A grand day out

Here is the account of my attempt at the Bob Graham Round, which I ran on 30 / 31 August.

A small group gathered at the Moot Hall just before 8pm on Friday comprising me, leg 1 support runners Dave Deason, Andrew Smillie, Paul Modley and Rob Bartlett, roadies Tim Smith, Joel Knight, Lauren Evans and Edwin Tate (also a later runner), together with Stu (leg 4 man) and Adele Hurst, Simon Noble, Martin Pryce, Dave Barnes and perhaps one or two others I've forgotten in the blur these things become (in which case apologies). Minutes ticked by, Dave scoffed an ice cream, watches were synced, the last two minutes crawled, and then we were off.

The weather had not been as rainy as predicted in Keswick that afternoon but there'd obviously been a fair bit higher up together with cloud cover as the leg was quite wet all round. Half way up Skidaw we were clagged in to about 200 metres, with the wind up and the rain moderate. We expected this and nothing worse happened weather wise for the whole Round in spite of a few showers on legs 3 and 4. I've never done leg 1 in the dark but it passed without incident and within schedule until a slippery descent off Halls Fell Ridge from Blencathra. We'd had a great line (thanks Andrew) off Great Calva, missing the heather which is so high at this time of year and an easy though deep crossing of the River Caldew. We got into Threlkeld in reasonable time and I felt fresh. I took 10 minutes for the stop, clawing back a bit of time to allow for a steady climb up Clough Head. The stars were out in force and it looked like a great night to be out.

This first hill on leg 2 has floored me before on tired legs but having taken leg 1 quite easy I had no issues this time and was moving well by the top. Rob Hampshire and Rae Dalziel were supporting on this leg and they kept me fed and watered well, encouraged and cajoled, and on we went. Rob was lagging a bit (unknown to him he had sciatica coming on which was diagnosed 2 days later) so at the top of Clough Head I walked off briskly while Rae waited and they jogged back to me by the time we were veering left to Great Dodd. Rob dodged the tops of the Dodds and took the main path and the visibility was good enough to stay in touch over several hundred metres so there was no problems with this.

Then we hit a major problem. Rae and I dropped slightly too far left off Stybarrow, realised our mistake, went right, missed the path we needed, got disorientated and lost major time finding the way to Raise. We lost confidence because of that and faffed around getting to White Side, losing more time. We then dropped a few minutes on other peaks of the leg although it went without incident otherwise. My knee had developed a bad pain making steep descent difficult. Meanwhile, we'd parted company with Rob when he skirted round Stybarrow Dodd. After attempts to find us, phone us, and contact the roadies, he headed for Dunmail Raise as of course he had to do. Rae and I got into Dunmail 1:10 down on the 23:30 schedule I'd set for those two legs.

These things are part of the variables of such a challenge but it meant a great deal of work to be done now. Again I took just 10 minutes rest before heading out again. On the positive side, I was hugely grateful to the support so far, still felt strong, I was pampered well with noodles and new socks, and then cast into the arms of the next team for leg 3. Also a couple of pain killers put paid to my knee problem which then didn't return all day thankfully.

Steve Jeffs, John Leech, Adrian Leigh and Damian Murphy stepped it out up Steel Fell, which although very steep is also fairly short and certainly the easiest post-road-stop climb on the Round. We hit the ridge well and got going, running as often as possible, keeping the pace up. The boys were excellent with encouragement and light hearted bullying to keep me going, though I was feeling fine I was beginning to need a bit of pushing and they were up for that! Calf Crag was bagged, no issues finding Sergeant Man, High Raise and the Langdale Pikes came and went fine.

Somewhere around the approach to Rosset Pike is the approximate half way point of the Round in terms of miles and time, thus to be there within 12 hours is highly desirable! I was at Pike o' Stickle at 08:10 and Rosset Pike at 08:53: slower than 12 hours. Time had to be made up somewhere. Everyone says legs 4 and 5 have slack and time can be recovered there but that depends on your legs being good enough and you won't know that until you're there. So we cracked on, keeping the speed as good as possible.

Bowfell is a big scalp but was bagged without much trouble. The boulder strewn route from there to Scafell Pike was also ok, although the rocks were more slippery than I'd have wanted in order to make up some time skipping not stepping over them. I was starting to do maths here and there from this point. To leave Wasdale by 12 would be great, giving me 5 hours for leg 4 and 3 hours for leg 5. Later than that would give progressively more likelihood of slipping beyond recovery outside the 24 hours. We topped out on Scafell Pike at 11:21. I had Scafell to do and then the decent to Wasdale. I knew the decent was half an hour and even without looking at my schedule I knew getting to Scafell would be around 30-40 minutes. Time was slipping away.

