Was that summer?

Good morning/afternoon folks

Here is the latest hotch-potch of nonsense which is my life in the form of a blog. Perhaps the fastest successive blog this year? Taking advantage of a day off work (whilst completely ignoring my list of “jobs”).
This somehow used to be a weekly blog, which was probably down to craziness levels in Peru. Not quite as much happening nowadays, but all good.

‘Ello John, got a new motor!
Check out this old Austin beauty.

New addition!

Ruby, a diddy Shetland Pony foal was born last week 🙂
Mother and filly are doing well.

Scott’s BIG day out.

In the previous blog, I mentioned Scott.
I met Scott in May, after the Calderdale Way Relay when we were both running back to the start after leg 1, and conversation (as always) got round to future plans/aspirations. Scott mentioned that he was aiming for a July Bob Graham Round, at the time I was just starting to get back to some kind of training, so I agreed to help if I was fit.

Remember that runners are one of 4 types:
i – Injured
ii – Coming back from injury
iii – About to be injured
iv – Combination of all three above.

So, 11am on Saturday 1st of July saw me (with too many fitness question marks to mention) at the familiar lay-by that is Dunmail Raise, on the A591, between Grasmere and Thirlmere at the start of leg 3, with Richard (who I had run the same leg with 2 weeks earlier), an amazing support team. Sinhead and Christine did an amazing job.

Support runners are there to carry food, drink, kit and help with navigation, finding the right lines, and forcefeeding/encouraging/bullying/cajoling/convincing the BGR attempter into thinking that continuing is a good idea!

(Solo and/or unsupported rounds have been done in the past, but that it definitely a big step up in the madness stakes!)

If you ever see people at the summit of Dunmail Raise squinting up the slopes of Seat Sandal, chances are they are supporting a Bob Graham Round!

The main man Scott arrived, after having been been battered over legs 1 and 2 by high winds, torrential rain and clag. The recent heatwave was over.

By sheer chance, a friend I used to work with at Leeds Climbing Wall and a fellow member of Pudsey & Bramley, Jake, appeared (unplanned) and agreed to run with us and help with support and navigation. (BIG thank you to Jake for use of his photos).

We set off up the steep-as-ever Steel Fell, 20 minutes up on schedule, but were blown about by some of the strongest, gustiest winds I’ve felt in a while. (After not feeling more than a gentle breeze in Peru in all the time I was there, a less windy place I have never been to).

The now familiar Steel Fell-Calf Crag-Sgt Man-High Raise-Thunacar Knott-Harrison Stickle-Pike o’ Stickle-Rossett Pike (groan)-Bowfell-Esk Pike-Great End-Broad Crag-Ill Crag-Scafell Pike (deep breath)-Lord’s Rake leading to Scafell and a vertical scree run down to the NT car park at the top end of Wastwater route was done whereupon Scott, 2 new support runners and Jake (who carried on to the end) stormed up the even-steeper Yewbarrow for a shedload more summits into the night and into more crappy weather.
(Whilst us supporters were fed with pies and pasties. and a bottle of local beer for all supporters, after their leg).

I couldn’t stay for the finale as I had to get home, so I reversed my 6am route back to Taddy, home by midnight, but was transfixed by “dotwatching”, the live tracker that Scott was wearing to show where he was. Leg 4 done and into the night proper on leg 5.

He only bloody did it!
Sub 24 hours and a very worthy member of the Bob Graham Round club.

Well done Scott 🙂

Richard’s turn next!

For me personally, it was the best day I’ve had on the fells, with like minded people (ie, nutters) since my own BGR in 2009 🙂

Wasdale Horseshoe Fell Race

If you Google “Wasdale fell race route” this is what you get:

“Deepest lake, highest mountain, biggest liar and hardest fell race – that’s Wasdale. Wordsworth once said that
every fellrunner should do Wasdale at least once, or something like that!”

I had run Wasdale once before in 2000, but only remember a very small field (35 runners and only 25 finishers) and attrocious weather for the second half.
I was younger, fitter and dafter back then.

The thing that originally drew me to fellrunning was the simplicity and complete lack of BS. You don’t need any fancy kit (despite what the manufacturers say), a pair of shoes that will keep you upright, some kit to keep you warm if the weather turns bad, some kind of sugary food to keep you moving and something to carry your gubbins in. You pay your entry fee, get a number, run/crawl/walk/fall round a route then at the end you get a cup of tea in a throwaway cup and a piece of flapjack. No t-shirt you’ll never wear again, no medal that will go into a box and no hype, brilliant!

23 years on, my head was a bit full of BGR leg 3 routes and Ennerdale maps, to really focus on this route, which was to bite my ar$e to be honest.

The luxury of a day off on Friday allowed a morning of unparalleled faffing, before a long ride up the A1-A66-diddy road-A595 and 5hrs later, I was at sunny Wasdale.
The Saturday forecast was somewhere between biblical and catastrophic, which felt hard to believe given how pleasantly benign it was on the Friday evening.
Even dawn brought in a warm and breezy morning, but the organisers were wary of thunder and lightning (marshalls are stuck on the summit checkpoints) and the plan B was for the race to be shortened at Pillar, which we would not know until arriving at a checkpoint with no marshalls.

