Not Spring more like Winter

What a week this has turned out to be, largely dominated by the weather which has felt more like winter than spring. Changes in the weather throughout the week has made things quite difficult for me as i run my own garden maintenance business so it has been a case of working inbetween the heavy rain that has battered us all week up here in the dales. For training though it has been a good week for me and i have managed to get some good runs in, five in total, three 1hr+ runs on the fells, one 1hr trail run, and a long run of 21/2 hrs on the fell. The long fell run which i did on Saturday was to co-inside with watching the later stages of the Fellsman Hike, a 60 miles event with 11,480ft of ascent that starts in Ingleton and finishes at Threshfield and goes over part of the training route that i do and  is one of my favourite training runs from home in which i take the footpath up to Bare House then continue across the next field to the stile and join the route that takes you to the top of Capplestone Gate, from here i continue across the top to Providence Pot a well known pot hole which is situated just below Hag Dyke Scout Hostel.  

Hag Dyke Scout Hostel

After reaching Hag Dyke I took the steep path to the summit of Great Wherside, height 2 310 ft, grid reference SE002739. After reaching the top of Great Whernside I followed the path across to Black Dike as to get a good view of the runners ascending Great Whernside, the first of them being course record holder and two time winner Jez Bragg from Dorset, who went onto win for the third time in a row in a time of 11hrs 2mins. His time this year was 56 minutes slower than his record time set last year but given the conditions out on the fells yesterday it was a great effort from the top ultrarunning star. Second place went to Belper runner Ian Phillips who finished 7 minutes behind the winner, with joint third placed runners being Konrad Rawlik of Poland and Odredj Mandula from the Czech Republic in a time of 11hrs 31mins. 

After watching the first few runners come past I followed the same line of decent from the top of great Whernside as the Fellsman runners took, all the way down to just after Green Hill, then across to bare House again and dropped down home to Grassington. 

After watching the Fellsman it is definitely down as one of my races to do next year in preparation for my Bob Graham attempt, speaking of which sees me back up in Cumbria next weekend on another recce with Martin, can't wait, just hope the weather is a bit better!

Bob Graham Recce

The last 2 weekends has seen me travelling up to Cumbria to join fellow Helm Hill Runners club member Martin Spooner in his preparations for his Bob Graham Round attempt scheduled for 2nd - 3rd June 2012. http://www.justgiving.com/Martin-Spooner   

Martin approaching Seat Sandal on recce of leg 2 

Back in March Martin posted a thread on the HHR forum for anyone that could assist him with his challenge so being a new member of the club I thought it would be a great way of getting to know some other members too, so i offered to be a pacer for him also I have had a desire to have a go at the BG myself since 2007. For those that do not know about the Bob Graham Challenge it starts and finishes from Moot Hall in Keswick town centre and the route covers 42 peaks, 26.000ft of climbing, and approx 66 miles all to be done in under 24 hours in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction which was first achieved by Bob Graham himself in 1932. The route is split into 5 sections and  takes in some of the classic Lakeland fells such as Skiddaw, Hevellyn, Bowfell, Scafell Pike, Pillar and Great Gable to name a few.The first weekend saw us recce leg 3 which takes in 15 of the 42 peaks and starts from Dunmail Raise and finishes at Wasdale we decided to do an out and back Recce as far as Esk Pike taking in 10 of the peaks including Bowfell, the weather was kind to us with only a few light wintry shows, in total we were out for just over 6hrs and covered approx 21 miles. This Saturday I met up with Martin again and another BG challenger Andy at Threlkeld for a recce of leg 2. Both had already set off earlier in the morning and  done leg 1. This section starts at Threlkeld and finishes at Dunmail Raise with 12 summits to take in, the highest been Helvellyn. The first one is a steep climb to the top of Clough Head, once you are up on the tops the climbs are not too severe until you have gone past Dollywaggon Pike and dropped down the other side the route we took was following the old fence line then around Grisedale Tarn where you are faced with a very steep climb to the top of Fairfield, then if that is not enough after descending back down Fairfield the way you came up there is a tough little climb to the top of Seat Sandal before dropping off down to Dunmail Raise for the end of leg 2. Needless to say after Saturdays recce Sunday was a rest day from training but on Monday night I went out for a run over Grassington moor for 60 minutes taking in Capple stone gate, stroll on next BG recce.