Nicola "Nicky" Spinks (born 22 April 1967) is a British long-distance runner, specialising in

fell running Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...

, who set women's records for the major fell-running challenges the Ramsay Round, the Paddy Buckley Round and the Bob Graham Round. She held the women's records for all three Rounds simultaneously until 2016, and was the holder of the overall record for the double Bob Graham Round until 2020, and the only person ever to complete doubles of the other two Rounds. Born in London, she moved to the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

while still a child. She is now a farmer in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

Early life

Nicky Spinks was born in London. She moved to

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...

in the

while still a child.

Running career

Early running career

Spinks began running competitively in 2001 in a 4-mile fell race.

UK 24-hour Rounds

Spinks first completed the Bob Graham Round in 2005. She subsequently set a woman's record of 18:12 in 2012 then lowered her own record to 18:06 in 2015. She set the women's record for the Paddy Buckley Round in 2013 at 19:02 and the Ramsay Round in 2014 at 19:39. She thus simultaneously held the women's fastest times for each of the three most famous 24-hour British mountain courses (which has never happened with the men's record) from 2014 until 2016, when Jasmin Paris broke Spinks's records for the individual rounds and set an overall best combined time of 50:10. She was for some time the only person to have completed each challenge in under 20 hours. In 2015, aged 47, Spinks attempted to beat Chris Near's overall record for the combined times in the three challenges, when she attempted the Bob Graham in 2015. She needed to complete the circuit in 17:21 or faster, which she was unable to attain but still managed to set a new women's record of 18:06, despite sickness and injury. On 15 May 2016, Spinks completed a double Bob Graham Round in 45 hours 30 minutes, one of only four people to do so and only two to do so within 48 hours, beating the previous record set by Roger Baumeister in 1979 by more than an hour. In 2018 she completed a double Ramsey Round in 55:56 and in 2019 a double Paddy Buckley Round in 57:27. Whilst neither of these broke the 48-hour target, she is the only person ever to complete doubles of these Rounds. Thus, having previously simultaneously held the women's record for these three Rounds, she now simultaneously held the absolute records for doubles of the three Rounds.

Other running achievements

Ten years after starting running, in 2011, she set a new women's record of 64 for the number of Lakeland peaks climbed in 24 hours. The old record of 62 peaks was achieved by Anne Johnson in 1994. The record stood until 2020 when Carol Morgan added one new peak to make 65. The following year, 2021, Spinks regained the record by covering the same 65 peaks in a shorter time, before Fiona Pascall raised the record to 68 in 2022. In April 2017, she ran the

Joss Naylor Joseph Naylor (10 February 1936 – 28 June 2024) was an English Fell running, fell runner who set many long-distance records, and a sheep farmer, living in the Lake District. He became known as the "King of the Fells" or simply the "Iron Man" ...

Lakeland Challenge in 11:02, a new women's record. Spinks has won the Fellsman four times and in 2013 she won the Borrowdale Fell Race. Spinks was an entrant in the 2019 and 2023 edition of the

Barkley Marathons The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon Trail racing, trail race held each year in Frozen Head State Park in Morgan County, Tennessee, United States. Described as "The Race That Eats Its Young", it is known for its extreme difficulty, purposefu ...

. She is sponsored by RaceKit and Inov-8.

Personal life

In 2005, Spinks was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy in 2012. She is a farmer in

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spinks, Nicky 1967 births Living people British ultramarathon runners British fell runners English female long-distance runners British female long-distance runners 21st-century British women farmers Athletes from London Female ultramarathon runners 21st-century English farmers English women farmers Sportspeople from Glossop Sportspeople from Yorkshire 20th-century English sportswomen