This article was written for Axe Valley Runners' October '98 newsletter.
For many years I have wanted to complete the Bob Graham Round, a 75-mile route over 42 of the Lake District's peaks. The challenge, originally undertaken 66 years ago by a man whose name should be obvious, is to complete it within 24 continuous hours, no mean feat even for seasoned fell runners. (The record is 13 hours!) The dream came a little closer when two friends and I went up to the Lakes to recce the route.
The Round starts and finishes at Keswick and takes in the Newlands Fells, the Wasdale Round, the Scafells, Bowfell, the Langdales, the Helvellyns, the Dodds and the Caldbeck Fells. It can be completed either clockwise or anticlockwise. Our aim was to cover as much of the Round as possible over a weekend so I planned a schedule which involved us doing the Caldbecks on the day we got there, camping near Thirlmere, driving to Honister Pass and running back to the campsite on the first day then continuing the Round back to the car on the second. Fine in theory!
Our proposed campsite had a sign saying "Families and couples only" and there was neither anyone to ask nor any tents in sight so we piled into the adjacent pub for some much-needed nosh (after I had removed my smelly hellies in the car park!). Having eaten on the train, Alan only wanted some soup; John decided upon the lasagne and I went for both! The lasagne suffered from containing too much meat and too little pasta - not the ideal meal for carbo-loading. We then reverted to our second-choice campsite which turned out to be good value with showers but only half an inch of soil above a thick layer of stones! Still, we got the tents pitched, kit unpacked and bodies into our fleapits for a bit of rest.
The first leg to Wasdale Head is a day's outing in itself under normal circumstances but was only a third of our intended route! The first part was a really nice start to the day - a quick ascent of Grey Knotts then fairly flat and runnable over two more summits to Windy Gap (which wasn't) and up to Great Gable just ahead of schedule (1 hour). The next part got quite rocky and some steep, scrambling descents really slowed us down. Despite our plans to run only level and downhill stretches we jogged part of the way up Pillar to impress a group of walkers whose parting words were "See you later." We rather hoped not or something would have been very wrong! The next summit was odd - we had to go over Scoat Fell (which doesn't count for the Round) to reach a rocky spur just below called Steeple. It certainly is a quite magnificent setting but why the main top doesn't count was beyond us. And then we had to retrace our steps back over Scoat Fell to continue the Round!
Our first rest was a few minutes on Yewbarrow in order for me to cut a bit off the insole of my right shoe which had rubbed a blister. I really should either have cut it out earlier (I had noticed the rubbing the previous day) or put some padding on the blister but I didn't and the repercussions will become clear later! The descent to Wasdale was quite exciting with steep grass and scree but not too troublesome and we got to the valley floor four hours after leaving Honister. The next bit was a long haul up Scafell with 3,000' of ascent in a couple of miles followed by the exciting scramble down the West Wall Traverse and Lord's Rake to get to Scafell Pike.
Runnability slowly improved from rock-hopping to rocky grass and paths on the way to Bowfell, five summits later, and then plain grass after the Langdale Pikes. However, the cloud had also come down by now, making navigation tricky: running on a bearing is never particularly speedy.
We jogged some gentle ascents of the five remaining summits between the Langdales and the road over Dunmail Raise ... except that we didn't go to Dunmail. It was obvious by now that we would be out of light before we ran out of steam and there was no way we could consider the Helvellyn Range that day. We had made much slower progress than my estimate due to rough going underfoot, time spent considering all the possible route choices (this was a recce, after all) and frequent water stops. (In Alan's case in order to lose water as often as to take it on!) We therefore decided to head for the road at the southern end of Thirlmere and run back to our campsite at the northern end.
It was dark by the time we got off Steel Fell and started the road run. (What a way to finish a day's fell running!) It was three miles gently uphill with a rucsac after more than ten hours and thirty-five miles crossing some of the highest peaks in England. John and I managed nine-minute miling to a lay-by at the top where we waited for Alan. He arrived a few minutes later but by this time John and I were starting to chill so continued on our way, leaving Alan to gather his strength and contemplate the pub which was by the road before the campsite! A mile or so later John and I were hailed by a voice from a pickup: "Do you want a lift? We've got one of yours in here." It turned out that they had been driving the other way along the road, taken pity on Alan ("There's a man who looks tired" they had said. Well, not exactly "tired" but the original word doesn't bear repeating here), turned round and offered to take him wherever he wanted to go! So we did the last mile in the comfort of a King Cab's rear sea
We were all pretty tired (or words to that effect!) and I had the added bonus of the mother of all blisters on my right foot as well as serious chafing of the nether regions! A shower was in order but we only found two 20p coins between us so John volunteered to remain smelly. Supper was various forms of pasta with assorted other bits chucked in, depending upon personal preference, and copious drinks and snacks on the side before a deep sleep overtook us all.
My foot was starting to ache after a few hours despite having a couple of pads on the blister so we sat on the bench outside a lovely church for our longest daytime rest of about ten minutes while I made some running repairs and popped a couple of pills. Then it was onwards and upwards, back to the real fells and a steady ascent of Robinson, then nice runnable ground to Hindscarth followed by the last summit, Dale Head. A couple of walkers reached the top a couple of minutes later so we got the only photo of all three of us together before running back down to the car at Honister and the end of perhaps the best weekend in the hills any of us have had. Of course, the full Bob Graham Round within 24 hours is going to be better still ... but that will be another story!