MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I need to talk about it.
66miles, 42 lakeland summits, 26000 feet of accent in 24 hours of running!
Its been my main topic of thought for the last 7 months and its now only 10 days away.
We leave Keswick at 00:01 sunday the 10th july so if youre in the lakeland hills sunday the 10th and you see a bunch of runners do say hi.
I am slightly stressed and nervous to the point I think its actually causing my aloepecia arrette[sp] Something ive never had before.
Anyone done it? How did it go?
We have recced all legs in all weathers and there is nothing more to do but finalise Pacers and road support. We have some good strong people out with us but essentially we will carry most of our own stuff-Water, food, waterproofs etc.
Do wish me luck, i am so going to need it! 😕
It's been walked in under 24 hours, so I reckon you'll be fine 😉
Billy Bland 13 hours 😯
enjoy it mate, it's a truly epic achievement even to have a bash at it!
(no doubt you're on the FRA forum if not there's a page dedicated to it)
good luck 😉
Not by me it hasnt. Have you done it?
🙂
To be fair, this has been discussed on route many times. A lot of the section are slow walking anyway because there is no chance of running due to the BIG climbs or the boulders, so you cant run, well not unless your Joss Naylor or of that ilk.
I also wonder what constitutes walking when your Joss or a Bland brother? I dont think its the same sort of walking as normal folk do!!
Yeah im on the Fra but its a steady away site over there. Even those guys are in awe of it, well most of them.
I suppose the closer you are to it, the harder it appears, maybe?
It's on my to-do list before I hit 40, got a couple of years yet, all the best and try and enjoy it. Let us know how you get on
Hope it goes well, you mad fool.
Clockwise or anti clockwise?
If you have reccied it and have good pacers then its down to your fitness. I think you will be fine.
Good luck and let us know how you get on!
Surfer
(50 at 50 for me!!)
Clockwise shirley with a midnight start. What schedule are you on?
My top three tips:
(1) Don't go too fast on the first two sections.
(2) Don't go too fast on the first two sections.
(3) Don't go too fast on the first two sections.
Oh and don't forget to eat eat eat 🙂
Mad fool +1!
Can't comprehend why you'd even think about doing it!
Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Clockwise!
We plan on staying together for leg 1 and 2 and be around 22.30 pace. We dont have much support for these legs, So we need to stay together.
Leg 3 i imagine we will stay together till Bowfell where it gets really tough going [rocky].
Surfer-Good luck with the 50 @ 50 and if you need any help mail me.
Realistically i will be happy to start leg 4 as that will certainly be my longest run to date.
I wont be to upset if i dont finish its my first attempt. This maybe not the best attitude!
Good luck man!
Are you doing broad stand or another route?
I'm looking at doing one in the next couple of years, although 3 peaks fell race is my next big focus.
Ive looked at broadstand. To be honest the whole atmosphere up there makes me scared anyway. If you replicated the climb at sea level you would just have a go. But for me, even roped on its a no no. I would waste too much energy worrying about it. We will split here and were well supported so i intend on dropping to foxes tarn and taking the gully up. I reckon i can catch the guys using broadstand by wassdale as 1 chap is cautious going downhill.
If its raining were all doing Foxes tarn.
I did the 3 peaks this year and hope to agin next, Great event.
This maybe not the best attitude!
Au contraire "I'll just keep going as far as I can" might be more productive than beating yourself up with anticipation. But be ready to push through the bad patch when it comes (it will).
Have you recce-ed the "high line" traverse to Foxes Tarn? Don't need to drop all the way down to the bottom of the gully (but you do need to get the right line below the crag).
As my mate pointed out 'it's only walking pace'. Just rather a lot of it. Strong in the head or just pig-headed is the key I think. Good luck.
