Bob Graham Round\nattempt by Chris Lloyd on 24 June\n2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nfirst heard of the Bob Graham Round in 1981 after a successful attempt by a Gorphwysfa\nclub member, John Middleton. It also\ncame to my attention in the following year when his brother Andy managed a\nsuccessful attempt. My only experience\nof fell running at the time was the mountaineers\u2019 class of the Welsh 1000 Metre\nPeaks Race and the Snowdon Race, both of which I had entered most years from a\nrelatively young age. I remember Andy\nstating that the Bob Graham Round was roughly equivalent to doing the Welsh\n1000 metres three times non-stop. Having\njust completed the 1000 metres and not feeling at my best, at that time the chance\nof completing the Bob Graham seemed well beyond my capabilities. This remained\nthe case for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\n1993 I moved to Wigan with my partner (and\nwife to be) Tash and we joined a small running club called Newburgh Nomads. Newburgh Nomads has approximately twenty\nmembers, all of whom are keen fell runners. \nAfter this I started to enter some races in the Lake District, North\nWales and the Pennines and was soon to find\nthat I got a lot of enjoyment out of fell running, despite it being a sport at\nwhich I did not excel; I always finish way down the field in a race. A few of the Newburgh Nomads runners had\ncompleted BG rounds in the 1990s and there was occasional talk about it in the\npub after a Tuesday night club run, but there was still no urge to attempt it\nmyself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nchanged in 2005 when we were accepted into the Achille Ratti Climbing Club. Achille Ratti is a climbing club based in the\nNorth West\nwhich is intended primarily for Catholic mountaineers. With Tash being a Catholic we were accepted\ninto the club immediately on application and avoided the waiting period that\nnon catholic applicants often have to endure. \nAs well as being a climbing club, Achille Ratti has a strong fell\nrunning section and its members have a long tradition of completing the Bob\nGraham Round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Up\nuntil joining Achille Ratti my experience of the Lake\n District was limited to the occasional fell race and the\noccasional camping weekend with friends, despite having lived only 75 minutes\ndrive from Ambleside for twelve years prior to this. Once we had joined Achille Ratti this was to\nchange; we now regularly visit their hut at Langdale where Tash, Emma, Jack and\nI can stay in the comfortable family quarters for \u00a313 pounds a night \u2013 cheaper\nthan camping!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwas whilst on an Achille Ratti meet in May 2005 that the idea of doing the Bob\nGraham Round first came to my mind. The\nmeet in question was their annual \u2018long walk\u2019 which involved a day of\napproximately 35 miles, with 12000ft of ascent, starting and finishing at\nLangdale. I ran\/walked around this with\na group of others and we completed in just over nine hours. During this walk I was given accounts of\nvarious people who had completed the BG and started to wonder whether it was\nwithin my capabilities after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By\nNovember 2005 the idea of attempting the BG was firmly set in my mind and it was\nthen that I first suggested it to Tash. \nWithout her support it would\nhave been impossible because there was no doubt that she, who is also a keen\nfell runner, would have to sacrifice some of her time on the hills in order for\nme to train the amount that would be necessary. \nFortunately Tash agreed for me to have a go and just before Christmas\nthe provisional date of 24 June was set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\nfellow Newburgh Nomads member Wally Coppelov had also been thinking about doing\nthe Round for some time and once he heard that I was going for it he decided\nthat he would as well. This brought some\nproblems; with Newburgh Nomads being a small club it was unlikely that we would\nbe able to find enough people to help us both from within the club. The Round is done in five sections and it is\nnormal to have at least two helpers on each section, one being a navigator and\nthe other being a water, food and clothes carrier. My only hope was that some friends\/contacts\nthat I had outside the club would be able to help me, thereby leaving most of\nthe Newburgh people to help Wally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Training\nstarted in earnest in January and my first run was a trip round the Kentmere\nHorseshoe with Tash and Dave Reynolds (a friend from Newburgh). \nThis run did nothing for my confidence whatsoever. I was recovering from an upset stomach and\nfelt hopeless as I watched Tash and Dave run off into the distance. Following that fairly regular trips were made\nto the Lake District either on my own or with\nanyone else who I could drag along and over the next few months my fitness\nseemed to improve. Long runs included\nthe Wuthering Hike in March \u2013 a 31 mile run in Yorkshire\nwhich Wally and I finished in 5hrs and 15 minutes. The 2006 Achille Ratti long walk was based at\nthe Bethesda hut and involved doing the welsh 15 3000ers starting and