BGR Success!!

Well done to Andy Kitts on completing his Bob Graham Round on Saturday! He'd kept his intentions quiet so most people thought he was only going to pace his girlfriend, Stef, on the first two legs in preparation for an attempt later in the summer but a few of us had been let in to the secret. As it happened Stef got hit by a stomach bug on leg 2 and had to drop out but she's already slated another attempt in June so good luck to her.

I had helped Andy on his first attempt last year, running leg one over Skiddaw and Blencathra. That attempt failed around Scafell. With the wonders of modern communication I knew that they had left Wasdale on schedule so headed over to Honister, just to go up to Dale Head or maybe Hindscarth with him, then back to Honister and drive to Keswick to see him in to the finish. As it happened there was someone available to drive my car round to the end of the fell section (no way was I going to run the road bit) so I did Robinson as well.

Andy trying to get some food and drink down at Honister.

Leaving Honister on the climb to Dale Head

 

 

 

On the descent from Hindscarth with just one top to go.

One advantage of helping with the later legs is that the pace is a lot slower which meant that unfit me could keep up! Andy reached the summit of Robinson with 2hrs 10mins to go, so half an hour to spare to get back to Keswick. Disappointingly the clag was down so we didn't get any views until a good way down the north ridge. One of the support crew had come up to show the way round the rock steps which can be tricky in the damp and soon we were down out of the wind following the track down to Newlands Church. I bailed at this point and drove to Keswick.

We had an anxious wait at Keswick as unbeknown to us, Andy had decided to take things easy and use up some of his buffer on the road section. He pulled up to the Moot Hall to log a time of 23hrs 44mins.

The end of a very long road - Andy touches the doors of the Moot Hall to complete his BGR.

Annoyingly both the last two weekends I've done a hard day on the Saturday so have been knackered on the Sunday when I've gone out climbing. Last weekend we went to Trollers Gill and I struggled to stay awake though we did do four routes. Yesterday we went to Chee Dale and I just couldn't be bothered to do any climbing at all! Perhaps more interestingly, the tunnels on the old Monsal railway line have been reopened - they were closed for safety reasons around the time I started climbing so I've never been through them before.

Cath (Twitter: @cathonabike & #LEJOG) and Clair have started their LEJOG, nipping out to Land's End and back from Penzance on Saturday before riding to Galant on Sunday. Today's ride will take them over Dartmoor to Exeter.