Amid the razzmatazz of the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Tour de France, one athlete has discreetly set a world record and raised the bar in UK long-distance mountain running.

Nicky Spinks, a cattle farmer from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, achieved the first double of the Ramsay Round, a brutal and technical circuit of the hills and mountains above Fort William.

It was the first double achieved on the route and marks another milestone in Spinks’s impressive career, placing her among the greats of British fell running such as Billy Bland, Joss Naylor and Kenny Stuart.

A single round was first set by the Lochaber athletic club member Charlie Ramsay, from Edinburgh, in 1978. Spinks completed that and then turned around to retrace her steps, doing the “double Ramsay” and covering 116 miles (187km).

Speaking to the Guardian as she reversed a cattle trailer at a market in Holmfirth, Spinks said it was one of the hardest challenges she had completed.

“It was incredibly tough. The terrain was really rough and there were hardly any paths and I really couldn’t run that fast because of the heat. I’m not very fast anyway but at times I was going very slowly,” she said.

Spinks, 51, completed the run in 55 hours and 56 minutes on Monday 2 July, having set out at midnight on Friday.

After a good start and plenty of rice pudding and fruit salad, Spinks said she became “slightly worried” when her knees began to ache. She had hoped to complete the run in 48 hours and despite making up time on different sections was unable to achieve the target.

“After starting out in the pitch black I realised that I wasn’t going to easily make time on the schedule. This was slightly worrying especially as both muscles above my knees were aching in a funny sort of way,” she said.

“I hoped I wasn’t still tired from the Great Lakes race two weeks before. I tried massaging them as I climbed but that made no difference. It wasn’t a pleasant temperature as it was sort of warm and cold at the same time. I was hot but my legs felt cold and clammy.”

Six hours later, having dealt with cramp, dehydration, midges and the heat, Spinks said she was back on track and the rest of the run went well. “Despite everything, I still found it very enjoyable. It was an excuse to be amongst those Scottish hills and mountains that I have always loved.”

Ramsay, Naylor and Spinks’s dog, Wisp, were at the finish to congratulate her. Wisp ran with her for two legs of the course, including one nine-hour stint, along with 18 supporters who carried her rations and clothes. During the run Spinks took seven breaks of no more than a few minutes. She celebrated with a double full English breakfast.

Earlier this year, Spinks was awarded the British Empire Medal for her services to sport and charity. Spinks began running competitively in 2001 in a four-mile fell race. She had a hysterectomy in 2012 and has also had breast cancer.

In 2011, she set a new women’s record of 64 Lakeland peaks climbed in 24 hours. Two years ago, she completed a 132-mile fell run across the Lake District’s highest peaks in less than 48 hours.