“I think if you’re good enough to be there, it doesn’t matter whether you are in your sixties or female. The good thing about fell running is that everyone stands on the start line and does the same thing in the same conditions on that day.”

But it wasn’t always so. Growing up in Greece, Helene describes an environment where women weren’t allowed to do anything that involved sweating, let alone stand on the same start line as men and embark on an endurance test in which being aggressive and competitive were essential to success. She recalls her father being asked how many children he had.

“I have two daughters,” he replied

“No, how many sons?” came the response.

Luckily Helene’s father did not think like the person who asked him that question, and encouraged his daughters to pursue their goals – a progressive outlook that saw Helene study at Durham University, where she discovered fell running.

“That was just about the time that women were being allowed to do long distances. I think the first time I raced Ennerdale was the first time we were allowed to do the long course.”

We take a lot for granted now. And even though of the 232 starters in this year’s Dragon’s Back Race only 31 were women, Helene points out that this is a lot better than just three out of a hundred in 1992. But how can we make it more?

“Perhaps it’s about how we bring women up. Women need to be prepared to have a go at something, even if they feel they’re going to be out of their depth and they’ve no idea what they’re doing. Men are more willing to have a punt, whereas I don’t see any women having a punt, not in a five-day mountain race. It takes a huge amount of confidence to think: ‘Right, I can do this – I can stand on the start line day after day and get through it.’”

From her younger days as a runner I bring Helene forward twenty years. The 1992 Dragon’s Back was “niche even in the niche world of fell running”.

The dropout rate was so high and it was so hard in every respect that it was not repeated until 2012 – by which time Helene had evolved into a 47-year-old mother of two. But that wasn’t going to stop her lining up on the startline once again. What on earth motivated her to go through it a second time?

“Part of it, I wanted to see if I could. And part of me wondered whether it had been luck to do so well first time around. So I wanted to see how fit I could get – to do it to the best of my abilities. I desperately, desperately wanted to finish it second time around. I just wanted to run the best I could run.”

“You make friends with everyone who’s around you, who are suffering just as much as you are”

I am reminded again that value derived is proportionate to uncertainty. If this were easy, everyone would do it. If the outcome were certain, where would the fun be?

From Helene this sounds perhaps like a shift in mindset – a focus more on the personal journey than purely on racing. It’s the same race, but different, and she’s the same woman, but different.

In terms of the race, no longer a pairs event, it is more personal. In 1992 she had won as part of, and because of, the strongest pairing. She and Martin Stone had raced before together in tough events and knew how to help one another through the peak and trough flow of a hard endurance race. How did she manage second time around without a teammate?

“You make friends with everyone who’s around you, who are going to suffer as much as you are, who are running the same pace as you, who are doing exactly the same thing as you. Different reasons maybe motivate them but ultimately, everyone is out there running alongside and not against you.”

This sounds very familiar, as I think back to my own Dragon’s Back.

By the 15th hour of the fifth day, the remaining kilometres are few in comparison to what I have already done. But where as many of those earlier kilometres glided by, I am now wading through treacle. My knees and ankles are so swollen that bending them is difficult, descent is excruciating and crossing styles has become unfathomably challenging. My ego departed a long time ago.