Spine Safety Team 2026

Having raced in three consecutive years but only been on safety team once (in 2017), I was delighted to get a place on this year’s Spine Safety Team in a bid to give something back. The various volunteers (safety, checkpoint, medics, and – yes, in 2023 – the broom wagon) were all crucial fixtures in my races, and it also seemed like a good excuse to get some quality winter time on the hill.

I don’t normally start blog posts with hotel reviews but the Travelodge in Glossop is an old cotton mill built in 1824, and the lighting was unexpectedly aesthetically pleasing.

Anyway, our team met up on Saturday morning and the first job for some of us was to head to Wessenden Head and cast an eye on runners passing through to make sure they were generally fit and well. This becomes a more subjective measure as you progress north up the course, given that people will be tired/emotional/injured/delirious, but none of those applied to Jack Scott or those giving chase as they powered through looking like they were out for a park run.

From there we headed further north, and all the while I was sucking up as much knowledge as I could from other team members. There are multiple safety teams dotted around the course at any one point over the week, and we were on SST A, a roving team with 24-hour responsibility to stay broadly at the head of the course but also to deploy wherever reinforcements might be needed.

A night in Horton was followed by some of the team checking runners on Pen y Ghent. Chris L and I went to check Jack Scott as he went through the village before starting the Cam High Road. Given that he’d just gone over Fountains Fell and Pen y Ghent alone in the early hours in appalling weather, he was remarkably compos mentis and gave us a clear summary of his current position. I realise taking photos of the leaders is de rigueur in such circumstances, but I always feel like people must get sick of it (and I was concentrating quite hard on simply standing up, such was the prevalence of sheet ice across both pavement and road).

North again, this time with Mike and Helen to put out diversion signage in case it was needed, and to take a peep at Cauldron Snout.

Back again the following day to review it and remove the diversion signs, but not before spending a night at the Alston checkpoint. Everyone there was universally welcoming when we turned up en masse, and when I got up at 4am because of snoring in the bunkroom I was even presented with the last portion from the team breakfast that had just taken place!

Onward then to Hexham, and a pitstop imposed by our team leader Tim at The Grateful Bread. Their cardamon buns were as good as had been promised, and fuelled us as far as the course finish at Kirk Yetholm. We were stationed here (well, Town Yetholm) until the end of the race, and job number one entailed an ascent of Windy Gyle for Tim and I. “Time of day” becomes a bit of a foreign concept after the first 24 hours or so, so heading up as the sun set seemed entirely normal.

The following day Chris L and I teamed up to revisit the same spot, albeit in daylight, giving me two ascents of the same hill in two days. The next day (Friday?) it all kicked off, beginning with a trip down to Byrness to pick up a runner who had retired and needed collecting from the wrong side of the hill. That delayed the plan Chris L and I had to visit Hut 2 and take them some supplies, and so we did that in the early afternoon instead.

I’ve only visited the Cheviots twice before – once was grey and misty, and the second time was at night (and I was quite busy concentrating on finishing the race). It was therefore very nice to see the main ridge and its subsidiary tendrils in some daylight and nice weather. I’d even done some reading in advance, and can therefore recommend Wild Cheviot as a lovely look at the fauna and hill farming practices of the area as it was in the 1940s.

Halfway back to the village we were told that a runner had pressed their SOS button and we therefore needed to turn around and head back up towards Hut 2. We were joined by Tim, and made good time back to the position we’d been in just a few minutes earlier. Fortunately the safety team from Hut 2 found the disorientated runner a couple of minutes before we got to their location, by which time it was dark. We all commenced a steady walk off to Hut 2, punctuated by random chat including a weapons-grade English Lit joke by Tim about Joyce and Goethe. The casualty wasn’t English and I’m not sure it really landed with her, but I liked it.

Emergency work complete, and the runner in the capable hands of the Hut 2 team, we descended back to the vehicles and home to Town Yetholm. Two ascents in quick succession may have felt like hill reps, but team lead kept our egos in check by pointing out it was just a hill rep (singular).

After some dinner and a brief sleep we were tasked at 1am to a runner with a lower leg injury, this time partway between Hut 1 and Windy Gyle. Up the ridge for the third time in three days, albeit this time as a team of five, we found the casualty accompanied by another runner who had done an excellent job of looking after the both of them whilst awaiting our arrival. The casualty managed to hobble a long way under difficult circumstances, but eventually mountain rescue were required. They attended in short order, and everyone lived happily ever after (well, with a broken ankle, but they were helped off the hill safely!).

After that it was time for me to head for home. I had an amazing week and learned so much from everyone on the team. A massive thanks to all of them for putting up with me snoring/not snoring, and for making the whole experience fun to balance out the serious bits. Big thanks also to the safety leads at Spine HQ, who answered random questions at all times of day and night with unending cheer. Well done to everyone who was running or volunteering (or doing both, as some people were). Fingers crossed I can join again in the future!