Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Jann Smith (W55) - 31 May 2024
I first attempted the JNLC on 18/07/2019 when I was 50. It was bad weather and I felt bad reaching Greendale 14 minutes over the time of 14 hours as the lovely Joss was waiting for me.
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| Sty Head |
I re-attampted on my 55th birthday setting off at 4.05am. Things got off to a bad start with a very upset stomach, some pretty spicy weather and a fall, however at Dunmail Raise 2 immodiums were shoved down my throat and I was told to man up! After that the weather got much better , I force fed myself some food and drink and started to really enjoy it. I got stronger and was really pleased to make up 1.5 hours, finishing in 14hr 25 mins just 10 minutes slower than 5 years ago.
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| Greendale Bridge |
It was a low key affair with just one runner supporting ( my partner Paul Carman ) and just one road support at Dunmail and Styhead from John and Julie Carman who also provided dog-sitting ....Thank you!!
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| Selfie |
Wednesday, 6 November 2024
Carol Morgan (W50) - 16 March 2024
On a scale of achievements, I will never win an award for sleeping. After a restless night, we had an early morning start from Pooley Bridge and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise as we climbed up Arthur’s Pike. Never one to make things too easy on myself, I wanted to try to do the challenge in under 12 hours (a late personal celebration of International Women’s Day on the day before Paddy’s day). The first leg is essentially a hard fell race. An introvert by nature, the quiet of the leg was comfortable for me, if probably seemingly uncharacteristic for the friends who were with me: I was working hard to make the splits. The beautiful start was replaced by clag around Kidsy Pike, next time I could see in the distance was around Dunmail Raise. Having trained all Winter in the wind, rain and clag, I was comfortable to trot along in it while the navigation wasn’t today, mine to worry about. We hit the little known tops that were seemingly randomly added and dropped down a grassy line to Kirkstone. So claggy it was that the support team were alerted by the supporter who had dropped off there, while the new team struggled up Red Screes complaining about their lack of time to finish their tea (I had little sympathy, I don’t like tea :)). The navigation challenges soon focused their brains and tea was forgotten about as banter about missed Hodgson’s relays lines was passed around. I felt a bit fatigued after the fast start and was happy to be cocooned in the clag and listen and enjoy the hills and banter. While admiring the skill of those who can navigate much much better than me.
ally dressed supporter at the stretcher box. Leg three over in flash! Another new team and the short climb up Gable, followed by the scree drop downwards: the rising winds which was in an unhelpful and unforecast direction (Southerly, rather than South-Easterly). The long climb up Pilar with a brief stop for waterproof trousers, a blowly Steeple and a husband hug all over in a flash. Memories of sunshine and Wasdale Fell Race reccies and the paradox of the beautiful descent being also longest climb on tired legs up Seatallan.
Kim Collison, Simon Franklin, Simon Mills, Jess Richardson, Debs White
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
The Crossing
The Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge or The Crossing, as Joss always referred to it, is a significant part of his legacy and will continue, much as before. We all appreciate it won't be quite the same without Joss waiting at Greendale Bridge but nevertheless, everyone involved hopes Contenders will still have a great day out on the fells, just as Joss intended.
I am continuing as the recorder to help ensure the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge continues for many years to come.
Thursday, 4 July 2024
Joss Naylor Funeral arrangements
It was Joss' wish that his funeral should be a colourful celebration of his life and attending fell runners should dress in their club colours. Also that those who are able should run over any of the passes into Wasdale Head. More details to follow.
St Olaf's at Wasdale Head is the smallest parish church in England and admission will be by invitation only. There will be a public address system to relay the service to those outside. Nearby parking is extremely limited so if you are not running to St Olaf's please car share, park considerately or use public transport.
The Naylor family invite all fellrunners to join them at Wasdale Head on Friday 19th July and to form a colourful guard of honour as Joss takes his short journey to his final resting place.
Donations, if desired, to the Stroke Ward, West Cumberland Hospital. To donate, please see: All enquiries, please contact us on 01946 810241 or at
Wednesday, 3 July 2024
Joss Naylor obituary | Sport | The Guardian
Joss Naylor running in Wasdale, Cumbria, in 2004. He was born in the hamlet of Wasdale Head, where he lived for most of his life.
Towering figure in the world of fell-running admired for his charisma, tenacity and the domination of his sport
Joss Naylor was a colossus in the world of fell-running who in the final third of the 20th century not only dominated his sport but, through sheer charisma, put it on the map.
His greatest feats of endurance, in the 1970s and 80s, were accomplished far from the public gaze in the clouded hills of . But the unprecedented extremity of his achievements, and the hardiness that made them possible, captured the imagination of mountain lovers everywhere.
A Lakeland sheep-farmer who lived for most of his life in the hamlet of Wasdale Head, Naylor, who has died aged 88, ran his first fell event in September 1960, in the Mountain Trail – despite medical advice to avoid strenuous activity following injury in his teens.