We stumbled across some grassy ledges on our last recce of scafell 😯 I was already in a bad place mentally that day after a dodgy climb up bowfell and it nearly finished me off. If its the same that your talking about they felt pretty exposed and i was on all fours pulling up on to them. In the pouring rain and cloud, Im hoping to drop closer to the bottom and do the gully. Does it save that much time and did we pick a bad line?
It is walking pace, a slow walk at that, presuming you forget about the 26000 feet bit and the rocks. And as we all know, running downhill quickly is a doddle right? We will be doing walking pace down some of them to and at times we will aspire to walking pace whilst going downhill!!
😥
😀
Its got the potential to be the 1 of the best days of my life.
I assume you have seen Bob wightmans site? Some useful stuff on there.
[url= http://www.bobwightman.co.uk/run/bob_graham.php ]BG Round[/url]
My mate is doing it too and i'll be supporting him on the sunday. good luck matey, you and my mate and all who are taking part are really mad as hatters!
for a bit of nostalgia get yourself to rosthwaite chapel where Bob Graham rests.
Does it save that much time and did we pick a bad line?
The blue line on here:
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
When you leave the scree there's another higher line, hard under the most overhanging part of the crag, which you *don't* want to be on, it's the climbers' access route. There's also an option to cut straight up past the end of the main crag, around where the blue line kinks down a bit.
If it was clagged in when you recce-ed then you might well have missed the best line.
I've not been that way for a while and it's apparently getting eroded in places (turf stripping off ledges) so dropping right down the scree to the bottom of the gully will definitely be your "safe" option.
some friends completed the BG round a few weekends ago in 23hours, you sound much more prepared i'm sure you'll be fine and love it! good luck! 😀
the first page of feet in the clouds is enough for me!
seriously good luck though - plan plan plan! keep eating and make sure your pacers feed you (even if you dont want to)
dont come back on here if you dont make it 👿 😀
A 16 year old from Dark Peak completed it 2 weeks ago, he looked shattered at the finish. Key is to have good support and change of clothes as it will be wet.
One of our guys (Darwen Dashers) completed t'other week in 23:20. He was the 4th member of the club to complete (we're only a small club). Another bloke completed last year in 23:57 - talk about cutting it fine! What club do you run for?
Oh, and good luck!
Cutting it fine... there was a guy a couple of weekends ago finished the Paddy Buckley in 23:59:45 😯
My dad did his in 2008(?) and finished in 23:08, running a 23 hour schedule. He and his mate were doing it together until halfway through leg 4 where they split. His mate ran the road section at the end where as my dad walked it and did it in 22:11. He's currently doing the 3 Peaks Yacht Race, which is also very silly, especially if it's windy. 3 years in a row, every single year there's been almost no wind.
Didn't someone do it in just over 14 hours a few weeks ago, the 4th fastest round ever I read somewhere, probably on fellrunner forum
That was Mark Palmer who did 14:59 earlier this month, 4th fastest on record as you say, pacers included at least one of my brother-in-law's clubmates from Ambleside (among others).
But no-one's even got within an hour of Billy Bland's 13:53. One of the most amazing records in all of sport, that, let alone just fellrunning.
Worth mentioning also that Billy did a 6:50 Fred Whitton this year as a V60!
My hat is well and truely doffed to you!
I walked it a few years ago during training for my summer ML. Took us 4 days and it killed me...knackered my knees with tendonitis.
At the end of day one (clockwise) we'd done Skiddaw and Blencathra at a leisurely pace, which I think is about 3 hours on the pacing notes for a 24hour attempt!
Put me in my 'thinking I'm fit' place that's for sure 🙂
Good luck!
Respect! Fair few of our mates have done it, one just the other weekend. Plenty of jellybabies required.
Good luck! I recently read 'Feet in the Clouds' by Richard Askwith - an absolutely briliant read about a sport I knew little about. Inspiring.
Thanks for all the messages guys, I will try and remember them when the lows points come!
I believe we're the first ever attempt by Ripon runners.
