A Great Lakes Weekend!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Karl and Iain before the off
Just finally getting some time to write this post after catching up from a brilliant weekend in the Lakes.
The main reason for my Lakes excursion was to help support Karl (Donkarlo) Taylor as he made his way round the Bob Graham round. My role was to get him round leg 4 of 5 legs. This being roughly 11 miles and 6300ft of the total 63/66 miles (roughly? Depending on route choices) and 29,000ft of ascent. I was glad of only doing the one leg!
Iain Kelly was also attempting his Bob Graham round on the same day so it was also a good opportunity to meet Iain and also a few other FRA forumites and fellow bloggers.
I went up early Friday so I could recce some othe Borrowdale and Wasdale fell race before I run them later in the year. A good run up from Honister onto and around Gable then back to Honsiter. Not as long as I had wanted but this weekend was all about the Bob Graham so went back to the car and got myself ready to go see the two contenders setting off.
Setting off is strange! A bit of wandering around a few photos then its just waiting till your schedule time arrives. Then there off, for a total of about 6 or 7 metres until they disappear down an alley. Thats it! There is then just a load of friends and supporters stood around looking like spare parts.
I took the opportunity to meet up with Kate and Jane and have a pint with them. Great to meet you both! Also a great little campsite and pub! That will be used for a bit of weekend camping very soon! Unfortunatly I couldn’t have too much beer or get comfy at camp as I was off to bivi at sprinkling tarn so I was half way to the meeting point in Wasdale to start leg 4.
Bivi at Sprinkling was great! A strange feeling initially of being a bit unprotected from the elements and the thought that I was going to get cold. No such problems that night as I slept in a t-shirt and was warm enough to use my down jacket as a pillow! It was busy at the top of the tarn and a group were blasting out music so I fell asleep not quite as isolated as I had hoped but still a great experience. An even better experience was waking up dry! no condensation and it had rained a bit in the night with no adverse effects! Planning next bivi already!
On arriving at the changover point I was told Karl was an hour down on leg 2 due to nav error so there was some tension in the air to see if he had made up any time or slipped further back. This tension increased as Iain came sailing into Wasdale with some ragged looking pacers trying to keep up with him. Iain was looking strong but there was no sign of Karl? Soon with a fresh set of pacers, Iain was off again on leg 4 and shortly aftwerwards came Karl, looking good and running well.
Soon we were off, with Emma and Bill taking nav duties and me being the packhorse with over 4l of water, food, first aid kit waterproofs you name it I was carrying it. Then I had my own stuff as well. Oh well onwards and upwards. By mid round Karl was supping water well and had got through a fair few litres. We were running out, so I had a cunning plan to avoid Kirkfell, take the traverse and pick up water on the traverse. This was denied by Bill who had chosen a shorter route to Black Sail Pass, missing out a few summits to arrive with water. This meant I was off up Kirkfell. We unloaded our many empty water bottles to Bill to take the traverse and we went up and over. Soon Great and Green Gable came and went, and before we knew it the descent into Honister.
We had got him in with him gaining a little but most importantly not losing any more time. This meant the home straight of Leg 5 was there for the taking. Soon the support team and Karl were off. Great to hear he finished in 22 hours 48 minutes. A great achievement. Iain also finished in a rapid time of 20 hours 46 minutes.
Great weekend, seeing friends and making new ones. So who’s up next? I want another fun weekend.