We took the Lords Rake and West Wall Traverse route to Scafell and that went well: I prefer this to the other alternatives (we were not doing Broad Stand) as once you pop up out of the traverse you're almost at the summit, which we reached at 12:00 exactly. I would rather have been in Wasdale at this point! We flew off down the zig zag rocky path, over the grassy section, skiied the scree slope, and while others picked stones from their shoes I hot stepped it down the steep grass and bracken slope and along the final path into Wasdale car park at 12:30.

Five minutes later I left with clean socks, noodles inside me, and a fresh team. The leg 3 boys had done well and leg 4 were just as good: Stuart Hurst, Simon Douglas and Mike McKenna. The encouragement was now becoming more urgent, some of it polite, some of it not so much (match the style to the runner....) but all of it well meaning and with the sole focus of getting me round in time. Food and drink were forced down, big hills slowly tamed, runnable tracks welcomed. I moved as best I could.

Yewbarrow was bagged ahead of schedule. On Red Pike I had one of my stumbling and falling asleep on my feet moments and lost a bit of that time again. Then the second navigational issue occurred: we contoured across towards Steeple and hit the broken wall well enough, but the clag was down and we wandered about, quickly, finding the right line across the short open section to the out-and-back to Steeple. Like the leg 2 issue, this all sounds so flabby after the event. I've run leg 2 lots of times in 4 and a bit hours. I've been across to Steeple before and not had the misfortune for the cloud to be down and a moment's hesitation to creep in. Ho hum. Stu soon found it ok but we had lost maybe 4 or 5 minutes.

The cloud lifted. Pillar and Kirk Fell came and went without incident, the trods between them and again on to Great Gable providing a welcome opportunity for good running and we belted over these as well as my tired self could manage, which was actually very well. Great Gable is always a beast with tired legs and so it proved. I actually stopped for a rest on the boulder climb, but only for 6 seconds (I counted them) before succumbing to Stuart's eloquent urging of "come ON Chris, get on with it!!!" from above. I bagged it, rock hopped to Green Gable, and ran as fast as I thought I could to Honister with just the last two peaks of the leg on the way. We got into the car park at 17:31. Leg 5 team Phil Wood and Edwin Tate were pawing at the ground. Stuart and Mike also went on with me. I grabbed a banana from Joel and kept going without a break.

People are fond of saying Great Gable is the last big climb on the Round, but Dale Head is the one for me, on it goes with very tired legs doing their best to keep climbing speed up. I paced with a regular tempo as I'd done on Yewbarrow, but whereas I'd gained on that climb I lost 7 minutes on this one. I didn't have 7 minutes to chuck away. I touched the stone pillar and ran straight on over the ridge and across to Hindscarth, only walking on significant uphills, running the rest. By the time I was at the top of Hindscarth I should have been at the top of Robinson.

We still had a race on and it was still just possible to do. Unbeknown to me everyone following the Round with the tracker I was carrying was also rooting for me, and also had faith it was still possible, though difficult. We blasted down the track to the col at the foot of Robinson and I strided as quickly as I could up Robinson, the last peak on the Round. I climbed that well. I was doing maths again: I needed to be on the road section with 50 minutes to go to be in with a chance of getting back in time. That left 22 minutes to get off Robinson and down the farm track. We were running really quickly at this point, Edwin picking the line with confidence and me quite happy with the fast decent. I kept up a good pace along the farm track and then we hit the road. It was possibly still on but there could be no slacking.

I quickly changed from fell to road shoes, calculating the 30 seconds (quick-draw laces!) was worth it for the ability to run better. I asked Phil to keep us at a steady pace which I hoped would get us in on time. I had to walk a couple of brief sections but I absolutely could not run these. Otherwise I ran hard. Eventually Portinscale appeared and we ran hard, all the way along the interminable path to Keswick. We reached the road in Keswick, rounded the corner and after about 30 metres 8 o'clock appeared on my watch. I could see the Moot Hall ahead. Another couple of minutes was all I needed but it wasn't mine. Given the 24 hours was up, I treated myself to a walk for the short distance to the roundabout before running the last 100 metres up to the Moot Hall to the welcome awaiting me. Leg 5 had taken 2:33, pretty quick against my 2:56 scheduled time. I touched the Moot Hall door 24:04 after leaving it. Done. Infuriatingly just outside the 24 hour target, but done. A quick call to my wife Vicki (absent with a twisted neck with daughter Faith to keep her company) and then I was virtully asleep!

