Bob Graham – First the Crew.

Sometimes running is a team game. After OUR phenomenal exploits at the Bob Graham Round I would like to bow down in front of my crew, shine the spotlight on them, and hopefully give them the recognition they deserve. I may have been the one who ran the round, but without the guys (and gal) supporting me, I would have achieved very little.

I will shortly let some of them recount events from their perspective. But first I need to thank them. Very much!

Mrs RTS had never crewed before. She was faultless, not only hurrying food and drink to me at each point where she was present, but also ferrying the mule train from point to point in the dead of night. She had very little sleep, but did everything that was asked and even threw on her running gear to join me for the last fast mile. I was quite emotional when I saw her before the last leg, and even more so when she ran alongside me through Keswick.

Bondy – did what it says on his can. Drove to every checkpoint (including the one two hours from sensible civilisation), fed and watered me, gave off positive vibes, and even rustled up a cup of tea and a bacon buttie at the bottom of Scafell.

Vin – ran the first and last legs with me. He is super fit but is no mountain goat. This was more ‘mountain’ than he was comfortable with, but he was still there at the end.

The Mule Train! - Daft B and AdamT. That is one whole world of insanity - sitting on freezing mountain tops for hours on end just waiting. And then quickly refuelling me and sending me onwards. Imagine a formula 1 pit stop, but on a 900metre high, rocky mountain. They were just sublime, working hard when needed, freezing their nuts off when not needed, and always keeping a sense of humour (and an appropriate sense of stupidity!)

Adams stats are impressive. Not only up all night in the mountains, but he covered 26 miles and climbed 10,000 feet. That’s more than 2 Ben Nevis’, all carrying someone else’s supplies AND a beer chair. And he put on his running gear and ran the last 3 mountains with me, followed by almost 10K of road running. I hope he enjoyed it, and I hope he will join us again.

Daft B. Well, what can I say? Not only for his exploits with Adam on Helvellyn (and thereafter), but how do you thank someone who sits waiting for you for eight hours on a cold mountain to do no more than spend thirty seconds handing you half a litre of water and a bag of sweets. By the time I saw him on Great Gable I knew we would be successful. I hope he felt the weight of feeling from my pat on his back as I left him. He was the last man on the high fells, and still had a long walk to safety and pick up. I think we shared the emotional spoils at the finish.

I’ll outline events that occurred to me next blog post, but here are firstly AdamT’s and then Daft B’s thoughts..........................

ADAM.....

What am I doing here? It's midnight and I'm sat in a small collapsible chair on top of Helvellyn - the 3rd highest mountain in the country - trying to keep warm and in the company of a man I only met a few hours ago. In less than half an hour, another man will run up the mountain, drink some water and then run off into the night.

This, as I understand it, is perfectly normal for Team RTS.

Only a week ago I had asked if I could be part of this particular adventure. Sometime last year I'd read the book "Feet in the Clouds" chronicling one man's goal to run the Bob Graham round; and epic fell run covering 42 peaks of the Lake District in 24 hours. This is a properly hard thing to achieve and certainly beyond my abilities but to be part of an attempt even in a small way -- how exciting!

It has to be said that my preparation was minimal and there was some last-minute (indeed, post-last-minute) dashing around to buy some appropriate clothing for spending 24 or more hours in the mountains. I would be keeping Daft B company and hauling water to 3 pre-arranged meeting points so that RTS and Vin could replenish their supplies during the round but more than that I didn't want to know.

I trusted that everyone else knew the plan and the routes and we would follow. Why worry about how far we had to walk, or how high we must climb? It had to be done however I felt about it.

RTS and Vin began their run from Moot Hall in Keswick at 6pm on Friday evening and immediately vanished down an alleyway on route to Skiddaw. Now with 6 hours to kill before the first rendezvous we did the only sensible thing and went to the pub.

Our climb to the peak of Helvellyn went by quickly and we summited around 10pm after about an hour and a half of walking. This would give us plenty of time to take in the marvellous views and to get comfortable. Helvellyn has a cross-shaped shelter just off the top affording respite from the light but chilly wind, next to which we would erect our "beer chairs". These were a last-minute addition to our already heavy backpacks; folding chairs which would save us from sitting on the ground in the event of rain. By the comments we received from other walkers, carrying chairs over mountains is not common practice but who knows? Maybe we'll start a trend. Frustratingly the wind couldn't make up its mind and changed direction every few minutes so we abandoned the shelter and instead roamed around the summit to keep warm. We were rewarded with a spectacular red sunset and as night fell, the lights from towns many miles distant to the south and east came into view.

