It’s that time of year again when excitement is building as participants of this year’s Spine Race descend upon the Pennine Way and gather to register for their respective races. There are seven race this year. The Full Spine Race, the Sprint South, Challenger South, Challenger South MRT, Challenger North, Challenger North MRT and North Sprint.

The Pain Cave has been steadily evolving since it’s concept 18 months ago and it’s by no means been an easy journey to date. I’m sure there will be plenty more bumps along the road but now I feel as of today we are officially announcing ourselves on the scene with the new website launch and a variety of talented and determined individuals racing in the different distances in one of my favourite races, ‘Britains Most Brutal’ Montane Spine Race.

The Pain Cave developed from the love of challenging myself to run in some of the most demanding environments on the planet with Beyond the Ultimate’s Race Series, pushing boundaries as an inexperienced runner to see just what I was capable of. I realised that to race in all these different places you needed a lot of different headwear and that some products were better than others. It then became a labour of love. I knew what I wanted but figuring out the processes and making it happen was harder than I could ever have imagined. Admittedly I haven’t had a manufacturing or business background prior to this so there has been a lot of lessons learnt and a lot of sleepless nights.

Fast forward to today, Saturday 10^th January 2026 and the start of the races in this year’s Montane Spine series. I am very proud to have a variety of athletes and ambassadors representing the brand at this race who I think epitomise the Pain Cave ethos.

Head along to the new website to see the range of headwear and some of the athletes and ambassadors racing in this year’s event and a little more about them.

There’s the saying ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. It did start one day though and this is just the beginning.

Jon Shield
Founder