Obviously getting inside the 24 hour time target was the plan and would have been far better, but I have not felt disappointed. That would take away from the enjoyment of the day, the superb support I had and the achievement of completing the Round. Actually, it isn't strictly a Bob Graham Round completion without being sub-24 hours, but a completion of the route anyhow.

There are a dozen points on the Round where the crucial 4 minutes might have been saved, including the one or two navigational errors, every peak where I dropped minutes, and falling asleep on my feet once or twice. Also in the cool light of day I can question if the schedule was perhaps a bit tight: though of course many complete on a 23-something schedule it doesn't work so well if you have a problem. A 23:59 completion is within the target, but I really should have gone round in 22 - 23 hours; then all the points of the Round where 4 minutes might have been gained would have been irrelevant. I took 24:04 and that's all there is to it!

I do feel very good about my Round though. I had a great day out, my body only suffered in that the inevitable overall tiredness meant big ascents became more difficult (up to and including Yewbarrow fine; Great Gable and Dale Head were hard), I had awesome support partly from my home club Wootton in Northampton and mostly from my adopted Cumbrian club Dallam, and I can honestly say I feel very complete. That will sound odd to many after setting out on a 24 hr challenge and coming in outside the target time and to have done so by just a few minutes, but a Round's a Round even if with my finish time it isn't a Bob Graham Round in the true sense and doesn't qualify me for Bob Graham Club membership. I can live with that.

For now I fancy other challenges but who knows if I'll be back for this one again, it is after all a great route and a great challenge....

Completion?

Completed the Round in 24:04. Happy with that. Obviously 4 minutes under rather than 4 minutes over would have been a tad better, but I had a grand day with fantastic support and feel very good about getting round in 'about' 24 hours.
Full write up to follow.

Road crew change

Please note Vicki and Faith wont be with us so road side phone contact will be Joel, Tim and Edwin

Follow me from your armchair

I will have a tracker for my Round so you can follow my progress. Click this link http://maps.opentracking.co.uk/bg2013.cfm?n=18  and then zoom in as far as it'll go. To update, just refresh the page. The road crossing times should be updated on the link soon.

Tweaks

Slight tweaks have been made to the schedule, team list, etc; nothing major, mostly just ready times, exact change over points and so on. Van is also now booked: a humdrum point but I'd left it late so its reassuring that's sorted. I am also now back up to a full complement of supporters for each leg which is great.

Last few days prep

The last week of proper running was spent on Welsh coast paths and hills; none very impressive by BGR standards but great routes for sure, with spectacular cliffs, undulating rugged and varied paths and even one or two must-walk climbs. The longest run was only about 16 miles but it was all good. I got out nearly every day, in all weathers (ok, all of it good!) and even had a bit of compass work on one claggy day. 

Now, with about 10 days to go I'm taking it easier on a narrow boat holiday, just a few flat towpath runs and some last minute planning.

Speaking of which, there are some team changes. Sadly Dave Deason and Mark Fowler, huge helps with previous training and my first attempt, have had to pull out, but in come Adrian Leigh and John Leech - I'm so grateful for folks stepping in to help; running and especially BG folk are fantastic eh?

Right. Just a bit of food shopping, book the van, and one last look at the maps, and we'll be ready for the off ....

Detailed plans and times for the Round

I have now decided on an 8pm start on Friday 30 August, so as to do legs 1 and 2 in dark and the rest in daylight. The downside is Barney is unable to join us with this timing but I think it's most important to get the dark sections sorted so this will have to be how it is. If anyone wants to double up and do leg 1 with me and Andrew, that would be very welcome. The schedule is a 23.5 hours pace for legs 1 and 2 and then a 23 hour pace for legs 3, 4 and 5, with a view to taking it steady at first.

No rest

.... or at least not yet. Since my earlier BG attempt in June I have been keeping up the training, so when take 2 arrives on 30 August I'm not running entirely on grit.