Around this time, we heard that Vin had dropped out. The descent from Blencathra had proven to be more daunting than he had expected and he had struggled down to safety. This certainly put a small cloud over our hopes, and RTS would now have to complete the run without company.

As luck would have it, this wasn't entirely true. Other groups were making their own attempts; one in particular had a rather large support crew working in a relay system and pacing their runner throughout, and RTS would link up with them frequently during the coming hours. We were indeed surprised and relieved when we saw a train of headtorches bobbing over the mountains towards our position.

We had a small surprise for RTS. He'd had his birthday last week and it seemed appropriate that we should have a cake waiting for him. The cupcake we'd chosen in Keswick hadn't survived the trip up quite as well as we'd hoped and the joke candle of the type which won't blow out... well, it was no match for the wind on Helvellyn. But it's the thought that counts.

With the first rendezvous complete we headed back down off Helvellyn to meet Bondy and Mrs RTS in the support cars at Dunmail Raise. Daft B had brought his new cycle light to provide illumination; a 900 lumens monster which lit up the path like daylight and caused all wildlife within a 5-mile radius to erroneously get out of bed thinking it was dawn.

As luck would have it, we arrived at the car park within seconds of RTS (who, of course, had completed several more summits). We weren't the only people here and there must have been a dozen other cars all providing support for their teams. In the surreal glare of car headlights I'm expecting to see a kebab van but disappointingly there isn't one to be found. Half a sandwich later, RTS is heading up the side of an impossibly steep hill and we're crammed into Mrs RTS' little car with Vin, who is now playing a supporting role.

Our next task is to make our way from Old Dungeon Ghyll in Langdale to the top of Rossett Pike. This involves a lovely walk along the floor of a valley followed by a steep zig-zag to the peak. It's at this point I really begin to notice something that Daft B mentioned earlier. A sheep's eyes really do glow in the light of a headtorch! The lambs are born with black wool so at night all you see are two shining dots looking at you and this is really quite spooky. To make things more interesting, I'm starting to have minor visual hallucinations and can see after-images when I move my head, but a bottle of Lucozade seems to help.

The climb seems to go on forever. Impressively, Daft B has done this with a mountain bike on a previous trip. Nutter! Disappointingly we don't get to the summit before dawn but we're mildly surprised to see two other guys at the top. Yes, they too are waiting for Bob Graham runners and are attached to the large group RTS had been last seen with. And they have hot tea and Jaffa Cakes too. Marvellous!

RTS is later than expected getting here and is over an hour behind his intended schedule but crucially almost an hour ahead of the required time. It's clear that he's struggling and talks about giving up. Something is said between Daft B and RTS about us being at the next checkpoint regardless of what he decides to do. The next thing I know, he's out of sight and on his way again.

A new experience presents itself as we head towards Great Gable. I've never fallen asleep while walking before. As entertaining as this is, we think it would be a good idea to rest before the next big ascent. With the beer chairs out again we take a break but don't sleep, as the scenery is holding our attention.

My original plan (such as it was) had been to run with RTS from Great Gable back to Keswick but I found myself without any suitable equipment and in any case, too heavily laden. For some reason I was still carrying water for Vin! We'd had confirmation that RTS was making good progress over the hardest part of the route and would be with us at the expected time. Our moods lifted and I bade farewell to Daft B. I would head for the next meeting point at Honister Slate Mine, where the cars would be parked waiting for us and if I had remembered to pack correctly, my running gear would be there too. I'm not very experienced with navigating in the mountains but my direct-line approach worked well enough although I did come close to heading over the edge of a waterfall.

Resisting the lure of the tourist shop and the ice cream it sold, I changed just in time to meet with a rejuvenated RTS. Vin too was ready to run although his choice of footwear (hiking boots) did seem unusual. The large group that RTS had met many hours ago and he had intermittently run with had now swelled to giant proportions in support of their runner for this last leg. Just 3 peaks to go, 11 miles and time enough to walk the rest of the way! Now at 33 hours without sleep, I'm slightly apprehensive but all I need do is consider what RTS has done and thoughts of my own weariness somehow seem insignificant. This is the home stretch, just a formality.

I really don't know how he was still going but I was making a definite effort just to get up the first climb. Peaks 40, 41, 42 were all knocked off in quick but steady succession. Down off the last fell by means of an entertainingly steep slope and onto the only significant section of road running. Suddenly a blip of phone signal; Mrs. RTS wants to join us for the final part of the run but the signal drops before arrangements can be made. Vin backtracks with phone in hand to return the call while the procession continues. Many minutes later, he still hasn't rejoined us and RTS seems concerned so I hang back to wait for Vin at a fork in the road so he doesn't head the wrong way.

