A FOREWARD BY ANNA TROUP

Anyone who runs ultras is regularly asked why they do it, and I am regularly asked why I keep coming back to the Spine Race when I have done both the summer and winter races (several times).

The easy answer is community. Even before the Women’s Spine Support Group was set up in 2026, the Spine family was something precious to me.

Every checkpoint contained familiar faces patching me up and sending me on.

Every Safety Team had a cheery word whether I was full of beans or throwing up outside their van.

And every participant I’ve spent time with has always been warm, welcoming and happy to chat.

It has also been a wonderful journey as an older athlete knowing by doing well in the race I am inspiring others to challenge their own preconceived notions of what’s possible.

If this woman can, then that woman can too.

There’s nothing like role modelling for increasing participation in our sport.

All of that is wonderful and in itself reason enough for me to do it all again.

If it’s fun and meaningful and life affirming, why not?

However, The answer is probably something deeper than that and is probably familiar to most endurance athletes across all sports.

The answer lies in the fact I am still learning about the race, learning about myself, learning how to execute better and building the mental resilience to tackle the race differently too.

In 268 miles nothing will ever go perfectly. As a veteran athlete no training block is ever likely to be ideal.

Every start line is a gift and every finish line is a hard fought memory. So my “why?” is a combination of all the above.

I love the journey to the start line, new ways of training and managing myself as an older athlete.

I love strategizing the race and building on experience of races past and trying to improve my execution.

I love the people I meet out there on the course for the first time or the nth time; they have become my friends and my community.

And I love the fact that for a brief moment, a couple of times a year, even my children think I am cool (it doesn’t last much beyond the finish line!).