On Knoydart during Dan's Munro round (photo Dan Duxbury)

Transcription

1 Graham's Bob The idea of having a go at the Bob Graham round in 2015 came to me this time last year as I was sitting in a doctor's surgery, unable to walk, with badly infected toes on both feet, legs stiff and sore from a week of Munro bashing with my friend Dan Duxbury. I already had a big smile on my face, as I sat in the waiting room, remembering the week I'd just had in Scotland, and how much I'd enjoyed being a small part of Dan's adventure. Dan's Munro Round 2014 I heard about Dan Duxbury's Munro Round whilst I was in New Zealand, escaping a few weeks of the British winter. My friend Chewy had mentioned it in an and immediately I knew I wanted to be involved. It didn't take more than a few seconds to Google Dan and come across his blog, then a quick to Dan himself with the week in May when I could come and help him. Dan was on a once in a lifetime adventure, making a continuous round of all the 282 Scottish Munroes running, cycling and even sea kayaking between them all. Dan's challenge was exactly what I was waiting for. I now had a goal, and had to make a plan to get myself in good enough shape to be more of a help than a hindrance. I love making plans, and that evening I started working backwards from the date I would be joining Dan in May, working and re-working my plan. Inspired, the very next morning, I left our rented house in the dark at 5am, jogging around the lakeside trail round Lake Wanaka to climb Mount Roy (1600m) for sunrise, and getting back in time for breakfast four hours later. My journey into the unknown had started. On Knoydart during Dan's Munro round (photo Dan Duxbury) Too Far? I've never been much of an ultra distance runner. Until I turned 40, the idea of running for more than two hours was sheer hell and I'd just get bored and would grind to a halt. Whenever I'd raced further than this in the Karrimor Mountain Marathons, it was a real effort to train for all that time on my feet. I must admit that the only goal from all that training was to try and win. My dad along with his friend Gerry Charnley had originally started the event, so it was near to my heart. Although I came close a number of times, I never once made the top of the podium. I certainly didn't enjoy it very much. A sprained ankle when I was 41 proved to be my ultra running salvation. I was out running along the river Kent near Staveley, floating along, feeling really fit and strong, mind dancing with ideas when, crack, I'd stepped on an exposed root hidden amongst the leaf litter, and gone right over on

2 my ankle. Bugger. I hopped to the nearby river and soaked my foot in the icy cold water, then spent an hour hobbling painfully back to my van. Two weeks later, as I'd just started jogging around the outside of a flat football pitch, I went over on it again. I was so frustrated that I decided to try using Nordic walking poles in an effort to maintain my fitness, and take some of the strain off my ankle. This was really eating humble pie. I'd spent the last decade belittling the stupid looking people that were starting to use poles for walking and running, and now in a desperate act to keep mobile, I'd decided to join them. It's a hill, use poles to get over it! Wow, what a transformation they proved to be. After a couple of weeks using the Nordic walking poles for up to two hours a day, I went for a jog, and knew I was fitter than I'd been for some time. My ankle was fully healed, and my shoulders and arms were stronger than they'd ever been. I looked around for a race and entered the Radcliffe 10 Trail Race down near Manchester to test my fitness. There were some good runners on the start line, and I surprised myself by how easy the race went, and how strong I felt when I crossed the finish line. However, the real surprise was still waiting to be discovered. As my ankle strengthened, I took the poles with me on a jaunt into the fells. Even after two hours, I didn't feel tired in the legs, so carried on for another hour. Pretty soon I was walking and running for 4 to 5 hours regularly in the hills and would never be without my poles. I retired from running races I'd found a new passion to get stuck into, big days out in the hills. BG at 43? I now started to think about the possibility of a Bob Graham Round and wondered whether I may be able to complete one within 24 hours. My dad Alistair was one of the early pioneers he's BG club member 22. Maybe I could join him too? I was already 42 years old, the same age as Bob Graham when he did his first round, with a peak for every year of his age amongst the 66 or so miles of Lake District terrain. I started training for longer and longer distances in the hills and going over the various BG Legs. The real surprise was that I was loving every minute of it and I set myself a date for the following year, June 2006 for my attempt. That would give me a month to recover before Claire and I had our first child together her due date was in the middle of July. Kimberley However, on 25th March 2006, our lives were turned upside down. Our daughter Kimberley was born prematurely at just over 26 weeks by emergency caesarian and lost her fight for life. We buried her ashes amongst the bluebells below the summit of Benson Knott, a small hill near Kendal, which we can see from our living room window. Life had dealt us a way bigger challenge to get through, and the Bob Graham Round was forgotten. That was nine years ago as I write this. We now have a lovely five year old boy, called Ash, and if anything we have come to appreciate the miracle of life even more through our misfortune. For years, we kept going through the motions of life, keeping busy organising the Lakeland Trails events. We don't know if the grief of losing a child will ever go away. It's always there in the background. Yet life is still exciting and full of hope. There were still adventures to be had, and as I sat in the doctor's surgery with my infected toes and dumb smile after my week in Scotland with Dan last year, another plan started to develop to prepare me for the Bob Graham Round. The Wainwrights It was four or five weeks before I managed to get out in the hills again after my visit to the doctor's surgery. At first it was just walking with poles, my feet bandaged up inside extra large trail shoes. I'd been using the Wainwright summits to prepare for Dan's Munro trip using them as checkpoints, then planning the worst possible routes between them, involving vertical ascents and

