A runner stopped mid-way through a 160-mile race to rescue a lost dog – and still finished on the podium.
At first, Clëo Bishop-Bolt thought she was hallucinating due to lack of sleep during the challenging winter race on the UK’s Pennine Way.
But then she realised that the dog’s whimpering and crying on the 2673ft (815m) tall mountain, The Cheviot, was real.
Despite being at the front of the women’s field in the winter edition. of the Montane Spine MRT Challenge North race, Clëo went to the aid of the dog.
She and another Spine Race competitor, Paula Dimond, made a makeshift lead from Clëo's jumper and then called race HQ.
Once the dog was passed on to race officials, Clëo, a member of Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, continued her race from North Yorkshire to Scotland, finally finishing after 88 hours – and third female overall.
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Following the race, Clëo revealed to her MRT team that she was very surprised when the dog suddenly appeared in front of her in the dark close to Auchope Cairn on Auchope Rigg, on the border of England and Scotland.
She said: “I couldn’t believe that I was seeing a dog up there on the mountain, but then I realised that it was real. The poor thing was whimpering and crying; it was so cold up there, it must have been freezing.”
The dog was reportedly reunited with its owner after being collected by a local estates team.
Jamie Pattison, team leader for Northumberland National Park MRT, commented on Clëo ’s achievement: “We’re all incredibly proud of Clëo. Not only has she completed a brutal mountain race raising funds for our team, but she did it while upholding the finest traditions of mountain rescue.
"Putting others before herself is what we stand for.”
There are a number of different races in the Montane Winter Spine series, including the full 268-mile race, won this year by Kim Collison, which is widely regarded as Britain's most brutal endurance rac, as well as the Challenger North, Challenger South, MRT Challenger North, MRT Challenger South and Spine Sprint.