Although I did some running in July, much of the month was spent on a trip to the Tour de France, first the prep as I adjusted from mostly running to mostly biking, then a week of biking in the Alps with a day of watching the Tour itself in the middle (which didn't arrive until early afternoon so I did get a mountain run in that morning by way of a change). We had a fantastic time, the Tour day being a total carnival and good to see those super human (super clean!) riders I'd been watching on the tele and in some cases for years (Jens Voigt, 36, almost as old as me). The riding itself was also utterly amazing: my first cycling trip to the Alps, so heaving up some of those famous climbs and lots of less famous ones, riding some of the stage we then watched, and at the end of every day, a 13km climb up Alpe d'Huez to round off whatever else we'd done as our accommodation was up the mountain :-/  Stats for the four days: 312km, 8,841m climb.

Back to the hill running, I have upped the miles again and had two more trips up to the Lakes. Last weekend I ran leg 1 and Clough Head and an arc back to Keswick. Irritatingly my shoes / feet gave me trouble, first toes and toenails on hard descents, then blisters no doubt as I compensated, then my quads hurt for days afterwards. A fair run out with a disappointing impact on me I'd say. Last weekend was much better: a full leg 3 and 4 double, run roughly at pace in 10:45 with lunch stop of 10 mins or so, plus a few photo / phone call / faff stops I won't indulge in on the day. I ran this with some folk from the FRA forums who just happened to be doing this route on the day, and the nav man certainly knew his tussocks. I have a good new line for Sargeant Man and also did the West Wall Traverse from Lords Rake to Scafell which I have not done before but will now use on the day. Although tired, as is to be expected, I also had no utter collapse on any of the hills which have on occasion been a slight nemesis (Scafell, Yewbarrow, Great Gable). Altogether a very encouraging recce.

I have a week on the Welsh coast approaching now, which should give plenty of training opportunity and some welcome variety.

Team and schedule for 30 Aug

I have updated the team and schedule for 30 August hopefully taking into account eveyone's preferences for legs they are able to help with - let me know if you have a difficulty with your leg / timing. Once again, a massive thank you for all who have said they can support and also those who did so on my first attempt and / or have helped with training.

The start time and exact schedule I am still thinking about, bearing in mind the amount of darkness and other things. My aim this time with the schedule is roughly leg 1 4 hours, leg 2 4.5 hours, leg 3 6 hours, leg 4 5 hours and leg 5 3 hours. I will try to stick to a modest schdule for the first 2 legs in particular.

Bother

In both senses of the word! I did not afterall get round on my first go, the chief culprit I think being the weather conditions rather than my condition. It's hard to say whether my fitness was enough for the task, as all I can really say is it wasn't up to the task in the weather we had. I had a bit of knee trouble, felt knackered to the point of stopping on certain climbs (Clough Head, Scafell, Yewbarrow), but on the other hand I was still running on leg 4 ok through to Honister where I stopped.
The weather was quite a story. We set off from Keswick in shorts and sunnies and had no trouble at all, just a hint of cool when we came over the top of Blencathra for the descent to Threlkeld. On the climb up Clough Head we still just had a top on each but at the summit I could feel the cold and a hard wind picking up, plus it was 1030 or 11pm so on went the jackets. Then the waterproof trousers. Then the clag came in. We had rain, clag and wind for the rest of the day; the mist gave between 5 and 100 metres visibility which hampered us sometimes, especially around Sargeant Man where we lost around an hour, but it was the wind which really scuppered the Round. It was relentless at 40 - 60 mph, making us stagger and demanding untold amounts of extra effort for the running. Although I'd always thought I'd complete even if over time, you never know what you'll do until you're at that point, and I'd had enough. In fact the wind if anything was getting even stronger and as we came into Honister the rain also lashed down again. It seemed a good choice!
There's always another day eh? We'll see. At the moment I am thinkiing of having another go later this year but need to check the diary.
The last and massively important point to say is the support I had, which was outstanding in every way. The nav was excellent, allowing for the visibility some places, I was fed and watered constantly, encouraged mercilessly, pampered at the roadside and even met in the howling gales at Sticks Pass and Rosset by those who'd walked up from the nearest road with sweet coffee and flapjack: honestly, no one could have more generous and welcome support, thanks so much to you all!

Right, let's get on with it then

I am still planning to set off at 18:00 Friday 21st. There was some thought as to moving it forward a bit but I've decide to stick with the plan, what's a little rain eh?!

