The Montane Spine Challenger South ultra race took an unusual turn this week after a competitor had to withdraw due to security concerns. Here’s what you need to know…
@Jamie Rutherford/Montane Spine Race
A runner competing in the Montane Spine Challenger South ultra race has been withdrawn midway through the event after receiving death threats.
Sarah Porter was coping well with the challenging conditions on the 108-mile route – her first race of over 50 miles – when she was told by organisers that she was going to be removed from the race due to security concerns.
The threats are linked to some of the humanitarian and charity work that Sarah does (you can see her Spine Race fundraiser here), which involves evacuating and supporting women and girls from war zones, and also helping women break barriers in male dominated spaces.
While security concerns of this nature feel like new ground in trail running, it’s something that Sarah has been dealing with for a while. She takes a variety of measures in everyday life to ensure her safety, including engaging with counter terror police.
What actually happened?
A risk assessment was carried out before the race, with conversations held between the race organisers and Sarah’s security team. Sarah was still able to line up at the start, but she was going to have a bodyguard on course at certain public points (“but he wasn’t allowed to interact with me”, Sarah explained).
They’d considered anonymising her tracker, but Sarah was keen for it to stay on due to some key sponsors following along from afar. Though, as it happened, this was switched off not long after the start.
Speaking to the RunUltra podcast, Sarah explained what happened next: “I got a message saying that there were threats coming in…
Runners cross open ground in the 2025 edition of the Montane Spine Race ©Montane Spine Race
“By the time I got to Standedge a team from the Spine Race met me and said ‘we’re withdrawing you from the race and we need you to get off course’.”
Sarah obliged and sadly had to exit the race after a few hours of running. “Not long enough to feel like I’d accomplished much,” Sarah told LFTO, “though I’d fallen around in the snow a bit and had managed to sledge down a bit on my backpack, which I was happy about.”
Asked how she’s feeling now, she said: “It’s taken me a bit of time to come to terms with it. I’m lamenting the loss of the Spine feeling. It’s a bit weird. But I’m all good.”
What have the organisers said?
Following a request for comment, the race organisers shared this statement: “On Saturday the 10th we made the difficult decision to remove one of our participants from the race following a personal safety threat, we have been working with all the relevant authorities and believe there is no wider threat to other participants on the course.
“We understand that this is disappointing for the runner in question, but the safety of all our participants is always our primary concern.”
The power of trail running
Sarah is no stranger to endurance sport having taken part in triathlons and long-distance swimming events in the past, but trail running is a more recent interest that came about after she joined her son on a few trail runs.
“I’ve always liked the idea of pushing yourself beyond what you think you’re probably mentally and physically capable of,” she told us over the phone.
Sarah had heard about the Spine Race and was quickly becoming a big fan of some of the sport’s female runners.
“I really liked the fact that it’s in the UK and is Britain’s most brutal race. A lot of what we talk about with the charity work that we do is about brutality and how hard it is for women, so I thought it was a really good parallel to do for charity.”
Despite the withdrawal from the Spine Challenger South, Sarah has a full season of ultra races to look forward to, including some of the leading mountain races across England, Wales, Scotland and the USA.
“I haven’t managed to run more than 50 miles yet and I really do want to get past the 100-mile point,” she told us.
Competitors tackle cold conditions on the Montane Spine Race in 2025 ©Jamie Rutherford/Montane Spine Race
As for the role trail running plays in her wider life? “I tend to put myself in situations where I push myself very hard, at points where it’s almost make or break. I think there’s a number of different parallels there with trail running.
“John Shield, my running coach, said to me recently that people need to learn to push themselves further than they believe they can go. What you think is inconceivable, actually your body and mind proves you wrong so often and you’re able to do these things. I’m very interested in finding my quit or break point.
“I think the parallel with that with my life is, one, I do tend to do tough things, and I like the fact that trail running offers that. But also, I do have generalised anxiety disorder as a result of the work that I do, and trail running really helps. It helps me clear my head, helps me feel, weirdly, in control of at least something in my life and it’s a consistent thing that I can always go to. Being out in nature does wonders for your health.”
An important cause
Sarah runs a community-led tech business that works to ensure AI is available to everyone and works for good. Through that, she ended up working with women and girls in low-to-middle income countries, and set about trying to set up schools and education centres.
This then led to Sarah working with an all-girl robotics team in Afghanistan, where she also built the first STEM school for girls in the country (though, sadly, it’s since been destroyed).
Following that work, Sarah and her team then tried to evacuate the girls and their families during the fall of Kabul, and later set up the charity Inspired Minds Foundation.
Speaking on the RunUltra podcast, Sarah explained: “We’re on a bit of a knife’s edge, if you like, of trying to evacuate people. The more of that work we do, the more it angers people.
“It angers people because there is a situation whereby a new world is emerging, particularly for girls and women, in Afghanistan right now. That situation is that, at the moment, they have less rights than a dog in the UK.
“The way that that’s manifested itself is that I receive threats, I receive messages from angry people.”
For this specific event, Sarah was attempting to raise funds to support women and girls who’ve been evacuated from war zones, and to help those still stuck in them.
Though she was unable to complete the race, the fundraising page is still live and many people in the running community have been donating since news of Sarah’s withdrawal went public.
What is the Spine Challenger South?
The Spine Challenger South is a non-stop ultra race that sees competitors travel 108 miles along the Pennine Way. Runners are given a 60-hour time limit to get from the start point, Edale, to the finish line at Hawes.
As the name suggests, this race takes in the southern part of the route, including Kinder Plateau, Malham Cove and Pen-y-Ghent.
It takes place on the same weekend that the full Winter Spine Race begins.
