I vaguely recall a running friend describing the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge as a Bob Graham for old gits... so it felt like it was probably something for me, given that the time allowed increases with age.
Below 55, you get 12 hours as a man and 14 hours as a woman (15 and 16 respectively over 55), but a somewhat generous 18 hours (for all genders) over 60.
It was a good excuse to explore areas of the Lakes I didn’t know particularly well, the route starting in Pooley Bridge and heading over two legs to Dunmail, via Kirkstone, before then using a reasonable amount of the Bob Graham route, dropping into Greendale (near Wasdale) some 44 miles and 17,000 ft later.
The forecast for Friday issued by MWIS on Thursday afternoon looked encouraging, so we stuck with the plan of a dawn start in Pooley Bridge, after an overnight stay in a pub car park (what’s not to like) the night before, giving ample opportunity for pre run fuelling.
Jane McCarthy had kindly agreed to support the first two legs, and we set off as planned at 5am, on a rather murky, damp morning. The first leg is relatively gentle in terms of climb so I was keen to ensure we stuck with my intended 16 hour schedule, so that the support crew weren’t hanging around too much. We had to contend with low cloud and a blustery wind, which brought a number of showers with it, particularly on the higher parts of the route. The temperature was quite pleasant but the wind and rain eventually forced us both to resort to waterproof jackets for the final climb and descent into Kirkstone. Visibility was down to about 50 meters at this point so we were pleased to see Lis, our road crew, and Rainer, a member of the club who had appeared to wish us well, before we headed off up Red Screes armed with more tailwind and a banana.
We caught the briefest glimpse of the sun as we got close to the summit of Red Screes, and that was probably the only time all day, with the rain jacket also being a pretty permanent feature. There are only four summits on leg 2 (8 miles – 3,200ft) the final two of which are Fairfield and Seat Sandal and therefore familiar to Bobbers. We had gained a little more time as I parted company with Jane at Dunmail, refuelling with tea and porridge before setting off with the birthday boy (Peter Shelley) following some more of the Bob route up to Steel Fell before diverting (off path) to High Raise and beyond. It had at least stopped raining by this stage although it was wet under foot (I understood why Peter had his waterproof trousers on, when he went knee deep in bog at one point) and the wind became stronger and more gusty. I was getting to the slightly tired stage at this point so found the long off path into the wind climb up to High Raise hard work, although the subsequent run down gave a period of recovery before the climb up to Rossett Pike, and the challenge of Bowfell.
I have often struggled to find the right route up Bowfell and have ended up having to do some impromptu scrambling to get back onto what I would regard as the main path. This time Peter and I did manage to stay on a path, although not quite the intended one and took the summit by surprise from the rear having had some further off piste adventures.... Happily we were still slightly ahead of schedule and briefly had Hayley from Birmingham for company (the second runner we had seen all day), who added a detour to her plan to join us on Esk Pike and Great End. Very kindly and in a chilly wind, Jann and Alison Weston were waiting for us at the summit of Great End to help us navigate a route down to Sty Head.
The birthday boy left us at that point, after I had been served coffee by Mr Weston, who had kindly brought a flask up the 4 or so miles from Wasdale. Recharged, we set off on the last leg, similar in distance and climb (5,000ft) to leg 3. With Jann and Alison navigating, leg 4 was reasonably uneventful if somewhat slower, other than the ongoing battle with the strong blustery wind, Windy Gap in particular living up to its name. Fortunately the route out and back to Steeple wasn’t in the worst of the wind, and equally fortunately Jann didn’t mention someone had been blown off there on a previous attempt.
From then on, other than focusing on staying upright (both wind and tiredness were against me) it was a question of counting down the climbs until we got to the final peak at Middle Fell where we probably had the best (only?) view of the day, down towards Wastwater. Peter re-joined us there for the descent to Greendale Bridge, arriving just ahead of my intended schedule in just under 15 ½ hours. Unfortunately the man himself wasn’t well enough to join us although we had armed ourselves with Mackeson Stout, just in case. Instead, we celebrated with Graham (Weston), Paul and Lis, with beer and tea before heading home after a long but satisfying day. I am now looking forward to two dinners this autumn.
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| Greendale Bridge |
A big thank you to my fantastic support crew of Jane, Peter, Jann, Alison and Lis, with a guest star appearance from Graham at Sty Head, and Paul C (in charge of comms at Greendale by finding the right rock to stand on to get signal!), all of whom gave up a significant amount of time to support this blustery adventure. And a final thank you to Ian Charters of the Joss Naylor Club for his patient and timely response to my many queries.
Andrew
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