Jack Scott didn't sleep very well last week. In fact, the 29-year-old from Staffordshire only managed 54 minutes of shut-eye between 08:00am on Sunday 14 January and 09:00am on Wednesday 17 January – and that was pretty much his plan as he used the tactic of self-inflicted sleep deprivation to help him take more than 10 hours off the course record for Britain's most brutal running race.

The Montane Winter Spine event is a non-stop, 268-mile race along the most iconic and demanding national trail in Britain; the Pennine Way. Starting from Edale in Derbyshire, runners have a time limit of 168 hours to reach the tiny village of Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders, eight miles southeast of Kelso, less than a mile over the English border.

Runners climb more than 10,000m on the strength-sapping route across some of the most beautiful but difficult terrain in England, including the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland National Park, Hadrian’s Wall and the Cheviots. And this year's race had the added challenge of sub-zero daytime temperatures, heavy snow, sleet and rain as competitors did their best to stay just ahead of the threat of Storm Isha's gale-force winds.

Jack Scott took just 72 hours, 55 minutes, and 5 seconds to obliterate the course record held by GB international mountain runner and fell runner, Jasmin Paris. The runner-up, last year's victor Damian Hall (82:25:10) was also inside the old record – by 47 minutes – and Paris' husband Konrad Rawlik (85:47:12) was third as bragging rights remained with his wife!

The defending women's champion, French endurance athlete Claire Bannwarth (92:02:23) finished fifth overall on Thursday 18 January as she retained her title from last year's runner-up Hannah Rickman (104:41:07) and former professional triathlete Lucy Gossage (106:05:26) after Rickman had been given back some time lost while aiding another competitor.

There were 163 starters at Edale in the appropriately named Hope Valley. Typically only half the competitors complete the course before the 08:00am finish line cut-off time on Sunday 21 January. This year there were 91 finishers with David Milton (pictured above) coming home in 166:21:48.

The 2024 champion was interviewed on BBC Breakfast News as the final finishers were clocking in at Kirk Yetholm on Sunday morning. Jack Scott confessed to feeling a little tired and said he had a couple of blisters but otherwise felt fine, despite having gone to some pretty dark places during his ordeal.

Full results are at Montane Spine Race Open Tracking here.

Photo of David Milton courtesy Montane Spine Race on Facebook