At the front of the race the trio of Eoin Keith, Pavel Paloncy and Eugini Rosello Sole set a blistering pace, going without sleep until Tan Hill. Arriving at the Middleton checkpoint with a 40 minute lead following a shorter break at Tan Hill, Keith never relinquished first place despite a determined early morning effort from course record holder and two time winner Pavel Paloncy that closed the gap to 30 minutes.
Approaching Byrness Eugeni Sole, who had been running most of the way with Paloncy, was forced out with a knee injury leaving a race between Matt Neale and Peter Wilkie for the honour of third place and first Brit home. Arriving at Byrness the gap between Keith and Paloncy was a bridgeable 1hr 35mins but with a combination of different sleep strategies and Paloncy having navigation problems Keith reached the final monitoring station, Hut 2, over 5 hours ahead. At 9:17 on Wednesday morning, less than 4 days after departing Edale, Eoin Keith touched the wall of the Border Hotel in a staggering 95 hours 17 minutes, breaking the previous record by 15hrs 27mins. Early on Wednesday afternoon defending champion Pavel Paloncy followed Keith home, breaking his own personal best and recording the second fastest time ever for the Spine Race of 100hrs 34mins.
As the leading pair were arriving in Kirk Yetholm the weather was taking a turn for the worse with windchill adjusted temperatures on Cheviot of -15 and winds gusting up to 60mph. Safety teams had to divert part of the course around Cauldron Snout as water hitting the main path was freezing instantly making the original route too dangerous. With the leaders taking 10 hours crossing from Byrness to Kirk Yetholm, through waist deep snow in places, the organisers brought the Byrness cut off time forward by 6 hours; a decision that many found disappointing on a personal level but was widely supported. Thursday morning saw the battle of the Brits, and 3rd place, settled as Peter Wilkie consolidated his lead over Matt Neale to arrive in Kirk Yetholm in a time of 117:15
With conditions in the Cheviot at their most demanding the medical team, who were on-site throughout at each Checkpoint,Monitoring Point and Intermediate Station, were called into action to assist a Pennine Way walker suffering from hypothermia. Initially this was reported as a Spine Race competitor in trouble, but was corrected by the BBC.
In the Women's Race Anna Buckingham pulled away from the field in the early stages, reaching Hebden Bridge and the first checkpoint with a three and a half hour lead but by Dufton the gap was down to half an hour and by Alston Anna and Zoe Thornburgh were running together. With Sarah Fuller in the group affected by the rescheduled cut off at Byrness Anna and Zoe became the final two ladies in the race, staying together from Alston to the finish line and touching the Border Hotel wall together in 166:40.