**Walshes or Sillymans? Walshes won the day!**

The race goes straight up a haul onto the Screes, first checkpoint at Whin Rigg, dropping steeply through the bracken (check for ticks) down to Greendale (CP2) via the valley floor. Somewhere along the way I pulled my groing, which didn’t help me much then the endless slog up horsefly ridden Seatallan (CP3), up to which point it was sweatier than (enter your own superlative/comparative) and then dropping down into the clag around the Pots of Ashness, sloshingly skirting around Scoat Fell and up onto Pillar, I was 1/3 of a trio here, sharing the lead/nav with a NE bloke and a Calder Valley lass who was super determined to get to Great Gable, getting out of the valley and onto the col the winds really picked up on the way round Kirk Fell (CP4), I took a fall here, (it is a fell race after all). A downhill face plant that happensed quicker than you could swear).

This was followed by a brutal (will try not to overuse this word) climb up Great Gable (CP5) which is the final cut-off point.
Back to race description:

“This is where the race really starts – it’s hands on knees work, not even Jebby will be running up this one. Gable is
the last checkpoint with a time limit. If you can’t make it this far in 4.5hrs you are not fast enough to continue. Do
not argue with the marshals here!!!”

With the clock ticking, nobody was talking going up Great Gable. To be timed out here would mean a long slog back down into the valley and a DNF status.
To get to the top of GG (the first mountain I ever climbed as a youngster) with 10 minutes to spare was a massive relief, but there is still a long way to go, down to Styhead and up to Esk Hause (CP6) and then along the rocky ridge to the ceiling of England at Scafell Pike (CP7). The weather took a real downward turn here and the temperature dropped as quickly as the heavens opened. Compared to the usual weekend crowds, only 2 very hardy marshalls were atop Scafell Pike, as we dropped into the gloomy mist for Lingmell, eyes straining for other runners and hoping to drop below the storm and clag. It got cold, I was cold, I remember the legendary runner, Nicky Spinks once said “If you think about doing something 3 times, do it” so if that refers to food, drink or putting on some more/warmer kit, do it!
(Fellrunning Association race rules enforce runners to carry a waterproof jacket, waterproof trousers, hat, gloves, map, compass, whistle and emergency food, in my case a slab of Kendal Mint Cake, only to be broken into in dire circumstances).
Common sense was shouting at me to stop and put my cagoule on, but the thought of just keeping moving and getting to the finish was winning the battle.

A runner (from Ashbourne) asked which club I was with. My brain/nose and mumbling was feeling the cold here.

When I replied “Pudsey & Bramley“, he thought I said “Putney & Bromley“, which must be a London branch of my Leeds club!

Over the World’s steepest stile (CP8, see winner, Finlay Wild, below) and down Lingmell Nose to the finish.

The incredibly steep, convex slope gets even steeper here and a Geordie bloke called Craig (one of the trio from earlier) urged us to “leg it to get under 6.5 hours”, which we all did, just, before retreating to my car, with blowers on full heat, trying to ward off hypothermia, which was lessening the effects of a sexy sunburnt “vest tan” from earlier in the day.

(Finlay Wild had had a dip in a stream, collected his trophy and driven back up to Scotland by this point!)

I resisted the bathing urge and sheltered from the thunder and lightning, which really was directly overhead by this point.

**20 minutes slower than 2000, but a lot has happened since then**

After shivering my way back to the climbing hut in the car and a hot shower, I was semi-human again, and after a brilliant ARCC BBQ, retired to my pit early, unable to sleep due to some heavy duty pains in my knees, feet, ankles, shoulder and everywhere else in between.

Awesome race, brilliant weekend, followed by a few days of inactivity and possibly the Borrowdale race, or the Tea Round (or both, or neither) in August.
Watch this space…

Whereas Ennerdale seemed very special (in a heatstroke/dehydration induced way) as it was my first Lakes race in years, Wasdale feeled very satisfying to actually get around and beat the cut-offs.

The race was fantastically summarised by my mate John (@lakelandtrailrunner
@johns_fells for all you Instapeople)
in this excellent video below. This guy is awesome 🙂

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Miles (@johns_fells)

Raider’s Round-up

Grim times at Craven Park

Second from bottom in the league and with our main playmaker, Jarrod Sammut, banned for 5 matches. (Alleged aggressive language/body language during Halfix match).
It is going to a testing run-in now.

Be more like Steve.

There is a grainy photo on a frame on a set of drawers to my right, with my 2 brothers, myself and the late, great Steve Irwin.
I went to Australia Zoo in January 2005, a year before his premature, tragic death and was overwhelmed by the man’s passion for the planet. (I am definitely not a zoo fan, but this place was very, very different).