July 4th Bob Graham Live Tracking

 Pat and Glynn's Bob Graham attampt July 4th 2015

Leg….Start……Duration

1……00:00……4:00

2……04:20……4:05

3……08:35……5:40

4……14:35……5:00

5……20:07……3:00

That was some adventure, fantastic first leg in good conditions. Bit crowded with three groups starting at the same time and staying pretty much together until Great Calva when everybody went different ways (us the fence line) to all pretty much came together at Blencathra. Once again we took Doddick while everybody else took Halls, very little in it. Leaving Blencathra the wind was starting to build up. Good climb up Clough Head but then the full force of the wind hit us. Brutal stuff, lots of minor nav mistakes with the wind and poor visibility it was so easy to loose the trods. It was so mentally exhausting trying to keep pushing in those conditions. 5 hrs for that leg and the following morning my Leg 3 pacer was telling me I was ashen faced when I got to Dunmail. It is actually 3 that I am most disappointed with, GeoffB took over nav and done an excellent job in very poor visibility. I think I was very tired after 2 and could not take advantage of the easier sections to keep to the schedule. 7:30 to Wasdale and 24 hrs was looking unlikely but I still wanted to finish. Lucy done a fanatic effort on 4 and she had me believing that it was still possible. We had a excellent, inside schedule, leg to Kirk Fell. I though something like a 24:30 was possible, but the pain killers for a knee injury since the Langdales were starting to have less effect and I lost so much time on the descent of Piller, Kirk Fell and Great Gable. I could have carried on from Honister but the though of the Robinson descent and the 10 Km on the road was too much. While it was not a success, it was still an amazing experience. Thank you does not even come close to what I have to say about my Pennine Club members for the work/hassling/encouragement they done through out that day.
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Two weeks to Go!

It's all done now the final summary of the training is displayed in the two images below. If it does not work out for me I would hope that it has not been for the lack of training. I have to say it has gone very well over the past 9 months and especially since the new year when I really started to get serious about it. My big runs have consisted of:

• Four Kinder Dozens 
• Two days in the lakes where I done legs 3 and 4 on Saturday, followed by legs 5 and 1 on Sunday. On the Sunday I had intended on doing two as well but the weather was horrendous with the driving wind and rain from the south. I could not face 4 hrs of it in my face. Instead I ran back along the road and forest trails to get back to the car at Dunmail.
• Just two weeks ago I started Friday night at 22:00 and done 1,2,3 as far as Esk Hause where I cut down to Seatoller to get the bus back to Keswick.

I was very happy with how I managed on the two day recce. But it was the three legs back to back that was the real lesson. Two of us arranged to meet at the Moot hall at 22:00 and by fluke there was a father and son BG attempt starting at the same time so the four of us headed off together. Made good time to Skidaw but mucked up after that we were a little too far to the west when leaving the summit and ended up on very steep ground very quickly. Lost a lot of time contouring around to find the three posts. It then went excellent to Blencathra where the other three decided to go down Halls Fell in the dark. I had never been down there before. Well we completely mucked it up and ended up doing something between Halls and the Parachute Descent. Took an hour to get to the checkpoint, five hours for leg 1. For much of leg one I resisted eating in-order to keep moving and quite often on it I felt hungry. Leg 2 went OK, except parts of it were wetter that I remembered!! A bit off the pace again, that took nearly 4 1/2 hrs so 1.5 hrs down at Dunmail!!

The other three bailed at Dunmail  so I carried onto three on my own. Many times on the FRA forums people have mentioned that what you eat in the first two legs goes a long way to determining if you succeed or fail. I was about to find out the truth of that the hard way. On my four Kinder Dozens I was only out about 9 1/2 hours and I was perfectly OK with sandwiches, chocolate bars and dried fruit. But on the 3rd leg I was into a whole new area, the sandwiches turned into rubber taking 10 minutes to chew and swallow one bite. The fruit was so sweet and sickly, chocolate horrible! At Dunmail I was given a tube of baby food but I held off having that until Bowfell. I managed to get to Esk Hause not fast but I got there. From there down to Seatoller for 15:00 so out about 17 hrs.

I was ecstatic about the day, delighted to have done 17 hrs. I always thought that if I can get to Wasdale feeling reasonably OK and fairly close to the schedule that I would have it cracked. While I bailed at Esk Hause I could easily have carried onto Wasdale; makes a big psychological difference knowing that. But it is the lesson about the food that was the most important, I will be onto my support to ensure that I keep the food going in little and often in the early legs.

I am into the taper now by the standards of what I have been doing I have had two relatively easy weeks. All of my training has been geared to endurance but I actually had two races last week, with the Pennine Relay and then Saturday's Park Run. Considering I do no speed work I was very happy with how they went.

The next update will probably be after the event so wish me luck on July 4th.

Edit:

I was asked to put the splits up. This is from at 23 hr schedule use by Pennine - Midnight start with expected arrival time at each split.

Skiddaw	01:23
Great Calva	02:25
Blencathra	03:37
Threlkeld - A	04:05
Threlkeld - D	04:20
Clough Hd	05:17
Great Dod	05:43
Wat Dod	05:50
Stybar Dod	05:59
Raise	06:13
White Side	06:21
Lower Man	06:34
Helvellyn	06:40
NetheR Pike	06:51
Dolly Pike	07:00
Fairfield	07:36
Seat Sandal	07:57
Dunmail -A	08:15
Dunmail -D	08:35
Steel Fell	08:57
Calf Crag	09:15
Sergeant Man	09:45
High Raise	09:54
Thunacar Knott	10:07
Harrison Stickle	10:20
Pike o Stickle	10:39
Rossett Pike	11:17
Bowfell	11:46
Esk Pike	12:08
Great End	12:29
Ill Crag	12:45
Broad Crag	12:55
Scafell Pike	13:07
Scafell	13:39
Wasdale - A	14:15
Wasdale - D	14:35
Yewbarrow	15:25
Red Pike	16:08
Steeple	16:30
Pillar	17:01
KirkFell	17:51
Great Gable	18:31
Green Gable	18:50
Brandreth	19:07
Grey Knotts	19:18
Honister - A	19:35
Honister - D	19:55
Dalehead	20:35
Hindscarth	20:52
Robinson	21:15