The fell guys think it would be great to revive this club event this summer and want to put something together that would give all members at the club the chance to sample some time out running in the hills, have a bit of a laugh, challenge us all a little (or a lot!) and see what you are missing!

 

So they have come up with the idea of organising an EVRC relay attempt on the Bob Graham Round.

 

For those not familiar with the Bob Graham Round, this is a challenge named after a local Lakeland publican who in the 1950s came up with the concept, and was the first to complete, a run around 42 Lakeland peaks in a 74 mile circuit centred on Keswick in the northern Lakes in (and here's the tricky bit) under 24 hours.

 

We do actually have some club members who have completed this feat on their own (they know who they are and can now bask in the glory of their fading memories (Nick, Phil, Gary!) but we are proposing to make this a social event and are proposing to run this as a relay. Also (and this depends on the amount of interest we get) we wouldn't necessarily aim to complete this in one day, we might split the attempt over 2 days so that we don’t have to run this in the twilight hours (and so we can make sure we finish with time to go to the pub each day!!).

 

The idea will be to include everyone who wants to have a go; from those that want to run several legs to those that just want to run part of one leg. Each leg (or part of leg) would be run in teams, of approx 4 people. There are 5 legs of varying length and difficultly, its not all steep and rocky in fact some of it is relatively flat and grassy (and no worse than our handicap course!!) and there are actually some road sections, so we should be able to accommodate everyone's wishes in terms of what sort of terrain they feel comfortable running on and how knackered they want to be at the end of their run. Please also bear in mind that there will be an experienced navigator on each leg so there is no need to worry about getting lost!

 

I should also add that in addition to runners we would also need and be grateful for support for the attempt in the form of people who are prepared to ferry runners between some of the leg start/finish points and transport food around.

 

Accommodation would most probably be camping (although there is the possibility of a camping barn or hostel) at one of the sites close to the route near Keswick although obviously you can arrange your own alternative accommodation if you don't fancy camping, but the site we usually use has good facilities and camp life is entertaining!

 

Right now we are after expressions of interest from people so that we can confirm that we have sufficient interest to make this work and then make a start on the logistics. The dates we have in mind for this are the weekend of Friday 30th July through to Sunday 1st August.

 

Please feel free to talk to any club member with Fell experience about any aspect of the event.

 

I think we can guarantee you a great weekend so please if you are interested could you email me at: neilweightman@live.co.uk giving me the following information:

The dates might seem a while off but it'll soon be on us and so we need to start making the arrangements pretty soon so a quick response would be brilliant.

 

NEIL WEIGHTMAN