CUMBRIAN firefighter Ricky Lightfoot is returning to the 2016 Three Peaks Race with the aim of making it three wins in succession and possibly beating a 20-year-old record.

If conditions in the Yorkshire Dales are perfect and Lightfoot is at the top of his form, he has the chance to claim the £500 bonus prize on offer for the fell runner who finishes in under 2hrs 46mins 3secs.

The Salomon International Team member, who lives at Maryport, last year came the closest anyone has been to Bingley Harriers’ Andy Peace’s 1996 record with 2hrs 51mins 42secs – knocking 1min 34secs off his 2014 time.

In 2015 there had been heavy overnight rain and conditions were far from ideal for the 23-mile route, which takes competitors over Penyghent, Whernside and Ingleborough on an event billed as “the marathon with mountains”.

But Lightfoot knows that he faces tough competition. Salomon teammate Tom Owens, who won the event in 2011 in 2hrs 53mins 34secs, and Jethro Lennox, from Shettlestone Harriers, who set 2hrs 53mins 39secs to win in 2008, are among his rivals.

Inov 8, the manufacturer of fell and trail running shoes, has joined Three Peaks’ sponsors Pete Bland Sports and Hanson UK, part of the Heidelberg Cement Group, for the 62nd race. James McKay, Inov 8’s global product director, will be among runners from as far away as Nepal, United States and Switzerland.

A £500 record bonus prize is also on offer to the female runner who can beat 3hrs 14mins 43secs set by Czech Republic runner Anna Pichrtova when the Three Peaks hosted the World Mountain Running Challenge in 2008.

On paper, Mira Rai, 27, who is running for the first time in the Three Peaks, has the potential to be a female winner. The Salomon international runner is from Bholpur in Nepal, where she grew up in a remote village, using rough trails to collect food for animals and wood for cooking. The nearest water was 30 minutes downhill.

Rai has an impressive record as first female finisher. These include the 50K race at the Himalayan Outdoor Festival in 2014 and 2015, the 2015 Mont Blanc 80K race where she set a new record, the North Face Kathmandu Ultra in 2015, the Asia Skyrunning Championship in Sai Kung and the Italian Skyrunning Championship in the Dolomites where she completed the 56.9K with 3,700 metres of ascent and decent in 6hrs 36mins 30secs.

UK female runners to watch include Helen Bonsor, of Carnethy Hill Running Club, who was first lady home last year, and the England Fell Running Champion and former Great Britain Champion Victoria Wilkinson, of Bingley Harriers, who was first in 2014, and Shona Robertson, of Shettlestone Harriers, second in 2014.

The race starts at 10.30am on Saturday from Horton-in-Ribblesdale, near Settle.