Nicky Spinks

An ultra runner has smashed a 17-year-old record in a route across the Lakeland fells.

Dark Peak Fellrunner Nicky Spinks added two extra hills to Anne Johnson’s tally to set a new 64-peak mark in less than 24 hours.

The run was an extension of the Ladies Lakes 24-hour record and follows Spinks’s impressive third place in the Fellsman event in May this year, in which she was first woman home in a time 48 minutes shorter than her existing race record.

The then Anne Stentiford, now Anne Johnson, ran 62 peaks in 23hrs 17min in 1994. 44-year-old Nicky Spinks added two fells, Sand Hill and Fleetwith Pike, to extend the route and return to her starting point in 23hrs 15min.

The rules of the challenge meant she had to cover all the previous record holder’s peaks and add extra ones with at least 250ft (76m) of ascent, ¼ mile apart.

Fuelled by bananas, Hula Hoops and energy gels, the Mirfield-based farmer conquered stomach upsets resulting in numerous vomiting episodes to take the record. The route includes a roped climb up Broad Stand between Scafell Pike and Scafell.

Anne Johnson was on the Langdale Pikes to encourage her successor.

Writing on her blog, she said: “There were so many people there [at the end] at 2.15am. There was a real party atmosphere and now I could be properly part of it. It was amazing. I had hugs and sipped champagne.

“I just felt so happy to have done it.

“On the Sunday we had a celebratory lunch at the local pub. As I walked in there was a big cheer and Anne Johnson was there to congratulate me.”

The 24-hour peaks records are an extension of the Bob Graham Round, which tops 42 Lakeland fells in 24 hours and which has been extended by fellow Fellsman veteran Mark Hartell to 77 peaks, with Nicky Spinks’s new record the best by a woman.