If anyone wants to follow my progress I will be carrying a GPS tracker courtesy of the good folk at Open Adventure (thanks James and Lisa) so from the start you’ll be able to see how I’m doing and whether I am on schedule. The link is here: http://maps.opentracking.co.uk/bg2013.cfm?n=5
and you simply refresh the page every now and then; I think it's accurate to within about 10 minutes or so as to where I am

Right, let's get on with it then ...

BG in 1

Beyond the fatigue
curving up into the hills,
in the clag is strength.

BG in 2

Ankle mangling crags
and endless boggy tussocks
enrich the challenge.

BG in 3

Waiting in dark skies,
a thousand miles behind me,
the long fells beckon.

Bring it on!

Well here we are, the blog counter now reads less than 12 days to go, and I am in winding down mode now.
I keep reading the FRA BG forums about other people's Rounds and I'm starting to get twitchy as I want to get on with it. I'm ready. I've run about 1,200 miles in training, as well as biking, hiking, and so on, I've run 7 recces on the route itself, 5 long or super long fell races, 5 further ultra training runs, and even shinned up Table Mountain when visiting my brother and sister in law, all in the cause of getting ready for the year's only race that counts and to be fit enough for it.
I aimed to do one last long run this weekend but an offer of a sailing weekend on a Thames barge came up and that was sufficiently unusual to bring forward my tapering a few days! I am now commited to just some biking and short lazy runs to keep the legs moving over the next two weeks. I'm happy to be in this stage now.
I'm reassured by my last recce over leg 2 and also by the news that Rae and Jarv my leg 2 supporters have checked the route again last night and are confident. Leg 2 is often chosen for the night section, which is what I have opted for, because it is fairly straightforward to nav and a lot is runnable. However I also know people have floundered in poor visibility on this section so I was a little concerned, though I'm now relaxed about it with these recent recces. Leg 1 I'm happy with: two good supporters in Mike and Barney, pleanty of daylight and my legs will be fresh. Leg 3 is of course the make or break leg, the central leg, the longest leg, the highest leg, the first time I'll have run a third consecutive leg. Here I have more good friends: Deasey to nav, the ever strong Stu, and Mark from Northampton in support, so I am positively looking forward to that one. Leg 4 I have run the least but it is an excellent section; I love the part from Yewbarrow to Gable, then after the brief rocky and knackering yomp up Gable its all downhillish to Honister. I have the privilege of Andrew and Paul, courtesy of Stu's arrangements, although I have not yet met either of them - thanks guys! Leg 5; well you can almost smell the finish from Honister, and there are just 3 peaks to go and then a road section 3.5 miles to Portinscale and then the last mile to Keswick (I've measured it!). Edwin from Skipton and Phil from Northampton will join me for this, and if other people's Rounds are anything to go by there may yet be others who join in at this point also.
I don't know how many feet of ascent I have covered in training but it's probably as much as I could have done from a Northamptonshire base without mind-numbing repeated hill reps (I did do some of those). I've done as many recces of the Round as I reasonably could, again given my home base and also the great deal of snow which covered the route for so long (still the odd patch on my last trip on 1 June!!). I've also pushed the boundaries of fairness on the amount of time away from family, balancing training needs with family needs.
So here I am: I'm ready. I'm ready to go tomorrow and 11 and a bit days still to go. Ah well, let's have another beer and think about the plans again!

The Last Blast

Just had a fabulous weekend for my last recce before the Big Day, a run over leg 2 with Jarv, Stu and Deasey as well as Mark on his first trip up to the Lakes for a long while as preparation for helping on leg 3. The weather was fabulous, with just a few gusts of fresh breeze over the Dodds but mostly sun, blue skies with white cloud and perfect views, so we could see the whole, majestic, dauntingly huge Round. This was an excellent opportunity to enjoy this section and try to commit it to memory as best I can before running it at night in three weeks' time. Easier said than done of course. Once it's dark those certain directions become more difficult to pick out .... left-at-the-small-cairn and straight-on-for-a-bit-and-then-bear-sort-of-leftish-when-the-path-gets-a-bit-stonier ... ah well, it'll all come right no doubt! The weekend was also improved no end by fish and chips by the Moot Hall watching someone come in at the end of their Round (in under 20 hours, flippin eck!), a beer or two with the chaps, and then off to The Alhambra to watch Gatsby with Vicki who'd joined me on this trip. So from this point it's all easing off, last minute plans, and waiting :-)