Elliptic- ive seen that pic before and i still cant work out how high we were! If its clear on the day we might see it and it may feel better if dry and clear. If not, its down to the tarn for me, we will have done 30 mile by then i wont want to be crawling on ledges at that point!
After seeing and running/walking the terain in really makes you wonder how people can do 15 hour rounds, We recced the 2 hardest [imo leg 3 and 4] in 12 hours. Its incredible.
Mark Palmer round was also his first attempt which i think makes him the 2nd fastest at first attempt.
We helped 3 from yorkshire area about 3 weeks ago. 1 woman and 2 guys. The lady despite complaining of knee pain before leg 2 ended went on to do 20:56.
That must put her high on the ladies all time list.
Here is an interesting blog from Morgan who completed his in 2005 in 17:24. A very talented fell runner and top bloke from what I gather.
[url= http://www.northumberlandfellrunners.co.uk/html/bobgrahams/bgr_MDonnelly.html ]Morgan Donnelly[/url]
He also missed out Broad Stand.
Cheers Surfer, Ive heard of him. I will have a read.
Elliptic - seem to know an awful lot about subtle route choices - you pencilled it in now you're an endurance athlete?
Kendal, i dont think he ever suggested that. I appreciate his advice though and at the end of the day we will bear it in mind whilst making are own route choices. That photo diagram has done the rounds on many walking sites.
@nosemineb: Kendal is actually an old friend of mine 🙂 best of luck whichever way you go on the day!
@Kendal: currently having in-depth conversations with my knees...
nosemineb - I know it's done the rounds. I'm not being (very) sarcastic; elliptic has been getting more into endurance stuff over the last year and I know he's always had an interest in the BG.
nosemineb - some of this may be useful.
For what it's worth the hourly average speed works out at just under three miles an hour, with the terrain and height gain, (which I can see from your posts you are familiar with,) this is not 'only walking pace'. I'm sure you realise this.
I supported a mate with a winter attempt last December and having the route GPSed really helped.
Stage 3 seems to be the one most drop out on. At this point just focus on Wasdale not what is left total.
Change your socks at all the road crossings.
Don't wear new / untested footwear or clothing.
Have road shoes to change into for the run into Keswick.
Oh ok so its a lovers tiff! I read it as if you were having a real dig. 8)
Thanks for the advice.
We have gps watches. Its good guidance for the route [mapped from previous recces]. It does work really well but we will have maps as back up. Battery life is 20 hours we have 2 available.
My new omm jacket arrived today so if it doesnt rain before next week im going to take a chance and take it on the day anyway. 🙂
I intend on having comfy slippers for the road miles at the end and i am undecided on the changing socks..
I always grease my feet before starting [Rob Jebb does it so thats a good enough reason for me] But some people swear on not changing socks, i guess there not doing 24 hours though. So you stand by that? I will take spares anyway.
Cheers guys.
'Only walking pace' was meant as helpful advice, if tongue in cheek. It comes from a mate who BGRd in 1993, I think. I'm sure we're all familiar with Naismith's rule. I can't help thinking a mix of awe and healthy disrespect are useful attitudes to go into with. It's only about twice as far as I've ever run (and 5x the ascent!). Enjoy!
I did the Lakeland 50 last year, got to Ambleside with no blisters, (38 miles ish?) and finished in Coniston with eight. This was because my feet got creased when wet and blisters formed in the creases. New socks and foot powder would have sorted it. (To be fair they weren’t much of an issue when I was actually running, it was just the following week that was hard work!)
Greasing feet is a good idea; it does help in my experience, (not BG length, but longer courses on mountain marathons.) Rob would probably run on bleeding stumps though so just because he does it don't expect it to alleviate all issues.
Cheers Kendal.
Your right about Rob. I dont know him personally but raced cyclocross and fell races that he has done many a time. Hopefully 1 day he will have a crack at a round.
1-2 days to go now? All the best!
Best of luck.
