CHALKWELL’S Ernie Jewson has successfully completed Britain’s most gruelling run, the 268-mile Spine Race challenge.

The 58-year-old was left suffering hallucinations due to a lack of sleep and also feared for his life in the freezing conditions.

But the personal trainer dug deep to reach to the finish line.

“I knew that to get through the race I had to be ‘race smart’,” said Jewson “It was about being tough physically as well as mentally and that I must use every skill I possessed to get through. “With my lifelong experience in wilderness trekking and survival skills I knew I had a good chance of getting to the end.

“And thankfully I did.”

Jewson prepared for the race with several trips to sections of the Pennines to get used to the terrain.

He also practised navigation and plot courses on his GPS device.

But it was sleep deprivation which proved to the biggest problem.

“The lack of sleep was a major issue because I found myself staggering around freezing cold, in darkness, literally falling asleep while walking trying to concentrate on navigation,” said Jewson.

“By the fourth day I had only managed to get four-and-a-half hours sleep and was hallucinating.”

The cold weather also caused problems until Jewson somehow adjusted to the freeing conditions.

“I had some of the coldest experiences of my life and felt that it would not be hard to die out there,” said Jewson.

“Eventually I got used to it and felt stronger and more determined as the race progressed.

“I continually said to myself – well it is January, you are in the Pennines, it is supposed to be a race in the worst weather and it is billed as Britain’s most brutal race so what do you expect!”

Jewson had to battle everything the British weather could through at him, winds of more than 70mph, hail, snow, sleet, ice and relentless rain.

But when the winds hit 110mph the race organisers finally decided to hold the competitors at one of the checkpoints until conditions improved.

However, after that he still suffered with wind blindness in his left eye which made it difficult to read maps and his GPS device.

Despite those difficulties though, Jewson finished the race at 5.50am on the seventh day, more than 12 hours inside the race’s cut off time.

But the difficulties were not enough to put him off.

“I’m looking forward to the next challenge and the search is on for something even harder,” Jewson added.