finishing\nat Bethesda \u2013 a trip of approximately 40 miles with 15000ft of ascent. Finally, five weeks before the planned big\nday, Wally and I did the Old County Tops fell race. This event is organised by Achille Ratti and\ngoes over Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and Coniston\nOld Man, with the start and finish being at Langdale \u2013 a total distance of 37\nmiles with 10000ft of ascent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately\nas the time got closer I picked up a couple of niggling injuries and was unable\nto run for a couple of weeks at the end of May and early June \u2013 a time that I\nthought it was pretty important to run in order to maintain the level of\nfitness that I had gained. This did\nnothing to inspire my confidence. \nHowever a couple of weeks rest seemed to do the trick and I was soon\nfully recovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\ntime grew closer we confirmed the date of 24 June with a midnight start and\nWally and I set about organising support\nteams. Pretty much as we had planned,\nWally managed to find his helpers mainly from within Newburgh Nomads and most\nof my helpers came from contacts I had outside the club. A bit of a problem arose four days before the\nstart when Phil Hodgson, who had offered to do leg 1 with me, phoned up to say\nhe was ill. Fortunately others were\nflexible and everything came together in the end. I ended up with a group of very able people\nhelping me, including some \u2018superstars\u2019 from the fell running world who I had\ngot to know through the Saab Salomon adventure race team that is managed by my\nbrother Tim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\ngot a schedule together which, if we managed to keep to, would involve\ncompleting the round in 23 hrs 33 mins, thereby giving us half an hour\nbreathing space for any mishaps. The\nRound is completed in five sections and it is usual to have a support team with food and drink at each of the four\nroad crossings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My\nconfidence was boosted slightly when a fellow Achille Ratti member Martin Kirkman\ncompleted the round in 24 hrs 56 mins one week before I was due to go, though\nhe did have perfect conditions \u2013 clear but slightly overcast. Unfortunately any increase in confidence that\nI gained from this was soon to be lost when the weather took a turn for the\nworse during the following week. The\nthought of starting off in bad weather did not appeal. However, by Thursday 22nd<\/sup> June the\nforecast for the weekend was slightly more promising \u2013 light showers – so\neverything looked to be on again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\ntook the Friday off work to prepare and Tash and I spent most of the day\nsorting food and gear and packing it into the car. By half past three we were ready to collect\nthe children from school and the journey up to the Achille Ratti hut at\nLangdale began. On arrival we settled in,\nmade some tea and I tried to get some sleep. \nThis was clearly not going to happen, so I soon gave up trying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My\ndad (Harvey) and Frances Richardson\narrived some time during the evening which was lucky since they had the torches\nthat I planned to use on leg 1. Harvey\nand Frances had offered to help Tash with the road crossings and very importantly\nhad agreed to look after Emma and Jack during leg 4 so that Tash could come\nalong as my support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At\n10.30 pm Harvey gave me a lift down the road to\nChapel Stile where the Newburgh gang were\nstaying and Alex Miller gave me a\nlift to Keswick. We arrived there at\n11.30 pm and met up with Wally and Dave Reynolds, who was to be Wally\u2019s helper\nfor the first leg. Soon Jim Davies, who\nwas to be my helper, arrived having left his car at Threlkeld and run to\nKeswick. We chatted, changed, sorted out\nsome torches and eventually made our way to the Moot Hall. The nerves were beginning to tell by that\nstage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At\nmidnight we set off through Keswick, through Fitz Park\nand onto the main tourist path up Skiddaw. \nIt was a nice clear evening and the forecast for the following day was\nreasonable so spirits were quite high. Once\npast the street lights torches went on \u2013 we were fortunate enough to have some\ngood bright torches which my brother had loaned to us. Because of the weight of the batteries these\nwere carried by Dave and Jim. Wally and\nI had lighter head torches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nhad planned to stay together for much of leg 1 and Jim, being a far better\nrunner than the rest of us and with local knowledge of the fells, took the lead\nfor most of the leg. We arrived at the\nsummit of Skiddaw 81 minutes after leaving Keswick, which was 4 minutes ahead\nof our schedule. The run off Skiddaw\nwent OK, though we did not find the quad bike track which Dave had checked up\non sometime before. We still hit the\nmain path at the bottom at the correct place and were happy that the chosen\ndescent route had not cost us any time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ntrack was crossed and we headed off up Great Calva, the summit of which