3 descents, through bracken, heather, rivers and bogs, well away from any of the paths. I loved these wild journeys, and as soon as my feet started recovering, I was planning to continue this theme, and tick off all the Wainwright summits in the process. My goal was to finish them off with a trip up to Scafell Pike with Claire for my birthday in the middle of September Claire had never been to the summit of Scafell Pike before. There's nothing like a deadline to get a job done, and I would venture out after putting Ash to bed, knocking off as many Wainwright summits as I could, often returning in the dark by the light of my head torch. Or I'd be up before sunrise, setting off in the dark, and arrive home for breakfast. Some of these journeys were big, long day adventures in their own right. The most memorable was an evening trip to Wasdale in late August, with a jaunt up Yewbarrow for sunset, then a camp overnight in the back of my van in the Ennerdale Bridge car park. Up at 5am the following day, setting off in darkness for a circuit of Ennerdale Water, taking in 21 Wainwright summits, and finishing ten hours later, picking blackberries along the last mile or so as I'd run out of both food and drink. Magic. On my 52nd birthday, I had only two Wainwrights left, Great End and Scafell Pike, and on a perfect sunny September day, myself and Claire set off from the Old Dungeon Ghyll in Langdale to finish off the job. On Scafell Pike with Claire on my 52nd birthday BG at 52? As soon as all the Wainwrights had been ticked off, I started on my Bob Graham training plan, working backwards once more from a May/June 2015 attempt. That would give me around seven months to prepare, and plenty of opportunity to get to know all 5 legs and all 42 summits. I can't begin to tell you how enjoyable all this training was. Again, I made sure the longer runs were done in good weather by juggling my work commitments it would be a bit like waiting for a birthday as an expected weather window arrived, and I left the house at an ungodly hour in the morning, being rewarded with jaw dropping sun rises from high on the fells. Many times I sneaked off in the evening after Ash's bath & story time for some incredible sunset runs over the nearby Kentmere peaks. Or we'd have a family day somewhere and then Claire would drop me off in Keswick, Threlkeld or Dunmail and I'd run a leg or so and then make my own way back to Kendal, arriving home in the pitch black.

4 Running BG Leg 1 in January The winter was the best time of all. There were many days of really cold, but beautiful weather, with deep post holing snow, blue skies, huge cornices and hard ice. I was also caught out in raging white out blizzards, gales laden with hail as hard as stone, frozen stiff and abandoning my planned run, putting survival and safety first. All of this was done on my own, and I loved every minute. Gradually, all my training started coming together. I'd now run all the legs more than once, some I'd done five or six times. Almost all of these runs were done with snow on the ground in varying stages of thickness or softness, and I used my poles all the time. My longest runs were getting up to seven hours, and I now just had to put a couple of long double leg days behind me. Often my mind would wander back to nine years ago, when I was younger and certainly much fitter and faster than I am nowadays. I started to remember those forgotten memories of training for the Bob Graham before Kimberley was born. It was during one of these moments that I decided I wanted to use my own BG attempt as a memorial to our little girl, and try and raise some money for the charity BLISS, which helps babies like Kimberley who are born too soon, or too small. With this in mind, I asked James Thurlow from OpenTracking if I could use one of his online trackers, and he gladly agreed. I sent through my schedule, aiming for 21hrs 40mins. Now we were into April, and often there was little, or no snow on the fells. With the warmer weather my times suddenly picked up to sub 19hr pace. I was now training in the hills for around hrs per week and just needed to finish off my preparations with the double leg days. Legs 1 & 2, from Keswick through to Dunmail, I completed on 24th April in 7hrs 5mins, then cycled my bike, hidden amongst trees near Dunmail Raise, back to Keswick. When I checked my split time for Leg 2, I was surprised to find it was only 1 second different from my fastest time for Leg 2 on it's own. Legs 3 & 4, from Dunmail to Honister, I completed on 1st May, in 9hrs 40mins, before hitching back to Keswick, and then catching the bus to Dunmail where I'd left my van.