I was hoping he wouldn't be too far behind because everyone is running on adrenaline now and I'm having some difficulty keeping up. When he rounds a corner a couple of minutes later we manage to make good pace to catch the group - at times better than 7 minutes per mile! And remember that Vin is wearing hiking boots...

Mrs. RTS joins us in Portinscale and we're all moving faster now - too fast, probably, as some of the group are dropping off the back. Up front is a guy from the other runners club ringing a cow bell. This has the magical effect of parting the pedestrians in Keswick market square and the path is clear. A final dash - and job done.

Epilogue

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

I was made to feel welcome by a bunch of nutters, most of whom I had never met.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm not fit or crazy enough to do the round myself, despite RTS's offer of running with me.

How I didn't fall asleep in my dinner that evening is anyone's guess. I've a feeling we might have left the restaurant early to spare my blushes.

Daft B....

Friday 6.30 am: - with the looooong day ahead I was hoping for a lie in however the DaftB bodyclock said time to get up. The car's already packed in order to head off to meet new crew member AdamT for lunch in Keswick. Despite the months of planning and recce runs I was feeling a bit uneasy and couldn't work out why. 

4pm:  ...........That’s why. It turns out I had my underwear on back to front. Once I'd resolved my wardrobe malfunction everything started to drop into place. Here we go for another adventure......  

4.30pm: Team briefing. Straight down to business to make sure everyone has copies of the plan, knows where they're meant to be and when, knows what to do if plan B is required. It definitely went a bit quieter when I handed out the medical sheet - a handy one pager that points doctors in the right direction if things go pear shaped with an ultrarunner.  

The final team sheet read:

Runners: RTS and Vin

Muletrain: Me and Adam T - to meet the runners at the top of various hills for 3 support points.

Car Crew: Mrs RTS, Bondy and Kieran - to meet the runners for the car support points and pick up/drop off the muletrain at various points in the middle of nowhere.  

5.40pm: Over to the start at which point we realised there's lots of other crazy fools also waiting to start the BGR too. That wasn't surprising as we'd picked a weekend close to a full moon close to the longest day hence short light nights.

6pm(ish I wasn't totally paying attention): After a few photos RTS and Vin trot away from the Moot Hall in an understated manner. The Bob Graham Round has begun.

6.30pm: I directed the car crew to their only off piste crew point . We then had an hour to kill so there was time for a quick pint before...

7.45pm: This was the start of the muletrain fun as Mrs RTS dropped us off at a remote car park. As we entered the car park there were 3 women stood by a car staring at us quite unnervingly. They weren't dressed in outdoor gear and by the time we'd parked they'd disappeared (though their car was still there). Mrs RTS decided they were burying one of their husbands, said cheerio to us and hightailed it out of the carpark. Ho hum.

9.45pm: We pottered upwards to get to the top of Helvellyn for Muletrain point 1. The beer chairs were set up and we started to wait. We go the bad news that Vin had had to pull out however the good news was that he was alright. However that meant RTS was running on his own. It soon became apparent it was cold, very cold so we had to move round to try to keep warm. As it got darker the streetlights from places further and further away started to emerge (as far down to Liverpool to our south side). It was probably 11.30pm before it was properly dark and we could see trails of headtorches flitting towards us across the ridge.

So where was RTS? As it had been his birthday last week, in true style of the support crew mentality, we had a cupcake with candles waiting to be lit. Safe to say the cupcake hadn't made it to the top in pristine condition but it's the thought that counts.

Saturday 12.15am ish: A coach party of 12 runners appeared with RTS amongst them. Good news in that he'd linked up with another team. We fuelled him up with water and malt loaf. Much mirth at the birthday cake especially as the candle wouldn't light then we dropped the cake on the floor.  RTS set off so it was then for us to head downwards. This was the first test of the fancy headlight Mrs DaftB had bought me for this adventure. 900 lumens of power in a tiny torch, it was like dawn had broken, AdamT wondered whether he needed suncream.  

We arrived at the Dunmail Raise at 2am and it was like some weird refugee camp. There must have been 30 cars of various support crews, a bizarre spotlit oasis in the middle of nowhere. They would have been supporting all the little spots of light we had seen running across the ridge of fells.