was\nreached 47 minutes after Skiddaw, once again 4 minutes faster than the scheduled\ntime. The descent off Great Calva can\nbe a nightmare, especially in the dark, as it is easy to get caught up in very\nthick heather. However, Jim chose a route\nwhich was more runable than I expected, and involved only a short stretch of\nheather bashing at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim\nand I pulled slightly ahead of Wally and Dave on the ascent up Blencathra,\narriving there at 03:17 hrs, still well ahead of our Schedule. The descent of Blencathra is down the Halls\nFell ridge. The upper section of this is\nquite rocky and some care is required, especially in the dark. I followed Jim who had the brighter torch and\nthe descent seemed to go fairly well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsupport team of Brian Kennedy and Judith\n Reynolds was waiting at the planned spot in Threlkeld, as was\nBen Bardsley who was to accompany me on the next leg. Food included some egg sandwiches and fruit\ncake which was fine, though I was a bit jealous when I saw Wally getting stuck\ninto a rather large bowl of porridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ben\nwas loaded up with food and drink and we set off at 03:57 hrs. Ben, as with Jim, is one of the best fell\nrunners in the country and has local knowledge of the fells. The climb up Clough Head was taken at a\nsteady pace and we soon found that Wally and his helpers were gaining a bit on\nus \u2013 only being about one hundred metres behind at the summit. We\nmade the summit in 55 minutes from Threlkeld, once again several minutes ahead\nof the planned schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nnext section of leg 2 involves following a well defined footpath over several\ntops and by now it was light. These tops\ninclude Great Dodd, Watson Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise, Whiteside and Helvellyn\nLow Man. Helvellyn was reached at 06:24 hrs, 24\nminutes ahead of the planned time. The\nweather was starting to turn by this stage \u2013 we were in thick mist and it was\ndrizzling. Because of the poor\nvisibility we lost all contact with Wally and the others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nethermost\nPike and Dollywagon Pike were found without any problems. I was getting a bit worried by this stage\nbecause I had suggested that my Dunmail support\nteam (Tash, Harvey and Frances) leave the hut at Langdale by seven thirty in\norder to get to Dunmail by about 08:00 hrs. \nAt the pace I was going I was likely to get to Dunmail pretty close to eight\nand to get there before them would have been a disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nleg was completed by ascents of Fairfield and Seat Sandal and my worries were calmed\nsomewhat with my first sight of the car when I ran over the end of Seat Sandal\nand looked down to the road just before eight o\u2019clock in the morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leg\n2\/3 changeover is at Dunmail Raise, where we arrived at 08:05 hrs. It turned out that it was quite a close thing. Tash, Harvey and Frances had only been there\nfor about 10 minutes. The porridge that\nI had planned was not ready and I ended up drinking oats that were floating in\nmilk. Half way through I dropped this\nand it went all over Ben and the clean socks that he was putting on me. The kettle hadn\u2019t boiled so there was no hot\ntea and the bacon was not cooked. Eventually\nI was given a bacon roll which when I was planning my food seemed to be a\nreally good idea. Unfortunately it\ndidn\u2019t quite turn out that way. I took\none bite of the bacon roll I was given and instantly regretted it. The bite I took and a fair amount of the\nundercooked porridge that I had just eaten were soon to reappear. My stomach had been feeling a bit dodgy\nduring the last leg and this didn\u2019t do much to help things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon\nafter this I managed to compose myself and set off on leg 3 with Alan Kenny and\nHelene Diamantides. Alan is an experienced fell runner who I met\nthrough the Achille Ratti. Helene is one\nof the best female fell runners in the country, who over the years has excelled\nat endurance events. She is now married\nto Jonathon Whitaker, a friend of mine from university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nweather for the first section of leg 3 was reasonable and we made steady\nprogress up Steel Fell, which is a very steep, but not too long, climb. The summit was reached 27 minutes after\nleaving Dunmail and we continued onto Calf Crag. By the time we reached Calf Crag (09:05 hrs) we\nwere back in the mist and we really started to appreciate Alan\u2019s knowledge of\nthese hills. Sergeant Man was found\nthanks to a very brief clearing in the mist and we then continued on the\nrelatively easy section over High Raise, Thunacar Knott, Harrison Stickle and\nPike of Stickle. By now the weather had\ndeteriorated some more; we were in thick mist and it was raining quite heavily. The section between Pike of Stickle and\nRossett Crag is not one that I enjoy in good weather, so I was not looking\nforward to it under these conditions. \nAlan took us along a route that was slightly different to the one I had\nused when training. Alan\u2019s