It's on my list to to too maybe the next few years. A BG and UTMB are 2 of my big goals for the next few years
@SamBob yeah not that much wind this year too bar the start which was horrific for me (non sailor), mind you one of our sailors was ill that night too. my 3rd year too which boat was your dad on?
Im packed. Rested and ready as i ever will be!
The weather may just be ok to!
Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Any news??? 😀
He'll not be finished yet 🙂
I expect his crew woke us up as they passed our little tent at the Latrigg car park in the middle of the night. I'd been supporting a friend going anticlockwise and did the section from Sca Fell to Dunmail. We were all set with a rope for Broad Stand but it was totally slimey so we decided it was best avoided - could easily have spent a long time faffing there - so instead went down the traverse and down Lord's Rake (having gone up it to recce on the way). That was fine.
Sadly, although my pal was going really well he packed up at Threlkeld and was sick. Shame. He'd been 1hr 35min up on his 23hr schedule when we handed him over at Dunmail. It meant we had a grand day out on the hills and I got to see the sunrise this morning. Feel a bit sleepy now.
Some pics will be on my flickr site soon if anyone is interested.
There seemed to be loads of people (relatively)out doing it and conditions were near perfect so hopefully most were successful.
What's lords rake like now? Years since I've been in the area, and I heard it was a bit suspect now, but don't know if the stories are overblown.
Suspect in what way? I stood still and watched a shoe box sized rock go tumbling past me but apart from that it was fine (in as much as any steep gully filled with loose scree is 'fine').
See the pics:
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/30189432@N00/sets/72157627162222494/ ]Bob Graham[/url]
I was thinking of reports like this, but it sounds like the problem might be overinflated.
[url] http://www.wasdaleweb.co.uk/news.html [/url]
Excellent photos Paul, shame your mate didnt make it. On the plus side yu get to do it again 😀
Tired and emotional 🙁
My knees decided for me that it wasnt going to happen early on in leg 1 as we climbed the last part to Blencathra. We had lost 2 of our pacers as 1 looked after the other and they had all my kit after he insisted he would carry it. So after a lack of food there was mild cramp starting at threkeld and my knee pain hadnt improved after the long downhill run. Neurfens were first on the menu. I started leg 2 and up clough head it seemed to be coming together again, food eaten, electolytes gulped and the climb ended. When the running started so did the pain again, i condidered bailing at sticks pass, then again at Helvelyn. Instead i took more painkillers and ran on for another hour to Fairfield where i sat down. I couldnt do another 40 mile after doing 13 with painfull knees. It just wasnt going to happen. The other 3 carried on to the end and i joined support team following them around. A great day for them finishing in 22hr20min in perfect weather from beginning to the end. So pleased for them yet so gutted for myself. I didnt expect to get round, i just wanted to go further than i had before. Next time, on my own attempt and these guys have already said they will be there for me. I will do it. Gutted.
Bad luck nosemi and well done to your mates.
IanMunro - health and safety!
My pal probably won't do it again. Everything was perfect and he was unsuccessful so he's going to accept that his body and constitution isn't designed for stuff like this. He is competitive or even a possible winner in 'shorter' fell races (up to 30 miles) but seems to suffer on longer endurance type events. That's today's story anyway 😉
Sorry to hear that nosemineb 🙁
Good effort its a shame that you developed kneee pain so early on. I think in that situation its never going to ease given the hammering to come.
Look forward to your next attempt!
Surfer
Too bad, you must have had your doubts really early on, that must have been tough. Still, you had a nice day in the hills and all that, and still did something most people wouldn't get close to.
Still, you had a nice day in the hills and all that,
Think it was mostly the night actually Steve. Pretty sure it was his crew that woke us up on the path up Skiddaw 🙂
good on you for having a go...respect 😉
Hi mate, sorry to hear your knees were playing up better luck next time! great news for the other guys. I was assisting with my mate's attempt too who got round in a staggaring 19hr 22min 😯
Good effort alll the the same nosemineb, hopefully you've got some more knowledge about the route for your next BG attempt.
