Bob Graham Round - Tips

Selective memory is an amazing thing. After my successful Round in May 2006 I had almost convinced myself that the BGR was a pretty straight forward affair. After pacing an unsuccessful attempt this Saturday, Some of the forgotten painful memories were dug back up.

Rob had decided that 2am morning start for a clockwise round was for him. For me, that meant a very early start after only arriving in the Lakes at midnight from Inverness. Unsurprisingly I was not feeling wonderful at Moot Hall and after trying for a while to make Rob slow his pace up, I let him go up ahead on the climb to Skiddaw. At the top the wind was bitterly cold and I regretted leaving my gloves at home whist navigating through thick cloud in the dark. Route-wise everything went pretty much to plan and after srambling down Hall's Fell in the early morning light we reached Threkeld about 30 minutes up. I was glad to get rid of my fell shoes and changed to trail shoes (dumped along with food and water previously at the village green) which were much more suited to the dry conditions. Much of the Round is on hard stoney tracks where fell shoes are a major disadvantage and it is only Leg 1 and the start of Leg 3 which has any real off-track sections.

In comparison to 2006, I felt absolutely fine. Taking on about 1.5l of water and a load of food for the next leg made the bag uncomfortably heavy. The Dodds did not flow past as easily ashoped and despite the cloud clearing, the strong wind put a downer on motivation. After 4 hs of running I could feel my last race was still in my legs and decided then and there that two legs of support would have to do me.

The downhills were agony and I let Rob go off up Fairfield and Seat Sandal so as not to slow him down and put his attempt at risk. Perhaps it was that I had already completed the round that I had no compulsion to push myself any further and glady took the option of a lift back to the campsite which was offered to me at Dunmail.

The last I saw of Rob was as he plodded up Steel Fell still on schedule and after food and a rest, myself and the rest of the support crew headed over to Wasdale. Being a Bank Holiday every idiot was out on the roads. I have never seen so many examples of incompetent driving in such a short space of time. So it was a pretty stressed support crew that arrived in Wasdale where we settled down to wait for Rob to appear down Scafell. We waited and waited. No-one had seen Rob and when he was over an hour overdue, Steffi drove back up the road to get a signal on her phone. Rob was back at Langdale. Barely an hour after leaving us at Dunmail Raise he had taken a wrong turning and headed up to Ullscarf and beyond to Low Saddle. About an 4km trip in the wrong direction. Heat, exhaustion and lack of food intake seemed to have all played a part. Understandably he had decided to call it a day. A big dissappointment for not only himself but for the rest of us too.

I know it is very easy to be critical, but to be successful with minimal support does mean that you have to know the route well. However harsh it may sound a mistake like this under the prevailing conditions was almost comic. But in no way am I saying that I am myself immune from such mishaps!

My tips for normal would-be BGRers are:

• Know the route off by heart. You never know if a pacer may drop out or get lost.
• Start when you feel good - 2am I think is a bad time for anyone's body clock. 10pm worked for me and even 8pm could be good as you are on an easy section in the dark.
• Get the feed and drink strategy right. I always eat and drink at least every 30mins on the dot even if I feel sick. More often if I feel thirsty or hungry.
• Be kind to your support team by splitting road support between drivers.
• Have a good base camp i.e. Threkeld / Keswick area.
• If you lack sufficient pacers, save them for the later legs when you are more tired.
• Don't pick a Bank Holiday weekend!
• Be organised and make sure you have a detailed schedule for everyone. I know this may be a pain in the backside, but it does really help.

The rest of the weekend was great and I am sure Rob will have learnt from this attempt and will cruise it sometime later this year.

The Fellsman 2008 - the recovery continues

I think my feet were worse after the Fellsman than they were after my Bob Graham Round in 2006. It wasabout 4 days before I could see the veins in my feet again and the blisters underneath my big toes were huge. It took some, okay all, my courage to drain them which didn't hurt at all and massively relieved the pressure. Both nails will still be lost but at least they aren't throbbing any more. In fact they look a lot better now. The nigle from the Highlander is still there, but no worse so I am hoping that in time it will get better.

Walking is now possible in trainers, but Emily still made me buy some lightweight 'walking' boots. The shame! This embarrassing shopping trip is perhaps only surpassed by the time I had to go into a climbing shop and buy a map case and compass ;o). I have managed to avoid the red socks and bobble hat but who knows where this Marilyn bagging will lead ...

Anyway, the results were posted on the Fellsman site on Friday and I came 9th in 14h 12 mins. Fantastic. Just the kind of motivation I need for Ramsay's, although after a few weeks rest I will actually be able to train!

I went up to the Cullins over the weekend to help my boss up over some of the trickier Munros of Bruach na Frith, Am Bastier and Sgurr nan Gilliean. It was hard work and the uphills were murder on my thighs. Still, a perfect day scrambling on Skye isn't something you get every day with sunshine and low winds. Sports massage on Sunday hurt, however it has really helped loosen things up, to the extent that I was doing intervals on the bike on the way home from work today.

It looks like I will be supporting a low key Bob Graham attempt on Saturday night. My aim will be to get the contender around at least Leg 1 safely. Depending on my feet I will take it from there. So another easy week ahead. The forecast looks okay so more ice cream is on the cards.

On a slightly worring note I had a health check at work and my blood pressure was 127/72 and my cholesterol at 4.8mg. Less pork pies for me!