route\ninvolved losing less height and seemed far less painful. Rossett Crag was reached at 11:02 hrs, 42\nminutes ahead of the scheduled time. \nHaving completed that section 4 minutes quicker than was scheduled, I\nwas feeling really good and felt that I was going quite well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Arthur\nDaniels, who is the Langdale Achille Ratti Hut warden, had said that he would\nbring us a flask of tea up to Rossett Pike. \nHe wasn\u2019t there when we got to the top; it seemed that he had either\nbeen put off by the weather or we had beaten him there. An arrangement had been made for us to leave a\nplastic bag under a rock if Arthur wasn\u2019t there when we got to the top. Unfortunately Alan had left the plastic bag\nat Dunmail. Anyway we couldn\u2019t hang\naround, so just had to hope that Arthur had been put off by the weather,\notherwise he would have ended up hanging around with us never to appear. Soon after leaving the summit we saw a very\nwet person in the distance heading towards the top. Alan shouted \u201cArthur\u201d and got a response. Arthur had come along despite the conditions\nand his efforts were not wasted. We ran\ndown to him, where he had a flask of tea and a flask of soup. I was still having problems eating and\ncouldn\u2019t face the soup, but quickly gulped down a hot cup of tea, as did the\nothers. After a couple of minutes we\nsaid our thankyous, Arthur gave me a piece of fruit bread and we headed off up\nBowfell. My confidence was increased\neven more when Helene commented on how strong I was climbing. We gained the summit of Bowfell at 11:35 hrs,\nonce again knocking a couple of minutes off the schedule time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsection from Bowfell to Wasdale is probably the roughest bit of the round and it\nis particularly unpleasant when wet. \nThere are a lot of boulders to cross and they become very slippery. Fortunately this terrain doesn\u2019t slow me down\ntoo much and we managed to make reasonable progress over Esk Pike, Great End,\nIll Crag, Broad Crag and onto Scafell Pike,\nwhich we reached at 13:02 hrs. I was a\nbit worried about the next section to Scafell, which involves climbing Broad\nStand. What should be a relatively easy\nscramble becomes far more serious in the wet. \nWally and I had arranged for Alex Miller\nand Rick Ackrill to be there with a rope, but given that we were almost forty\nfive minutes ahead of our schedule time, there was a chance that they hadn\u2019t arrived.\n I was extremely pleased to see Alex\u2019s\nhead leaning over the top when we got down to the col between the\nScafells. I think we caught him a bit by\nsurprise, but fortunately he had managed to set up his belay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nstart of Broad Stand involves squeezing through a narrow gap between two slabs. This is followed by some exposed but easy\nscrambling onto a large ledge which is where we intended to rope up. I opted to climb up the corner, it being the\nleast exposed route and Alan gave me a bit of a lift to reach a large handhold\non the top. However, this wasn\u2019t enough\nas the dripping rock provided no purchase whatsoever for my feet. On Alan\u2019s advice I moved further to the left\nand the climbing proved easier there. \nOnce over the top I scrambled up to where Alex was belayed and untied\nthe rope. Helene was next to tie on and\nwhen she reached the belay we carried on, leaving Alan to catch us up. Since he was the one that knew the way, we\nended up waiting for him and together we made for the summit. We arrived there having lost a few minutes\nbecause of the struggle up Broad Stand, but we were all extremely thankful for\nthe assistance of the rope, without which I don\u2019t think we would have been able\nto continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ndescent from Scafell down to Wasdale passed without incident and on our way\ndown we passed another BGer and his support\nteam, who had set off two hours before me \u2013 it wasn\u2019t looking too good for him. I think he had twisted his knee and was\ndescending very slowly. I later heard\nthat he retired at Wasdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\narrived at Wasdale at 14:16 hrs. \nUnfortunately I didn\u2019t find eating any easier, but did manage to get\nthrough a reasonable amount of rice pudding and some fruit salad. I couldn\u2019t face my other planned food which\nwas instant noodles and sandwiches. I\nwas getting worried about whether I was eating enough, the only thing that was\ngoing down whilst I was on the hill was energy gels and ideally these should be\nsupplemented with something more substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After\na short time at Wasdale and forty five minutes ahead of the scheduled time I\nset off with Tash (my wife) and Jonathan Whitaker (Helene\u2019s husband). Jonny was to be the navigator for leg 4 and\nTash was to try and encourage me to eat and drink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yewbarrow,\nwhich is the first hill after Wasdale, is one of the toughest ascents of the Round. I kept up my steady climbing pace and we\nreached the top a couple of minutes quicker than the schedule time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nweather