2.45am:  We got dropped off at end of Langdale by the Old Dungheon Ghyll Hotel. As Vin had stopped running there were 4 of us and 2 rucksacs squeezed in the Corsa for that trip. I got out at the far end like an arthritic crab... and then we started the long drag up Rossett Pike. The last time I came up this hill I had a bike on my shoulder, I've still no idea how I did it. We reached muletrain point 2 (in the middle of nowhere) at 4.15am....and found two other people waiting. Unsurprisingly they were waiting for other BGR runners, surprisingly they had a nice stash of Jaffa Cakes. It suddenly started to feel very cold again.

5am: RTS arrived, 10-15 minutes after the other runners had come through. He'd dropped off the pace a bit and was down in the dumps. He was an hour behind schedule so was musing about packing in (I didn't know it was because he thought he'd miss the 24 hour time limit however his schedule was for 22 hours so he was still an hour within time. Fuzzy thinking after 11 hours of running?). He told us not to go to the third check point and just to walk down into Wasdale to meet the car (that was his next car check point). Pfffft, safe to say there was a muletrain mutiny. The plan was to meet at Windy Gap for muletrain point 3 at 11.15am with a last orders time of 2.15pm (that's the time we'd wait if we hadn't heard anything). I said we'd carry on to that plan but bring forward the cut-off time to 1pm. There was no point us walking to Wasdale as if he continued the BGR we'd be in the wrong place. So at 5.15am RTS set off up Bowfell and we set off towards Windy Gap and into the unknown.

Now this is when it gets a bit peculiar in the support crew as we're entering a long section of no mobile phone coverage and are going to have to wait for several hours. Will RTS carry on from Wasdale?  Are we now just wasting effort? On the way across I thought we'd best be going to the top of Great Gable rather than Windy Gap. The advantage is there's a mobile signal there, the disadvantage is it's a metre short of 900m high.

7.30am: We get to Styhead Tarn (in the shadow of Great Gable) and get the beer chairs out to have some breakfast. A mountain rescue geezer mooched past with his two dogs and was most unphased at our impromptu picnic site. After an hour or so of relaxing in the early morning sun it was time to slay the beast. We plodded upwards.

9.30am As we got to the top of Great Gable, the last few metres were greeted by a machine gun rattle of incoming texts including one from RTS "Can you wait at muletrain point 3 until 2pm".  WAAAHHHHHHHAAAAAY it's still on! The gamble of us continuing on had paid off. I replied that we'd wait on top until he appeared. 

About half an hour later walkers started to appear on the summit. To get to the top of Great Gable for 10am is no shabby effort, but must have been a little disconcerting to find two blokes sat in beer chairs chatting. AdamT wanted to run the last leg with RTS, so at 11ish set off down for Honister for the last car crew point. He'd be able to change into his running gear and, with Vin, join RTS for the last leg.

As I waited it was possible to make out small specks of runners coming off Kirk Fell and 25 minutes later they'd loom large on Great Gable summit. I'd best chill my boots as RTS wasn't due to 2pm......but

1pm: I was on the phone to Vin giving a "no idea where he is" update when RTS appeared on the summit.  On Scafell he’d caught up with the Dallam runners again and they'd all been going like a train ever since. This meant they had only 6 peaks left (36 done), maybe 16 miles of running and 5 hours to do it in. It was ON! 

Fresh water and vitamin H (Haribo), and he was off again.  For the first time I had a "By George, he's going to do it" moment , and then set off down to a small farm at Seathwaite to get picked up.

3.45pm Mrs RTS had driven around Langdale for about 90 minutes trying to find me. She kept thinking she'd got it wrong as I wasn't there (couldn't ring - no mobile coverage), going to other car parks then kept coming back as "that was the planned pick up point". When she turned up for the third (or fourth?) time there I was sat in the beer chair, that's why we have a plan. It appears I looked remarkably normal for someone who'd been up for 33 hours ....or maybe I always look haggard.

I got taken back to the finish then Mrs RTS was driven off so she could run the last few miles with RTS for.....

5.05pm The bizarre clanking of a cowbell filled the air as the runners made their way through the market square.  Flanked by AdamT, Vin, Mrs RTS and the Dallam running club, RTS completed the Bob Graham Round. Unfortunate timing as at that moment I believe a sudden gust of wind blew a small speck of dust in my eye.

Phenomenal effort from RTS. That's a mental amount of very big mountains covering a very long distance.

A doff of the cap to Mrs RTS and AdamT for their first crew trips, where they did everything that crew should do...and some running too. By the time I hit my bed it'd been just under 39 hours with no sleep. It's the only time I've come back from the Lakes with jetlag.

Brilliant! Now awaiting the email from RTS entitled "DaftB I've had an idea....."