Montane Winter Spine: Meet the Wigan man who battled one of Britain’s most brutal races

Harris crossed the finishing line with a time of 98:41:29 in the Montane Winter Spine race for a joint-seventh place in the epic challenge.

He won the Montane Winter Spine Challenger South in 2023, battling tough conditions in the 108-mile race.

Deemed as one of the hardest races across the country, those involved are pushed to their limits.

And it’s more than just running - Harris explains the strategy behind completing the race, which starts from Edale in Derbyshire to the village of Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders.

“Most people don’t know about it, but in terms of the running world and the long-distance running world, it’s a really well-known event,” Harris explained.

“You want to see what you’re capable of doing.

“My main goal on this one was to see if I could finish it.

“I've had a couple of long races recently where I failed to finish for various reasons, so the key thing was making sure I would get through it.

“It’s an awful long time to be out there, you’re pushing yourself to the limit.

“If you search on the internet for the top 10 hardest races in the world, it'll frequently be listed on a lot of sites.

“Usually in these races, it’s mainly about the running. But in this particular race, you’re rarely thinking about the running.

“It’s focusing on the weather, making sure you are wearing the right gear for the next leg, being exposed in tough conditions on your own and figuring out how you are going to cope with them. All whilst trying to deal with massive sleep deprivation.

“You get to a point where you’re literally falling asleep on your feet. A quick lie down and two minute power nap on the trail can keep you going for another hour.

"The final night was sort of surviving on that, just enough to get through.”

The battle doesn’t end there for those involved - with Harris detailing the gruelling road to recovery.

“Within an hour of finishing, I had a shower, something to eat and was on the way home. You want to get back home before the real fatigue sets in. It’s intense to say the least in terms of dealing with it,” he explained.

“First of all, you haven’t slept for so long, so all that tiredness kicks in.

“Then the pain starts. Running across frozen ground for four days is like battering your feet with a hammer.

“For the first couple of nights, it was waking up in agony. So you can’t get any real quality sleep, then eventually that passes but then there’s a whole host of other things that creep in - severe night sweats and waking up feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus to mention just a couple!”

But Harris has already signed up again for 2025 - with the goal of pushing for a podium finish.

He continued: “I finished it and thought, ‘I never want to do that again!’ - but within a week I'd already signed up for next year and hopefully will be looking to push even harder and possibly challenging for the podium!”