5 I felt as though I was as ready as I'd ever be. Now all I needed was a weather window anytime after the 16th May that would give me a week to recover from the Staveley Lakeland Trails event, and also provide a two week tapering down period before the Big Day Changes, changes The weather maps were looking as though a high may develop for that weekend, so I pencilled in Saturday 17th May at midnight as my starting time, and spread the word amongst friends who had offered to help. As the countdown began, the weather maps continued to change. On Wednesday 13th May, Claire and I dropped Ash off at school then drove to have a look at the road crossing points, so Claire would know exactly where to wait for me. Dunmail, Threlkeld, then Honister we hadn't time to drive to Wasdale, and I'd already taken a photo of the place instead for her. At Honister, Claire dropped me off so I could run back over Leg 5 I'd only been over it once before in deep snow, so I wanted to check it again. When I got to Keswick, I checked the weather maps and on the bus home decided I needed to change my start time again. Now it was looking like a midnight start on Thursday the weather was expected to deteriorate later on Friday evening, and I didn't want to set off without a decent weather window. s, phone calls and texts out to my helpers were sent with the change of plan. The Big Day Thursday 14th May 2015 Thursday morning, the weather looked like deteriorating even earlier than expected. I left my final decision until 2pm, then decided to start earlier at 8pm. With luck, that would mean I would be finished before the weather crapped out. You can imagine what these changes meant to my friends supporting me on the various legs. There was a fair bit of juggling around, and some humbling sacrifices made to busy work schedules on my behalf. This was all done with good humour and a shared passion for adventure, and I can't thank them enough. I spent much of Thursday lying around trying to sleep and eating carbohydrates, drinking tea, checking and re-checking texts, s and the weather forecast in that order. By 6pm, it looked as though I had the first three legs covered with helpers, and I felt positive that the final two legs would work out somehow. Ash had his best friend Megan around for tea, and as soon as Megan's mum had picked her up, we loaded the final gear into the van, and set off for Keswick. We met Helen Jackson at the main car park in Keswick at around 7.15pm. I'd first met Jacko 20 years ago when she was a young girl cycling solo around New Zealand. Since then, she's been one of the very best multi day adventure racers and thinks nothing of dropping everything at a moment's notice at the end of a day's work to run over Skiddaw, Great Calva and Blencathra, at night. We got our stuff together, and walked with Claire and Ash to the start point at Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick. More friends were waiting for me outside Moot Hall, which was totally unexpected. Soon it was 8pm, and after a quick kiss for Claire & Ash, me and Helen jogged off in the late evening sunshine to start the adventure.

