Jack Scott knew the excesses of the A complete guide to running in the dark were taking hold when, 205 miles in, Hugo appeared. Scott was somewhat surprised to see his childhood dog, a black Labrador who’d died seven years earlier, and even more so to find that said dog had learned to speak. But such stories are part and parcel of the Spine. The non-stop, 268-mile race along the Pennine Way in January pushes its participants to the brink of collapse – and hallucinations are often the result. But nothing could stand in the way of Scott, who arrived at Kirk Yeltholm in a new record time of 72hrs 55mins 5secs. Not that it was purely about winning, he says: 'You go into this race to be a version of yourself that is different and better.'

An imperfect start

While Scott’s race went perfectly, his training was hampered by a string of injuries – including serious ITB syndrome and knee buritis. 'In December, I only ran two days back-to-back,' he says. 'I believe I averaged 53 miles a week from the end of November to early January.'

The shift in mindset was a challenge, says Scott. 'I love running 16-minute 5Ks off my own back, just running round like a lunatic. But I couldn’t train like that. I could do it with the injuries I had, but I didn’t know what the day after would look like, so I couldn’t risk it.'

Instead, he headed to the treadmill, ramped it up to a 25% gradient, and ran on it for an hour, letting the pace vary from 5.5km/h to 7.3km/h. 'In the space of an hour, I’d cover about 3.8 miles but get in 5,000ft of climb. My heart rate would be around 180, so I was getting in some higher heart rate zone work, but moving at race pace.'

It was horrendous, says Scott – but it was also an example of training smart. 'Every run that I did had a meaning. I knew I was going to come in well under the overtrained line. But if it worked, the freshness would be there in the body, and I think that’s why I didn’t drift in the later stages.'

Scott also worked with a psychologist and had imagined pushing through all the things that could go wrong in the first 12 hours. Why 12 hours, you might ask? 'Because after that, everything starts to hurt and you can settle into the race,' says Scott. As it happened, when the race began, Scott found that his body was on board. 'I just thought, "Now I can’t be stopped", because I’d envisaged having to do it the hard way.'

The winning mindset

Winning the Spine in any fashion, however, is one of the most difficult challenges in ultrarunning – particularly on a year when so many top-class runners toed the start line. Running towards High Cup Nick with Damian Hall (winner of the 2023 Spine race) and James Nobles (winner of the 2022 Dragon’s Back), one question was playing on repeat in Scott’s head: how can I win this race? But as they began descending High Cup Nick, Scott pulled away from Nobles, bringing Hall with him. 'Straight away, my race mind is thinking, "If I get to Greg’s Hut and run the 10K downhill, I can pull away from James [Nobles]."'

But how could he shake off Hall, who was so experienced and proven at the 200-plus-mile distance? Scott had to focus on his one known weakness: a compulsion to drink tea at every given opportunity. 'I got to the Dufton checkpoint, poked my head in and said, "Hello, I’m going straight on." Damian had got in there a couple of seconds before me – I think he wanted a cup of tea – and I just went.'

At that point, Scott felt the power shift. 'I thought, "I’m in control here – I’ve pulled him out of that checkpoint."' Even so, Hall is a tough nut to crack and shadowed him up Knock Fell. But at the top, Scott decided to not put his spikes on and instead up his pace, creating a gap.

With a lead established, Scott didn’t want to lose momentum. 'You have to take a risk somewhere and mine was with sleep decisions. I didn’t want to 'bag' any sleeps because I thought I might jeopardise the way I feel. So I chose the psychological warfare of trying to stay awake.

Hence the arrival, 205 miles in, of long-dead dog Hugo. 'He had my voice – I was speaking to him,' says Scott. 'It was bizarre.'

The hallucinations on the Cheviots, meanwhile, were of a scarier nature. 'You hear voices and see runners that aren’t there. I remember the sun coming up on the final morning and thinking I could see Damian, with a support crew, about 500 metres behind me.'

In reality, Scott had built up a huge lead, arriving at Kirk Yeltholm in 72hrs 55mins 5secs – beating the previous record, held by Jasmin Paris, by more than 10 hours. So, will he be back next January to defend his title? 'No. I’ve done it. The only way I’ll go back is if someone beats my time.'