Lynne Callaghan, 46, from Plymouth, taking part in a month long Montane Virtual Spine Race, which is 268 miles long. She has 78.5 miles to go, with just under a week left of the challenge. This race would traditionally be completed over a series of days, along the Pennine Way from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the remote Scottish Borders, however, it had to be cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. This virtual race started on the 1st of January and participants have until the 31st to complete it, by running, walking, and hiking.
I took part in this challenge for a couple of reasons. January is always a difficult month for lot of people, and I struggle with it, with my mental health, with it being so dark and cold outside and it’s not very motivating. I really wanted to increase my mileage this year and do some more long distance events and challenges and I thought this would be a really good way to kick start it.
The other reason is that I’m really interested in the Spine Race, the actual Spine Race, dot watching and watching the competitors, seeing how well they do, because it really is a challenge. I’m doing this over the course of a month, in between work and things, but they have to do it in one go and that just amazes me. So, to just have something to do with the Spine Race is great. It’s been really motivating actually and looking at the map and seeing how well I’m doing, going along it. I’ve had to been quite disciplined because you have to do a certain number of miles a day if you want to do it that way, and I have also been really tired because I’ve been increasing the amount I’ve been running, I’ve been using my hiking and walking as well with the dog, but also canicrossing with the dogs and running on my own. So it has made my running so much stronger and it’s made me feel really good that I’ve been achieving something in what is usually my worst month of the year. – Lynne Callaghan (pictured)
Words and Pictures by Kira Butters