Friday 19 August, 11:50pm – Threlkeld, Cumbria: Mark, JJ, Will Powis and Barry
At last, lights! After over an hour of sitting in my car and craning my neck upwards towards the summit of Blencathra, we saw that the leg one lads were on their way. Sure, they were going to be a bit late, but none of Jon, Richard and Graham had done the leg before and so they were doing well to make it round in the gathering darkness.
“20 minutes lads and you’re on”, I ventured, but Will and JJ just carried on chatting as they were already primed and ready to go onto leg two. I got out of my car and told Barry who was kicking back in his car having arrived fresh from Tyneside. He was similarly chilled and ready.
Our Facebook messenger thread was buzzing, and Rachel was happy to read that we’d spotted them as she sat following Richard and the lads’ progress from home in Whitley Bay. They seemed to have had a great leg, starting in fine weather and getting to Blencathra in decent time.
The lights then vanished. This wasn’t right. I knew that the whole route would have been in sight from here on in. Had they fallen?!
They were still high on the mountain, descending the rocky rib of Halls Fell which can be slippery after recent rain. The lads made a decision that they were going to reascend and come down Doddick Fell, a slightly longer parallel and safer route. Thankfully, they told us via the FB message thread. This was a good call and we would still be able to see the lights.
But then, no lights. None for ages. We worried. Will and I ran up the fell side hoping to get a view of their lights. We kidded ourselves we could see them sometimes but in truth – nothing. Then Graham posted an photo of the GPS screen on the FB feed which told us they were too far east but heading back. Sending that was a great move – we could see their location and route and it explained the lack of lights. They were going to be two hours late, but safe. I began to think that we’d already been rather ambitious to expect a sub 24 hour relay ‘on-sight’, without lots of recces on all legs. Maybe we could pull it back though….
Will and I ran back to the road and after some confusion as to where they would pop out onto the road, we finally saw the lads. They’d done 17 miles on what is usually a 13.5 mile leg. Richard looked battered and they all looked tired. Richard’s chin was cut open and he’d grazed his hip. They’d clearly had a bit of a beasting up there. Jon had been navigating and making the calls. He looked tired.
The leg two lads set off in ok weather and pitch darkness – Helvellyn awaited. They knew it was going to turn.
Jon was keen to inspect Richard’s wounds in better light as I dropped them off at their hostel. Graham was still buzzing with the relief and the post-exercise endorphins when I dropped him at his campsite. I was keen to update everyone and suggest revised schedules to those souls waiting to go next and those after that…
When i got back to the hostel, the leg three lads were up and pacing the halls. It was 0230. They were anxious about the timings, the weather and the route. We tried to go back to bed.
For all of us, it was going to be a long night…
The Bob Graham Round Relay
I think it was DJ’s idea. The increased interest in fellrunning across the Poly this year has been notable and terrific, and so the idea of a weekend away running was bound to come up. Basing it around a classic challenge like the Bob Graham really caught the imagination and people were volunteering thick and fast.
The BGR is a 66 mile route that climbs 42 mountain summits as part of a circular route form Keswick Moot Hall. The route crosses roads in four places thus breaking it into five unequal legs. Our plan was to have at least two runners on each leg, handing over to the next group at the road crossings. We were to start at 19:00 on Friday evening and hope to finish sometime no later that 18:59 on Saturday before heading to the pub.
The rules are simple – start and finish at the Moot Hall, visit the 42 summits and do it within 24 hours. It is the arguably greatest challenge a fellrunner can attempt in England and certainly the most sought after. 2 from 3 attempts by supported individuals fail. It’s hard. There’s 26,000 feet of climbing and descending to do. We reckoned we could crack this as a relay. We still do…
Keswick Moot Hall – 19:00, and a bit…
We filed out of the pub and waited for Jon and Richard to join Graham and get started at 1900. They were heading over from work in Sunderland and were pushing it. Jokes about Hanley’s agonising over shoes, hair, outfits etc abounded.
They were a bit late but there was no panic. Photos were taken, GPS charged and stopwatches started. At 19:35, they were on their way.
We all knew the weather forecast was poor but held out hope that it was wrong – the afternoon rain had stopped and the sky was as blue as it was white.