Old County Tops

Never has the phrase 'been there, got the T shirt' come laden with so much meaning! Yesterday saw my first running of the Old County Tops fell race, 37 miles, over 10,000 feet of ascent and, for me and running partner Rae, 11 hours on the fells. The weather was none too kind to us either, with a sodden accumulation turning the entire run into a muddy sponge (except for the treacherously slippery rocks on the Scafell range, that is) and, for the first half, another few thousand gallons dropped on our heads. Oddly, I could already see myself tackling this brute again another day, even as we ran the last few miles back to soup, sarnies, a sit down and of course that hard won T shirt which only finishers are given.
The race links the highest peaks of the old counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, being Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and Coniston Old Man respectively. The route is an excellent one: from the start at the New Dungeon Gyll, up and over to Grasmere, Tongue Gill, Grisedale Tarn, Helvellyn, Wythburn Church, up Wythburn, round High Raise and over to Angle Tarn, on to Scafell Pike, down Rough Crag to Great Moss, over to Mosedale, and down to Cockley Beck, up Grey Friar and on and up to the Old Man, back to the Three Shires Stone on Wrynose Pass, down to Blea Tarn and back to Langdale. I was tired by the time I got to Grasmere!
Rae and I struck a good line most of the way round with only one or two route doubts but no howlers, which was lucky as the rain and clag were down for the whole morning, and parts of the afternoon were also obscured ... getting lost would have been easy. We linked up with my friend Simon for significant stages and he came with an expert guide who'd run this half a dozen times: the route off Scafell down Rough Crag would not have been the same without him for sure! With the conditions, our aim of 10 hours turned into 11 but I was not disappointed, I'm just chuffed we had such a big day out and didn't get timed out at the stingey cut off point at Cockley Beck. Certainly another good training run in the bank.

1000 miles up

I passed the 1000 mile mark for BG training at the weekend somewhere across  Langdale. The second 500 miles of this has taken twelve and a half weeks at an average 40 miles a week, much better than the first 500 which was run at roughly half that average!
Longest run: 61 miles (Fellsman)
Highest milage week: 84 miles
Highest milage month: 240 miles

Dress rehearsal

Well that was revealing: a dozen or more hours in the rain, sleet, wind, gradients and endless mud rock and challenges of legs 3 and 4. Supporting someone else's Round was a privilege and an excellent indication of how I might manage in around six weeks' time. I had answered a call for supporters on the FRA forums for a guy called Andy and said I'd do legs 3 and 4 as I was planning to do a double leg recce this weekend anyway. Andy had a bad time overnight over the Dodds and Helvellyn ridge and he arrived at Dunmail having dropped about two hours over the leg. The central section was steady but we lost a bit of time again and by Wasdale the 24 hour cut off was looking beyond reach. Undaunted, Andy decided to complete the Round anyway, so I joined him again for leg 4 before letting him finish from Honister with others. For myself, I enjoyed the double, had a bad patch of exhaustion on Scafell and Great Gable, but got through still moving well enough. Cold and tired towards the end of leg 3 after a serious battering from the weather, I had seriously considered calling off my own efforts at Wasdale but once Andy decided to carry on I thought I would be letting him down and I'm glad I set off again for leg 4. Lessons to be learned from the day: leg 2 navigation at night can be deceptively tricky and you can lose serious time getting it wrong; you are very likely to have a bad patch, so just get on with it and get over it; and being knackered after two legs on someone else's Round means you may or may not be able to do the whole Round when your time comes ... but there's only one way to find out! Lastly, barring total collapse or injury, I will complete the Round even if the time is under threat.

Alternate

Well this has been the laziest week for a very long time and a sorry excuse for a weekend long run to finish ... week's total 23 miles with a long run of 10 miles! However, BG wisdom courtesy of Barnesy says 'quiet week, busy week' is good for this stage of the game; alternate. So I'm alternating in ernest ... sofa, warmth, TV, glass of shiraz, lazily reading over my BG route notes .....

