MEL SYKES – ultrarunning after brain surgery – Runner’s World, June 2025 issue

Talk about bad luck – ultrarunner Mel Sykes managed to get more than 266 miles into the 268-mile Montane Winter Spine race in January when, with the finish line practically in sight, she tripped on a rock and cracked some ribs.

‘I think I just got giddy about getting to the finish, and it was dark, I couldn’t see much with my little head torch, and I just tripped – how bloody annoying!’ she says. But nothing would stop the 42-year-old from Holmfirth from getting through that final stretch. ‘Everything’s knackered by then anyway. I’d already been given codeine earlier because I was having trouble with my shin. The adrenaline is so strong by that point that you have to get to the finish.’

However, looking back further than the 132 hours and 23 minutes it had taken her to travel between Edale and Kirk Yetholm on the Pennine Way (finishing as sixth woman), a few damaged ribs seem barely worth thinking about. Luck had been in short supply since 2023, when Mel was diagnosed with a Chiari malformation, a rare neurological condition that meant the bottom of her brain was pushing through the base of her skull onto her spine.

It was a slow process finding out what the problem was, because she wasn’t in any pain. Her main symptom was double vision, which she put down to deteriorating eyesight. It took her a while to get round to making an optician’s appointment. ‘I probably had about two months of thinking: “That’s a bit weird – why can I see two of everything?” But I didn’t feel unwell, didn’t have any headaches, so I left it a bit longer than I should have,’ she says.

The first doctor she saw in the hospital suspected a stroke, but investigations for that came back clear. The next theory was multiple sclerosis, but an MRI scan showed no lesions on the brain. ‘So they sent me through the tube again, and it was when they did the spinal MRI that they found the Chiari.’

As a matter-of-fact Yorkshirewoman who works as a specialist podiatrist for people with diabetes, she was not inclined to catastrophise about this bad news. ‘I don’t dwell on things. I’ll always try and find a solution, which might be to do with my job. We’ll always try and find solutions for patients and be positive,’ she says. ‘But it’s an ultrarunning thing too, that mindset. You’re problem-solving, thinking, “How do I sort this out?” rather than “Poor me, I’ll just give up.”’

Once the malformation was found, she was fast-tracked to an operation in October 2023 at Leeds General Infirmary. There are various ways of dealing with Chiari, including cauterizing the part of the brain that has dropped down or, as in Mel’s case, cutting away a piece of her skull about the size of a 50-pence piece and removing the top vertebra to relieve the pressure. This counts as good luck – if they had removed the top two vertebrae, which is sometimes necessary, it would have had a much greater effect on her neck stability and returning to running would have been far less likely.

Doctors dealing with her case had not previously been asked about the chances of a Chiari patient getting back to competing in ultra races. The condition tends to be more common in overweight people. ‘The surgeon said: “I literally don’t know, because no one’s ever wanted to do that.” People just want to know if they can go back to doing normal everyday things, not running 100 miles. It’s a bit weird, isn’t it? A very niche sport.”

Mel had done the Montane Summer Spine Challenger South race in 2023, the 108-mile little sister of the full Spine race, and finished first female. In 2024, eight months after her operation, she did it again only 53 minutes slower, coming in as the second woman. “Obviously keeping yourself fit doesn’t stop this sort of stuff from happening, but I’m sure that having been fit before must help you to recover from it. It must do.’

She had been planning to take on the Challenger North race next – the 160 mile version – before building up to the entire Spine, but after her health issue, she decided to go straight to the big one. “The brain thing just came out of nowhere. You have no idea what’s going to pop up, so I thought, “Might as well.”’ She had also volunteered for a week at the 2024 Spine, ‘So I had a fair idea of the kind of state I would be in.’

Appropriately enough for someone who had spent so much time worrying about their brain, she says that she got through the epic race by focusing on the mental side of it. ‘I had always pictured getting to the finish,’ she says. ‘A lot of people who have dropped out of this race have got the experience to do it and the training, but if your head switches off, you’ve had it.’

She also thinks the ultrarunner’s mindset has helped her more generally: ‘It would have been much harder if I was trying to get back into track racing,’ she says. ‘I just love it, and it doesn’t matter how long the race takes me. I never race for a place. I’m just happy and grateful to be out there.’