Our selection of the best, fastest, toughest, quirkiest and most enjoyable UK races this month

The heat is real now. Intense sun from above and the road radiating heat up from below. My tri-suit feels like a microwave bag, stuffy and claustrophobic. I’m a pale, middle-aged, Scotsman. I wonder i

Every new year, top ultra-athletes take on the Montane Winter Spine Race, a brutal midwinter race that stretches 268 miles along the Pennine Way. The battle for the overall win this year featured Anna

I went out to Berlin with Marathon Tours and Travel. One big benefit was that our guide Steve Hails took us for a run to show us where the bag drop and entrance to the start were. This was helpful bec

Fitting-out time is here again. Because I winter up in the Baltic where the sea still sometimes freezes, my season doesn’t really start until May. It was different when I berthed my 22ft wooden sloop

The Spine Race – a 268-mile slog from the Peak District to the Scottish Borders – bills itself as Britain’s most brutal race. Tough as it was this winter, director Phil Hayday-Brown is reducing the time runners have to complete the race by 12 hours, citing safety concerns. But for some, this decision demonstrates lack of respect for back-of-the-pack runners, the majority of whom are women