There are some races where you look at the distance and think, that’s a long way. Then there are races where you look at the distance, the elevation profile and the location, and start wondering whether the organisers have perhaps taken leave of their senses.

The Crazy Mountain 100 in Montana, USA, falls firmly into the latter category.

A 100-mile race through the Crazy Mountains, with around 23,000ft of vertical gain, is not exactly a gentle stroll through the countryside. And for Bournemouth AC’s Patrick Kingston, it was the latest – and arguably toughest – addition to an already rather impressive off-road CV.

Patrick arrived in Montana having already completed nine 100-mile races, successfully getting through six of them. So, while there was naturally plenty of respect for what lay ahead, he knew from experience that 100 miles was a distance he could handle.

The mountains, however, clearly hadn’t read his CV.

Adding to the slightly unnerving nature of the trip was the small matter of being told, on arrival in Montana, that he really ought to acquire some bear spray to carry with him.

Nothing quite says welcome to the race like being advised what to do if you bump into a grizzly.

Patrick duly accepted that this was probably sensible advice and set about preparing for his journey through the Crazy Mountains.

His recent form suggested he was well equipped for the challenge. He had only just come off the back of completing the Verbier Marathon in Switzerland, an alpine trail race featuring around 3,000m of elevation. That followed a string of seriously demanding mountain races.

There was the 90km TOR130 Tot Dret in the Italian mountains, with around 25,000ft of climbing; the 70km La Moins’Hard in Chamonix, which involved a formidable 5,600m of ascent; and the Ultra Trail Vipava Valley in Slovenia – a mere 110km with 4,800m of climbing.

As if that wasn’t enough, Patrick has also twice taken on the Sierra Blanca “Destroyer” in Marbella, covering 43.2km and 2,800m of ascent, while the Nivolet-Rivard 55k in the French Alps added another 2,860m to the climbing tally.

So Patrick wasn’t exactly arriving in Montana without mountain-running experience.

But knowing you can run 100 miles and actually running 100 miles through the Crazy Mountains are two rather different things.

Over the course of the next day and a bit, Patrick steadily worked his way through the course, dealing with the distance, the climbing and whatever else the Montana wilderness decided to throw at him.

And this time there was no DNF.

After 1 day, 8 hours and 48 minutes, Patrick finally reached the finish line, completing the Crazy Mountain 100 and adding another hundred-miler to the completed column.

More importantly, he finished in a very respectable 71st place overall.

With a substantial number of runners failing to make it all the way to the finish, simply completing the course was an achievement in itself. To come home inside the top 100 makes the result even more impressive.

At the sharp end, Pete Behrends was the only runner to break the 24-hour barrier, winning the race in 22:51. Adam Campbell finished second in 1:01:37, with Nick Kuneman taking third in 1:02:07, just four minutes ahead of fourth-placed Chase Dupont.

The women’s race was led by Blair Speed, who clearly wasn’t planning on hanging around. She finished 12th overall and first woman in 1:04:25. Annie Hughes and Kirstin Moehi crossed the line together in 1:04:55 to take second and third female places, with Sylvia Greer following in 1:05:12.

But for Bournemouth AC, the result that mattered was further down the finishing order.

Patrick Kingston had gone to Montana with nine previous 100-mile attempts behind him and six successful finishes.

He left with number seven.

Another 100 miles ticked off, another set of mountains conquered and, presumably, another good story to tell about why carrying bear spray while running 100 miles is perfectly normal.

Although after 23,000ft of climbing, the bears may have been the least of his worries.