Fellsman

The longest of my training races for this Summer's exploits, The Fellsman is a 61 mile horseshoe yomp across a mixture of stony Yorkshire paths and trackless boggy tussocks, mostly the latter. I have run this event before but this was my best outing, owing in no small part to the constant well humoured abuse from 5 friends from Dallam club (Stu, Deasey, Barnesy, Jarv and Mike, all helping on my BGR). I also ran much of the race with Simon who I'd run with last year and then bumped into along the route this year, although Edwin, another BGR helper who I saw at the start the night before, I didn't manage to see on the route. Although as usual I felt I'd like to have run more of the night section, overall it was a great race, with fine weather, and I always ran within myself so that I finished feeling fine and ran the 2 mile road section and the cheeky hill at the end into the finish. A PB of 18:35, being 2 hours better than previous efforts was a great reward. If I can keep that pace and always 'have something left' on my BGR I'll be over the moon. Fellsmantastic.

Two months left

After ignoring a cold either side of last weekend it seemed to catch up with me in the form of knackered pins after last weekend's recce: a run which would normally have caused no discernable soreness really tired me. So, some walking only for a few days but then some good runs in the latter part of the week. A weekly total of a mere 36 miles but otherwise all seems well. The Fellsman is next weekend which I'm really looking forward to; having been pulled off the course with all remaining contenders last year owing to conditions I would love to better my previous PB. The other thing to note is there are now exactly two months to go before my BGR, and I'm looking forward to that too!

Recce steady go

Great run out yesterday reccying leg 4, the part of the Round I know the least: I've never stood on some of those tops before. The weather was kind, producing a thaw for most of the snow, sun, excellent visibility and no rain. Parking at Honister, we took the quarry track and then Moses Trod to Wasdale before starting leg 4 itself. Route finding was easy, with just a few patches of deeper snow to negotiate but most of the route was good and runable. We only cut out Great Gable as there was a fair bit of snow blown into the rocks and the going would have been tricky and slow: we decided it was better to run round than risk an ankle mangling. I was pleased also to assess the timing of the leg: a 23 hour schedule allows 5:05 hours and we took around 4:30 with walking for a great deal. Obviously tiredness will take its toll at this stage of the game but still good to see how this leg pans out: it all helps you feel ready for the Big Day. Next training target: The Fellsman, 27 April.

Norfolk hill training

A week of hill training with Norfolk mountain rescue team has put some spring in the legs without a doubt .... well, a week's holiday anyway, which allowed me to put on a few more miles than usual and also run at all sorts of times of the day which is helpful as far as eating and digestion rhythms go and thus training of sorts. 75 days to go now as I write, and another recce on the Round this coming weekend

Miles this week, 71; long run 29

Miles for March, 157 running, 32 hiking

Welsh whiteout

No long run or BG recce this weekend, but a walking trip to Wales. As it turns out, this was not the time to have gone to Cumbria anyway as the whole country was in a blizzard and The Lakes affected particularly badly. There'll be no running on those tops for now. Wales saw planty of snow too: I almost had to spend the night stuck on a high road in mid Wales behind a queue of stranded traffic and an impassable road but was fortunate to escape, take a long loop round and end up at the digs in Barmouth, which was not the original destination which was a bunkhouse in Bethesda which was cut off without electricity in the weather. I was grateful for a warm home and a bed for the night! After all that, we decided the walking should be cautious and mid level, so on Saturday we walked in the foothills of Cader Idris, clocking up 18 miles and being thoroughly blasted by the raw winds. Sunday's walk took us around 8 miles near Llyn Mwyngl, Bird Rock, Castel Y Bere, and Mary Jones's cottage. Back to the running tomorrow.

It's still snowing!

Well last weekend's recce was fun ... a good practice at navigating anyway. We changed the plan of doing leg 4 first thing as the weather forecast looked against us for the early morning, especially with navigating some less familiar territory, So we parked at Honister and resolved to do two loops with Honister in the middle and thus an option to cut the whole thing short if things turned bad. Luckily the first loop was good, so we did both. So first was a route cross country to Windy Gap, then the end of leg 4 over Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts. We had 100m visibility for the first part and snow cover everywhere above 500m, so map, compass and intuition were our only friends. Never totally confident, we nevertheless hit the route bang on, making the route over the last part of the leg sweeter. A quick bite at the car, then we headed up the relentless haul of Dale Head for a look at the 3 hills of leg 5. Here the running was better than the other side of the road and we made decent progress to Hindscarth and Robinson, before heading back, missing the dog leg to Hindscarth this time. So a changed plan turned out very well after all; just as well when you've driven over 250 miles for the privilege!

Recce 16 March

Recce Saturday 16 March
Leg 4
Start Brackenclose car park, Wasdale, 8am
Return via Moses Trod
Pub to follow!