was still bad, with very low visibility and quite heavy rain. I was beginning to find that my descending\nwas being affected by the conditions. \nThe combination of the slippery rocks and the tired legs meant that it\nwould have been very easy to twist an ankle and this would have ended it all. Jonny did a good job of navigating over Red\nPike and Steeple. We missed the best\nline between Steeple and Pillar and had to traverse a few steep scree slopes to\nregain it, losing a bit of time. Another\neight minutes were lost between Pillar and Kirkfell; I was a bit surprised by\nthis because I felt OK. The climb up\nGreat Gable went fine; once again I was feeling a lot happier on the ascents\nthan on the descents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My\nlegs began to tire on the final section of the leg which included Green Gable,\nBrandreth and Grey Knotts and a bit more time was lost on the descent from Grey\nKnots to the top of Honister Pass, where Harvey,\n Frances, Emma\nand Jack were waiting. We got there at\n19:54 hrs, which was 24 minutes ahead of the schedule time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once\nagain I managed to eat some rice pudding and at 20:00 hrs I set off with Dave\nReynolds and Andy Quickfall, both from Newburgh Nomads. By now I was fairly confident that I would\nfinish within the 24 hours and there was even the possibility of a 23 hour\nfinish, since the schedule time for the final leg is 3 hours. However, my legs were suffering and I think\nthe difficulties that I had been having with eating were beginning to\ntell. We got up Dalehead in thirty six\nminutes, three minutes slower than Schedule. \nI was slow on the rocky descent off Dalehead and hence lost more time on\nthe way to the penultimate hill – Hindscarth. \nOn the way up Robinson (hill number 42) Andy decided to take a short cut\nwhich involved cutting the corner, making the climb shorter but steewer. About half way up this I wished that we had\nstuck to the path because the climb seemed never ending. I almost got depressed when I looked up after\nwe had been going for what seemed like ages and saw that the top still seemed\nto be miles away. We reached the final\nsummit at 21:35 hrs, with this last uphill\nsection having taken 10 minutes longer than it should have. This was more time than I had lost on any of\nthe other climbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ndescent off Robinson was painful. By now\nmy feet and knees were very sore and progress was slow. This was really brought home to me when I was\nstruggling to keep up with Dave and Andy whilst they were walking and I was\ndoing what I thought was running. We\neventually reached the road, where Harvey, Frances, Tash, Helene, Jonny and the Newburgh crowd were waiting. I changed shoes and socks and attempted to\nrun along the final road section with Debbie Campbell. On any\nslight incline the run was immediately changed to a walk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually\nwe arrived at Portinscale from where there is only a short flat section back to\nthe centre of Keswick and the Moot Hall. \nDave came to meet us, having checked out the route. We hit the main road in Keswick where we were\nmet by Tash, Emma and Jack. Emma and\nJack were waving sparklers in the air \u2013 it almost seemed like a party. My legs seemed to have made a bit of a\nrecovery by this point and I was running reasonably well. Tash and the kids started running with me and\nall I could hear was Emma and Jack complaining that they couldn\u2019t keep up. That wasn\u2019t enough to stop me and before I\nknew it I had touched the Moot Hall. I\nstopped my watch at 23 hrs 30 minutes and 36 seconds \u2013 what a long day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nhadn\u2019t seen Wally since Dunmail and I had been told that he was an hour behind\nme at Wasdale. All I could do now was\nhope that he would also make it. I sent\nDave back up the road to offer him some more encouragement since we all felt\nthat if he was going to make it he was going to be pretty close. Some time later I heard some noise down the\nroad and saw a group of runners coming towards the Moot Hall. It was Wally and his support\nteam and he touched the Hall at 23 hrs 50 minutes \u2013 he had got round with 10\nminutes to spare. That was thanks mainly\nto a very strong last leg; where I had faded badly he had managed to find some\nreserves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nwas a large amount of cheering and congratulating followed by some photographs\nand that was the end to a very successful and enjoyable day in the Lakeland fells. Achille Ratti tradition is to go to the New\nDungeon Ghyll after a successful BG attempt. I couldn\u2019t face this and headed\nstraight to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nBob Graham Round is an amazing day out and one that I will never forget. I\nwould recommend it to anyone who enjoys running and long days out in the\nhills. There is no doubt that I\nsucceeded thanks to an excellent support\nteam, all of whom I cannot thank enough. I am now looking forward to helping Tash and\nDave Reynolds with their attempts sometime next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher\nLloyd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"