theoretically easier, but personally I don't like stage racing. It's missing the key elements of true multi-day racing.

The summer versions of the Spine races (The Flare and the Fusion) would definitely be much easier to begin with. My personal favorite would be the Northern Traverse. It's got generous cut-offs, is very well organised, and I really like the route. It's on this April.