Paul, Sorry about waking you up! There were a couple of tents we passed early on up skiddaw around 12.30am.
Your all right though, it was another great experience, more lessons learnt. I got to see a lovely sunrise and see first hand a succesfull attempt. Great experiences.
Im trying to work out if i had done enough preperation or if it was just a bad day for me. My knees had never stopped me before so why today?! Not sure, they still hurt today and i felt pretty beaten up. Maybe the adrenalin pushed the pace too much.
Ha, no problem. We were barely asleep anyway. In a little Vaude right by the gate where the cars are parked. I couldn't believe how busy it was round there at that time of night 🙂
The plan was that they would phone us from the top of Skiddaw and so give us 20mins to get packed up and run down with them to finish. When we got to bed we realised there was no phone reception so making calculations based on how quickly he'd been going we got up at 4am and sat in the car for a bit then wandered up the path. Phones buzzed when reception kicked in but the message was that he'd stopped at Threlkeld. Nothing else to do but go home - my wife was surprised when I took her a cup of tea in bed!
He's too modest to say but Elliptic got round last week in 23.16 having run legs 2, 3 & 4 solo. A very good effort all in all.
Yep, no drama but a long hard day out. Looking forward to getting out on the bike more often now it's done.
nice one, well done!
fantastic effort, well done you!
I am only just getting back to some running after my knee calmed down. Still unexplained but i had an mri yesterday which im awaiting results for [Doc told me to have it anyway even if pain had subsided].
Are you going to the Bgr dinner? Im going as +1 to one of my mates and doing Langdale horseshoe on the saturday to. May even squeeze a recce in on the sunday if were up for it.
I would love to hear how it went, so please feel free to Pm me.
Well done
VERY welldone!
Did you run it solo as in not recognised by the club? Was that on purpose?
No, I don't qualify for the club. As you know you need pacers all the way to witness every top, and as Kendal said I did three out of the five legs solo. My brother-in-law and sister (who both run for Ambleside AC) also did a leg each with me.
It wasn't a pre-meditated decision to do it that way, but I wanted to keep it low key and I really didn't want to lock myself into a particular day and then get stuck with bad weather. I did originally target the 13th/14th weekend which (apart from the full moon) had no local fell races on, so there was a decent chance I could pick up some support at short notice via local contacts. But in the event the weather wasn't that great and anyway I needed a few more days rest after my last big training run (the Welsh 3000s two weeks before).
The next weekend (the one just gone) had a Championship race on, so rather than push my attempt back indefinitely I took the first decent weather window (Thursday/Friday) and got on with it 🙂
It actually turned out very good conditions for doing the round, dry and cool weather but the ground was still quite wet, so knee-friendly over long distances.
Glad your knee is settling down, if it's any consolation I'm living proof you can have a dodgy knee prone to random flare-ups and still get round the BGR! Will pm you some more details at some point, really hope you can get back on track & get yours done next year.
Oh, and the round itself went quite comfortably as far as Bowfell, after that I was ambling along the flats/descents well enough but digging very deep on the climbs to stay close to schedule.
The other memorable feature was the bizarre variety of food cravings at different stages... bacon rolls, bananas, pizza, tangfastics...
Brilliant! Well done 🙂
Well done Elliptic.
Top effort. I admire your nonchalance and low-key approach.
all sounds brilliant - started running this year at the age of 60 with Grizzly Cub run and Charmouth challenge [8miles] most southerly fell run!! really enjoyed but! admiration and respect to all those who not only do the round but all the training - even though you didnt complete - fantastic effort to get to the start line. Everyone needs to read 'feet in the sky' I dont know how they did it!as a mountain bike rider, fell walker and mountaineer I always struggle - trail running is a great alternative to MTBing.
Good luck to all those who train for it never mind attempt it