Under 100 !

Now less than 100 days to go. That's just an arbitrary number of course, but so are 24 (hours) and 42 (peaks) and those are the ones I've chosen to live with for the next few months. So that's fine then. We like the numbers. We love the numbers!

Hopefully a recce this coming weekend if absence-of-snow reports from those closer to the fells are positive. Really looking forward to it ....

Hobble on

A great run on Saturday to round off an otherwise average running week: Wuthering Hike, or Haworth Hobble as it's also known, was a good test of stamina and hardiness at 32 miles and 4,400 ft of climb over Yorkshire hills and trails, and I came through unscathed with a marginal PB of 5:53. When I've run this before I have tended to run fairly hard before blowing up towards the end, whereas this year I started steadily and kept a reasonable pace through to the end. Whilst by no means a fast run then, it was important in BG terms as an exercise in keeping on keeping on. Freezing rain, thick mud, one slip on a greasey section, overtaking more than being overtaken, good practice at continual eating, and a steady and sustainable climb up Stoodley Pike without the usual near collapse at the top, all made for an enjoyable and satisfying run. I've also gained another couple of team members in Edwin and Phil over the weekend, so the team tally's looking good too. The 100-days-to-go point draws near, so the training has to begin to be more dependable and consistent from this point. A BG recce next weekend and the Fellsman on the horizon in April are good interim targets ....

Well that's February gone then!

This week has been slightly down on mileage but good nonetheless: a good steady run instead of the usual club night interval run and which felt infinitely more worthwhile for the kind of training I need, and a great off-road long run yesterday involving many new trails including part of the Swans Way footpath (Salcey Forest to Goring on Thames), an infuriating interlude getting lost in Milton stupid Keynes, and a final stretch on the Grand Union Canal to the rendezvous with Vicki and my lift home.

Miles this week: 43, including 27 mile long run

Miles for February: 169 running, 32 bike

Update on team:
Leg 1: Barnesy
Leg 2: Jarv, Rae
Leg 3: Deasey
Leg 4: Mick P
Leg 5: Tim S

The team

Based on generous offers and people's availability, the beginnings of the team for the Round looks like this:

Leg 1: Barnesy

Leg 2: Jarv

Leg 3: Deasey

Leg 4: Mick P

Leg 5: Tim Smith

More support to come ....

That's better

Last week's training looks a bit better than recent efforts:
55 miles running
Long run 32 miles
Bike dawdle: 32 miles
Slow on the bike but it was the day after the long run and it's good to get back out cycling.
Rest day today. Back into pace tomorrow, plus plotting the weekend's long run.

I've just worked out I have run 501 miles since August when I committed, in my head, to training for the BGR. That's about 20 miles a week! ok, so training has been a bit on and off and I've also done other things ... biking etc. All the same I need to up the miles considerably!

With many thanks to Dave Shinn for sorting my blog out (!) I'm now ready to use the blasted thing. Training is going well enough, but it's early days. Some Lake District reccies have been missed owing to weather, but a great day out last Saturday with Dallam folk on the Barbon Fells under Stuart's trusty guiding.

Anyway, here is a list of reccies and major training runs in the Lakes or other suitable hilly parts for those who would like to join me; I'll update this with any additions and changes:

9 March: Wuthering Hike, W Yorks, 32m / 4400'
16 March: BG recce, leg and start time to be confirmed
13 April: BG recce, leg and start time to be confirmed
27 April: Fellsman, N Yorks, 62m / 11000'
11 May: BG recce, leg and start time to be confirmed
18 May: Old County Tops, Cumbria, 37m / 10000'
1 June: BG recce, leg and start time to be confirmed

And here is the team for the attempt, which I will
fill in as people confirm:

Leg 1, Keswick to Threlkeld

Nav:
Time:
Sherpa:

Leg 2, Threlkeld to Dunmail

Nav:
Time:
Sherpa:
Leg 3, Dunmail to Wasdale

Nav:
Time:
Sherpa:

Leg 4, Dunmail to Honister

Nav:
Time:
Sherpa:

Leg 5, Honister to Keswick

Nav:
Time:
Sherpa:

Counting down: the count down is well under way now. My Bob Graham Round attempt is booked for Friday 21 June 2013 starting at 6pm. Training and recces will be added to this blog so please join me when you can. Team list and other detail to follow also.