By Jonathan Brown
If you’d just completed a 268-mile trek along the most demanding national trail in the United Kingdom, on 11 hours of sleep, through snow, wind, and rain, and were asked if you would do it again, it would be a simple answer for most people.
But not for Mourne Mountain Adventures guide Sean Nickell, who recently completed the Montane Winter Spine Race, a non-stop ultramarathon along the Pennine Way, which stretches from the Peak District to the Scottish Borders, taking in the Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland National Park, Hadrian’s Wall, and the Cheviot Hills before finishing in the small border village of Kirk Yetholm.
Starting on the morning of Sunday 11 January and finishing on Saturday 17 January, Sean completed the Winter Spine race in 145 hours, 47 minutes, and 30 seconds, finishing 46th overall out of 152 competitors, the 38th male, and as the first Irish finisher. “If somebody said to me, ‘Do you want to do this again?’, I think I would,” was one of the first statements Sean made when asked about his experience. “It’s an amazing event and it was challenging, but it was an enjoyable experience, if I can call it enjoyable. It was pretty much as I expected it to be,” Sean added.
Donaghadee native Sean works as a bus driver for the Education Authority, although he spends a lot of his time in the Mourne Mountains as a guide for the Mourne Mountain Adventures expeditions group, describing the Mournes as “one of the places he loves the most”. The North Down Athletic Club member, now 55 years old, started his running journey at the age of 38, signing up for a 10k as he looked to live healthier when his kids Conor, Lea, and Zara were born, before taking on the Belfast Marathon six months later. In Sean’s own words, everything “snowballed” from that point.
It wasn’t long before Sean was signing up for ultra marathons, with his first being the 26 Extreme race from Warrenpoint to Newcastle. He went on to complete the Kerry Way Ultra, traversing the entire length of the 200km Kerry Way, a route of 120 miles, and the Arc of Attrition 100-miler in Cornwall, which takes in the South West Coast Path—the UK’s longest National Trail.
Adding to the challenge of juggling his training schedule around his full-time job, Sean’s youngest son, Conor, who will soon be turning 18, has special educational needs and needs to be constantly supervised by both Sean and his wife Patricia. “Most people have to juggle things in their lives, but Conor always needs supervision, so it’s about trying to make time to get training in around him. So it adds a bit more difficulty to training for longer events. It’s about trying to schedule family life, work, and running together, so it can be a balancing act at times,” Sean explained.
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