We should have known better than to hope…
Helvellyn Range and Dunmail Raise (A591) – early Saturday.
Having set off on leg two, I was content that we had folks that would navigate well, remember their recces and maybe pull some time back. 2 hours in, the rain and wind started, and JJ, Barry and Will were into attrition mode. The stopwatch was irrelevant as was the schedule.
As they fought through darkness, heavy rain and winds, Scott, Danny and Chris Rowe waited in their car at Dunmail. They’d already made a two hour adjustment and were sleep deprived. The leg two lads rightly took their time and time ticked on. Another two hours were likely to be dropped on the schedule.
The lads in the car were progressively talking themselves out of starting. The weather was vile and the environment became scarcely more appealing when it got light. The winds picked up, the rain got heavier. To those of us sat in a hostel, staring at the phone in the wee hours, it was nerve-wracking. I started to think that they should not start, or have an escape route ready if they did. It was not my call to make but i decided to suggest an escape route to think about on leg three. In my heart of hearts, i hoped they would abandon.
The leg three lads worried as time ticked on. Gamely, they decided to head up and look for the leg two lads on the fell in the manky weather. They lucked out and found them on course and OK on the last fell. This meant they had a taste of the ground and weather conditions which put them in a strong position to make the call.
Thankfully, in worsening weather, they binned it. It was over 4 hours past the schedule. Put another way, it had taken 12 hours to do what normally takes 8. It was not a day for a BGR. Thankfully, we were all tuned into our smartphones and breathed deep deep sighs of relief.
The leg one and two lads had put in quite amazing shifts. Calling it off was hard for runners that are habitually able to push hard and suffer for their sport. But the fells are no place for messing about and I was proud of the lads for making a tough call, as we all were.
We were similarly proud of the six lads that got the first two legs done.
Victory from the jaws of defeat
Breaky in town was a great call from Jon. There, those of us that were awake met in Keswick in the pouring rain and licked our wounds. We then learned that Jon was not happy with Richard’s chin-gash and took him to Carlisle A&E, an hour up the road, after an epic six hours on leg one. Richard had stitches put in. We took this in over breakfast and were astounded. Jon and Rich looked totally shattered.
It would have been easy to while the day away and sulk. But not the Poly. It was decided that whatever the weather was doing, those that were awake would run up and down a hill, any hill that afternoon. I realised how much i liked this running club and these people…
We chose High Tove, a little fell about 1,600′ high which was near our hostel. We assembled and set off. The wind howled. The rain was sideways. No-one else was on the hill. It was nuts. Not everyone made it out though, some people needed to sleep.
It was only a mile to the top and so it was low risk and potentially low enjoyment. But it wasn’t, it was great fun. At least one of those that had not yet run out and sampled the weather might have possibly misjudged at least half of their attire…
Danny and Amanda did their press ups on the summit and we headed down, wet but happier. I think we would have been fed up with no running and a total wash out.
This put us all in a better frame of mind for the evening’s eating and drinking. Like kids on a school trip, the boys sneaked into the girls’ dorm and we had illicit presecco.
Personally, I felt a bit low and guilty. Had my enthusiasm wasted a precious weekend of people’s time? Were they put off this idea now? It didn’t take long for people to start talking about the next attempt, what we had learned, when we might recce, when we would go again (May 2017 seems to be the consensus). I realised I was definitely loving this club.
Sunday
Those that were left headed up and recced leg five. People were keen to learn and think about attempt No2, even having slept on it. I was really chuffed.
The fells played ball and we had some views, but this didn’t stop a few tumbles and wounds on the slippy rocks and grass. Not that anyone minded – we’d already established that we were rock hard and we’d be back to beat it.
Reflections
I think just about everyone wants to go again – this time having recced their sections and other sections too.
We also realised that we need to be flexible regarding the weather. It turns out that a lad postponed his attempt from 2000 on Friday to 1600 on the Saturday and made it round with 15 mins to spare. He’d have abandoned for sure if he’d have stuck to Friday.
Finally, I am so pleased we ended up having a brilliant, eventful and dare I say a bit of a bonding weekend. It’s going to making cracking this in May all the more sweet….
Well done everyone 🙂
Polyfellers 