The Beginings of a Bob Graham Round

For a Keswickian there is one challenge that has to be achieved if you wish to hold your head high and call yourself a true ultra-distance fell runner and that is the Bob Graham Round (BGR). 

The BRG.

The BGR is an endurance challenge taking in a loop of 42 of the highest Lake District peaks covering 106km with over 8200m of ascent, all to be completed within a 24 hour period. The round was established in 1932 by Bob Graham, a modest hotelier from Keswick, who completed the challenge arriving at the Moot Hall in Keswick, the start and finish point, in 23 hours 39 minutes. This impressive feat was not repeated until 1960 when Alan Heaton, with Bob Graham's assistance, completed the round in 22 hours 18 minutes. 1977 saw the first woman, Jean Dawes, complete the round in 23 hours 37 minutes. So far, the record for the fastest round is held by the fell running legend Billy Bland who completed it in 13 hours 53 minutes in 1982. The equally impressive women's record is held by Nicky Spinks who completed it in 18 hours 12 minutes in 2012. There are all sorts of other permutations to the original BGR, including winter rounds and more extreme 'extended Bob Graham's', but I'll save details of those for a future blog post.

I began running in 2010, after too many years of drinking and smoking, and a desire to change bad habits! I aimed high, with my goal to one day complete the holy grail of fell running challenges, the BGR. I started slow, with the first run recorded on my Garmin coming in at 4.85km in 33 minutes. I was so unfit I had to stop and walk 8 times! Undeterred by my lack of fitness I chose to attempt my first endurance fell challenge in Wales in 2012, the Welsh 3000's. For those unfamiliar with the challenge, this is a 42 km route over the 15 peaks in Snowdonia over 3000ft. I managed to complete it in just under 17 hours, including the hike up to the first summit, and off the last – as well as making it peak to peak in just under 14 hours! Needless to say, this achievement only fuelled the fire and I became more interested in other fell challenges that would take me closer to my BGR dream.

My progress was not without setbacks, and a month after the 10 Peaks, I entered the inaugural Vegan Welsh 3000's race (55km with 4000m of ascent), only to to drop out half way through with a knee injury. I tried to do too much too soon and paid the price. I have suffered with niggles in the same knee ever since, but fortunately with good physiotherapy support and strengthening practise, it has not held me back too much.

During this time I met a ultra runner who told me of the 10 Peaks challenge (75km with 4500m of ascent) in the Lake District. This looked to be a good stepping stone from the Welsh 3000's, so in July 2012 we teamed up and ran together, on a gloriously sunny day, in 22 hours 2 minutes. In the process I also gained two Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) qualifying points, which got me thinking how I could use them! Two points was enough to qualify for the 'Sur le Traces des Ducs de Savoie' (otherwise known as the 'TDS'), a race starting in Courmayour, Italy, ending at Chamonix in France, covering 119km with 7250m of ascent. So, I decided to apply for it, and cranked up my training for August 2013!

As part of my training I had a go at the 2013 Vegan Welsh 3000's race in June, this time finishing in a pleasing 8th place in a time of 10 hours 58 minutes.

The TDS: approaching the aid station at Col du Petit St-Bernard at about 35km. 

The TDS is my biggest achievement to date, and though very tough, I managed to complete it in 29 hours 10 mins with the support of my amazing family and friends cheering me on. Once the TDS was out of the way I had one last race penciled in, the Ennerdale 50k trail race (a mere snip at 560m of ascent) and finished in 4 hours 57 minutes – a time I was happy with, but I would have liked to place ahead of Chris, planetFear's manager! Now that is out of the way my goal for next year is to finally do the BGR. 

My plan at the moment is to do my BGR on 4th June 2014, meaning I can celebrate with a pint in hand at the Keswick Beer Festival starting the weekend after. However, that would mean my BGR would clash with the Blencathra Fell Race, another great event that I really enjoyed racing this year. There are too many great events to choose from around here, I am spoilt for choice! 

After Ennerdale my race dates for 2013 were concluded and I decided to take it easy for a month or so. I will now step up the training for my BGR attempt and post regular updates on how I'm getting on. As well as updates on my BGR training I hope to also provide you with inside info about the best places to train locally as well as reviews of the kit that I've come across working at planetFear.