Oldham ultra-runner hallucinates as he finishes marathon challenge

Oldham ultra-runner Colin Green has conquered the Montane Spine Race 2019, a 268-mile race across The Pennine Way over 7 days and nights in January – and finished as ‘Last Man Standing’.

Badged as Britain’s most brutal race, the Montane Spine Race is widely regarded as one of the world’s toughest endurance races.

It involves racing non-stop along the most iconic trail in the UK, The Pennine Way, during the British Winter.

48-year old Colin, who lives in Greenfield, completed the race in 166 hours, finishing as ‘Last Man Standing’ as one-by-one the competitors behind him dropped out of the gruelling race.

As 40mph winds, -20 windchill, snow and fog hit the Pennines and weather conditions worsened, Colin eventually found himself as the final runner on the course, finishing last with just 1.5 hours to spare before the cut-off time.

“This was the hardest race I have ever run in my life,” said Colin, an experienced ultra- runner who has completed over 30 marathons, the 200-mile Trans-Pennine Trail and the 214-mile GB Ultra ‘Race Across Scotland’.

“The conditions were tough. By the end I was completely exhausted.

“The biggest challenge is sleep deprivation.

“I had 30 mins sleep in the first 48 hours when I covered 108 miles, and a total of 13 hours over the whole week.”

Colin, who is Clinical Director and a specialist neurological physiotherapist at his company Physio Matters based in Hollinwood, has trained for 12 months for the race.

It was his second attempt after being forced to pull out of the race in January 2018 when he fell crossing a river and broke his ribs.

However, he stayed on to join the volunteer team and support other runners still on the course.

Colin admits there were times he was close to pulling out: “After a short sleep in the woods in Kielder Forest on Day 5, I woke up in a lot of pain, cold and extremely tired and thought ‘I can’t go on’.

“But I’d come so far and this year I was determined to succeed.

“I told myself to get up and get going. I visualised being at the finish line and focused on just putting one foot in front of the other.”

126 runners entered the race this year, with competitors from around the world including the USA, Canada, Japan, Spain, Denmark as well as the UK.

Colin finished in 73rd place at 6.29am on Sunday 20 January. 53 runners dropped out along the way.

Colin also started hallucinating towards the end: “Through sheer fatigue, I must fallen over 50 times on the final descent off the Pennines in the dark to the finish line.

“I even started hallucinating – thinking I could see writing in waterfalls, cars on the moors, and even the faces of old film stars in the fog.

“It was bizarre and just shows what tricks a tired brain can play on you. The race took a lot of mental strength and grit to keep going.

“Thank you to everyone who supported me and followed my progress on the online tracker. I’m so proud to say I was the ‘Last Man Standing’ and I’m a Spine Finisher.”