Fellsman 2008

Every now and then you just have one of those races when it all comes together. After a two week taper I felt alright, but I constantly worried that a cold or some unforeseen injury would strike. In other words I was getting to be a bit of a hypochondric. Every 2 minute jog to the corner shop was analysed minutely afterwards for signs of a lack of form. Doubts lingered about the fact that my long runs were only about 20-25 miles and if that was really enough.

After a fairly chaotic morning in Threshfield we got bussed to the start in Ingleton. I was advised that my trail shoes would not be allowed (wrongly as it turned out as a couple of people got away with what seemed like road shoes) so I wore my Mudclaw 330s. Finally under blue skies and steadily creeping temperatures around about 300 'hikers' were set off at 9am. My rough gameplan involved getting up Ingleborough in about 45mins and taking it steady from there. It was easy to settle into a comfortable pace in the middle of the pack, but the sun was giving a taster of what was to come. The drop down from Ingleborough was steady but as soon as we hit the paving slabs, my thighs turned to jelly. The further into the valley the route went, the less wind there was and it was oppressive. I staggered along the road from Hill Inn and although only about 26C I wilted fast. Periodic streams allowed me to pour water on my head and I guzzled water, desperately trying to stay hydrated whilst struggling up Whernside. To add insult to injury a stream of runners steadily passed by. I was having a bad time and my ambition withered to just to getting to Dent before calling it a day. The misery continued into Kingdale as even on the flat bits I had no energy and pace. Still I was roughly on a 13-14h schedule and on the next climb I resolved to at least get to 40 miles before quitting.

After another refreshment stop, where I took on another litre of fluid, I decided enough was enough and I switched on my MP3 player. I was too miserable to enjoy the views anyway so I wasn't missing much. A bit of Bruce Springsteen and Die Toten Hosen and the hills didn't seem so bad. Where before I was struggling now I was even gaining on the runners in front. After Gragareth I began to enjoy the steady grassy running and after a horrible steep descent on a cobbled track I reached Dent in relatively good shape. The skies clouded over to provide some respite. Other runners about me looked as though they were struggling which gave me extra impertus to push on. Perhaps everyone was struggling?

Maybe it was the lukewam milky tea or the ibuprofen, but I felt so much better and enjoyed the next short section of road. In fact all the way to Fleet Moss past Stonehouses was steady and even enjoyable although the very hazy weather spoilt the views. The climbs felt never too bad and the music kept me jogging on. I was still keeping on a 14 -15h target and was happy that I could still drop some time and still finish before midnight.

I had heard much about Fleet Moss and the various ways around it. It looked grim from the roadside checkpoint, but I just took a direct line and plugged through. I hadn't banked on there being so much bog, but fairly easy navigation lead over Middle Tongue at last to Hell Gap and the track to Cray. The steadily dropping distance left to cover after every checkpoint was tagged was a superb motivator. Twenty miles to go sounds so much better than forty miles run.

Leaving Cray I had caught up with a couple of guys and I was keen to push a bit on the hills before the grouping up time, which is a safety requirement when it gets dark. I managed to pull away on the climb to Buckden Pike and opened up a gap so I had some 'waiting time' to recover. It also meant that I had some more experienced runners to help navigate the last bit to Yarnbury from Park Rash! Yarnbury took ages to reach and was a painful experience, staggering in the dark (in both meanings of the word) along hard tracks following an endless succesion of beacons. Once at the road we de-grouped and legged it down, through Grassington, past hordes of drunks in the local pubs and finally up the last cruel hill to the finish at the school. At last there was nowhere else to run to and I could stop!

Due to my mental state I can't recollect what time I got, but it was around 14hs and I placed in the top 10. An absolutely superb result for me and quite unexpected. So it looks as though my training and the length of taper did help. As soon as I stopped my legs locked up and I realised how sore my feet were. I was hot all over and my big toes were black and I was naseaus (in fact I couldn't eat until late the next day). Although my technique of training by running shorter runs at a harder pace got me the fitness, longer runs may help toughen up my legs and feet. I have no idea yet if I would do The Fellsman again, but I would recommend it whole-heartedly. Just don't expect an easy run.

Brin bouldering

The 'Mecca' of Scottish bouldering according to some is located in Strathnairn near the village of Farr. Following the easy to use topo available on the web, myself and Kenny headed out on another glorious evening after work. Due to me being a wuss I didn't climb above V0, but still had a great time and still worth going to (especially the Bog Jungle area) even if you don't climb that hard. Some of the routes were a bit dirty (mostly the easier ones) and there seemed to be loads more problems lurking under the moss and lichen.

Taper time - The Fellsman

It has taken me ages to recover from the 3 Peaks, physically and mentally. My training has been exceptionaly light for the past 7 days with only about 1h running in total and only easy cycling on the other days. After finding the 3 Peaks so hard I just hope The Fellsman won't be a complete disaster. The route is plotted out on my 1:25 000 and it looks like it should suit me with plenty of navigation and rough bits. I really haven't done enough mileage at all (my longest run being about 7hs), probably due to the great climbing conditions we had up here. However, my MP3 player is stuffed full of Die Toten Hosen (a sad hangover from my impressionable days as a teenager living in Munich) for the flat bits just to keep my motivation up. Also hopefully I will get teamed up (as it is in the rules of the 'race' that you have to group together at dusk) with some people who know the route when it gets dark! I hope to get a time of under 16hours so I just have to keep my head down and remember that good bits always follow the bad bits sooner or later.

Anyway to keep me away from running and worrying I found some old climbing clips on BBC Scotland (go to the 'watch' icon on the right hand side and then look in the 'Outdoors' and 'Sports' tabs). There are about 8 clips worth watching, just the thing for avoiding training and the washing up. Very entertaining.