A RECORD was broken in the gruelling Three Peaks Race this weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.

Months of training paid off for Victoria Wilkinson, 38, from Hebden, near Grassington, when she broke the ladies’ record in the “marathon with mountains” across Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough in North Yorkshire.

The North Yorkshire runner knocked five minutes, 24 seconds off the time set by Anna Pichrtova, from the Czech Republic, when the Three Peaks hosted the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships in 2008. Ms Wilkinson won a £500 bonus prize for her record-breaking win.

The Bingley Harriers' runner finished in 13th place overall in a race won by Murray Strain, 34, from Hunters Bog Trotters in Edinburgh. He set a time of two hours 49 minutes and 38 seconds.

Ms Wilkinson, a remedial and sports massage therapist, added the 2017 title to her wins in 2014 and 2016. She had long-held an ambition to bring the record back to Yorkshire.

She has claimed her success in the year Three Peaks was the selection event for the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships at Gir de Mont, Italy, in August.

She said: “If there was a guarantee of a record you would not need to run.

“A lot can go wrong in a race of this length, so you have to do it stage by stage.”

The race, which has 5,279ft of ascent, is billed as the “Marathon with Mountains” and provides a punishing training schedule across the 23 mile course.

She said: “You have to do it stage by stage.

“I have done different sections six or seven times this year, with different combinations of two hills, one hill, and the flat bits.

"I have done a lot of work on it.”