6 Setting off from Moot Hall with Helen Jackson As we climbed Skiddaw, the sun sank towards the glowing horizon and our shadows lengthened. At the summit, the sun was sinking into the Solway, and we had plenty of light to find the trod towards Great Calva. It wasn't until the long climb of Bencathra that we needed to turn on our head torches the sky was full of bright stars. At Threlkeld, Claire was waiting with a change of socks and trail shoes, fresh coffee and cereal we'd originally planned for a midnight start, so this was breakfast at 11.30pm! Ash was fast asleep in the back of the van, and we were soon joined by my Leg 2 helper, Tim Austin. Tim was in London when he got my text about the change of start time. He cancelled a meeting, re-arranged his return train ticket and came straight from London to Kendal to Threlkeld, arriving with a huge grin on his face. Off we went into the darkness, making good time on the ascent of Clough Head. Even though the sky was clear, we had to get the map and compass out a few times to double check our direction, and Tim would speed off to make sure we were on the right track. By Dunmail we were around 40 minutes up on my schedule and the best was yet to come. Tim could have a good couple of hours sleep before getting the train for a 9am meeting in Manchester. Claire was ready this time with bacon and avocado butties, more fresh coffee, another change of socks and back into dry fell shoes, then off in the darkness, with my Leg 3 companion, Jon Deegan (aka Fred) and his dog Echo. Fred had also made a few changes to his working day, rescheduling appointments and making time for a 3am start. As we set off, we joked that Leg 3 would be great preparation for his debut run for Cumbria in tomorrow's Inter Counties fell running championships in Wales! Fred knew the ground as well as anyone, and soon he was ready with his camera to take THE shot of me on my BG, with the rising sun appearing behind Fairfield. Fantastic, he said, as he caught up with me after taking the shot. It's just a shame I forgot to charge the battery. That was brilliant, and thinking about it made me keep smiling pure Fred at his best! As the sun rose, the air got warmer and warmer, the views more and more spectacular. On High Raise there is the most tremendous view of the Leg 4 peaks, all waiting to be enjoyed. Descending the tricky rock on Harrison Stickle, just as I was about to make a drop down the vertical rock, I had a gentle push in the small of my back from Fred's dog Echo. A second or so later and that would have caught me completely off balance and pushed me off. As it was, it was just something else to laugh about on this special day. By Wasdale we were well over an hour ahead of my schedule. There was no way I wasn't going to make it back to Keswick now.

7 Ash and Claire were waiting, and after refuelling with pizza, more coffee, changing into fresh socks and trail shoes, I set off alone up the long climb of Yewbarrow. Unfortunately no-one had made it to the changeover in time, and I wasn't waiting. The wind started picking up as I neared the summit of Yewbarrow, the weather was definitely on the change, and it was time to pick up the pace. I wanted to get over Gable before the clouds built up, so it was time to get a move on. I found the initial climb of Kirk Fell hard work I hadn't drunk anything since Wasdale and managed to find a spring just before the ascent. I was probably a bit dehydrated. At the summit of Kirk Fell, a mirage in the shape of Chris Scammell, along with a 2 litre bottle of pepsi cola appeared like magic. What a boost. Even better, Chris joined me all the way to Honister, rewarding each of the summits with a pint of cola. Now we were motoring, Chris knew all the best lines and kept up a good pace. Before we knew it we were at Honister and we'd knocked even more time off my schedule. Jaffa cakes were the only thing I wanted, and soon it was time to set off again, this time with Christian Hoyle, for the glory leg. Christian is one of the most optimistic people on the planet and full of PMA positive mental attitude. He was determined to get the most out of me Come on, let's go for sub 20.30! By the time we reached Robinson, I had more than five hours to get back to Keswick, yet the job wasn't finished yet, I could still get injured, cramp up. It wasn't over until we were back at Moot Hall in Keswick. I looked back towards the clouded summit of Great Gable, and realised I'd made it just in time, the weather was deteriorating quickly. At every gate Christian sped ahead opening them for me. He had crowds of walkers around Catbells clapping and cheering me even though they were mainly foreigners and probably hadn't got a clue what the Bob Graham was all about. Come on, this guy's been running for 20hrs, give him a cheer The first celebration was with Kirsten at Portinscales she'd popped out from work to give me a hug and congratulate me. Then we flew into Keswick and Ash was waiting outside the Moot Hall with his arms outstretched and a can of beer in his hand. I picked him up with a big lump in my throat as I saw his banner tied to the railings of the Hall Well done Daddy, BG tick. Hugs all round from all my friends waiting at the finish, and a special one for Claire. What a day! I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute. At the finish with Claire & Ash

8 The yawns started during the celebratory pint of Wainwrights, just like Fred said they would. My Nordic walking buddies Chewy and Nick arrived from Kendal five minutes after I'd finished, and everyone who had seen me set off, saw me home again. Ben, Christeen, Kirsten, Gail, Tamsin, Becky & Susan - a big thanks to all of you and I really appreciate your support. So far, we've raised over 1500 for BLISS which is a fantastic sum and thanks to everyone who donated. And in case you're wondering, my time was 20hrs 28mins 38secs Post Script - Tim Austin made his 9am meeting in Manchester that same morning and remarkably, Jon Deegan was 1st counter for Cumbria in the Inter Counties the following day. Oh yes, and I'm already planning my next adventure. Graham Patten Notes My charity page for BLISS is Dan Duxbury completed his continuos Munro round last year in an incredible 42 days and I wrote a short article about my week with him here :