Over the next few years, he began to race regularly, honing his technique and focusing his ambitions. He was not the fastest, and, after taking over the tenancy of his father’s farm in 1962, he had little time for systematic training. But he felt comfortable moving at speed over even the roughest terrain – he said that his experience with dry-stone walls helped him “read” the rocks – and his resilience seemed superhuman.
By the late 60s, he had begun a purple patch that would last almost 20 years: he won the Mountain Trial 10 times and the Ennerdale Horseshoe nine times in a row (1968-76), along with repeated victories in such gruelling events as the Wasdale, the Duddon Valley, the Welsh 1,000m Peaks, the Manx Mountain Marathon and the Karrimor Mountain Marathon (now the ).
What he really excelled at, however, were individual ultra-distance challenges. In 1971, he became only the sixth person to complete the , a notorious 66-mile circuit of 42 Lake District peaks, to be completed in 24 hours, which had once been considered as unattainable as the four-minute mile. Then he set out to extend that circuit.
In 1972 he completed 63 peaks within the 24-hour time limit, in the midst of an atrocious storm. , who paced him for part of the route, described this as “a memory equal to any of the greatest Olympic races that I have ever seen”. Three years later, Naylor upped his total to 72 peaks: the equivalent of going up and down Everest, Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Kinder Scout in a single day, all in a blistering heatwave.
No challenge was too extreme. He ran the 268-mile Pennine Way in just over three days (1974), the 190 miles of the Coast-to-Coast path from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay in 41 hours (1976), Hadrian’s Wall in just under 11 hours (1980), and a route linking all 26 of the Lake District’s “lakes, meres and waters” in 19 hours 15 minutes (1983). When he took off his shoes at the end of the Coast-to-Coast, the skin from the bottom of his feet came off, along with all his toenails.
Naylor was born in Wasdale Head, the youngest child of Joe, a shepherd who had moved there in 1927, and his wife, Ella (nee Wilson). It was not a comfortable upbringing: the valley did not even have electricity until 1977. But Joss, who helped out with farm work from the age of seven, grew used to long, hard, outdoor days, and developed a tolerance for physical discomfort which – combined with his love of nature – would fuel his subsequent achievements.
At 15, he left school (in nearby Gosforth) to work on the farm full time. But his teens were marred by the after-effects of two seemingly minor accidents that left him with chronic back pain. By his early 20s, the medical profession had all but given up on him. His right knee had lost all its cartilage; two discs had been taken from his spine; he wore a special corset to prevent further damage. He was pronounced unfit for national service and urged to avoid strenuous activity.
He listened, but not for long. Other young men his age were getting involved in long-distance fell-running, and Naylor, whose home was overlooked by Scafell Pike, Yewbarrow and Great Gable, had a ringside seat. When the Mountain Trail event started in Wasdale in 1960 Naylor could not resist. He threw away his corset, cut off his work trousers at the knee, and ran along with the official competitors in his heavy work boots. He seized up with cramp near the end, but did well enough to know that he had found his calling.
In 1977, after many years of running and record-setting, he was warned that if he did not stop farm-work he risked having to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. So he took an indoor job, mentoring apprentices, at the nearby Windscale (now Sellafield) nuclear plant. Yet he hung on to his 1,000-strong flock of Herdwick sheep, which thereafter he tended “as a hobby”. And his fell-running became, if anything, more extreme.
In June 1986, aged 50, he attempted a continuous traverse of all 214 peaks in ’s seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, in the midst of another heatwave. It took him seven days, one hour and 25 minutes – a record that stood until 2014 – and required him to “dig deeper within … than I have ever had to reach”. By the end, the flesh on both ankles was rubbed through to the nerve, and his throat and tongue were so swollen that he could barely speak, let alone eat or drink.
To admirers, such ugly details capture the essence of “Iron Joss”. Naylor’s achievements owed less to genetic good fortune than to his indomitable spirit. He suffered no less than other runners. His greatness came from his refusal to surrender.
In an age when elite sport is increasingly seen as a science or a business, he ran with his heart, not his head. His favoured fuels were rock-cakes and apple pie, washed down with Guinness or salted blackcurrant juice or, occasionally, cod liver oil (swigged straight from the bottle, “like whisky”). And he would not hesitate to interrupt a record attempt to rescue a lamb in distress.
He was appoiinted MBE in 1976, yet remained startlingly modest about his achievements. Lesser fell-runners were amazed and inspired by the interest he took in their endeavours, and he would offer advice or encouragement to anyone who shared his love of the fells. The Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge – a 48-mile route for runners over 50 that he set up in 1990 – reflects this generous outlook.
He also used his fame to raise money for charity, which he did enthusiastically for many years – not least by scaling 60 peaks at the age of 60 (in 36 hours) and 70 rather smaller peaks at 70 (in 21 hours).
Naylor was still active on the fells in his 80s, until a stroke in 2021 set off his final decline.
He is survived by his wife, Mary (nee Downie), whom he married in 1963, and three children, Paul, Susan and Gillian.