Three times record holder for our 23 before Tea challenge, Ambleside AC’s Gavin Dale has recorded an amazing new record for the Winter Bob Graham round.
Last weekend he raced over the 42 summits in 14hr 57m 45s. This is a new record by almost an hour, and is the 11th fastest ever BG time.
Gavin, who’s the manager at the Force Cafe in Ambleside, has done our 23 route on three occasions, lowering his time from 8 hours 28 minutes, to 6 hours 42 minutes, and then 5 hours 47 minutes a year ago. Then his place on the leaderboard was taken this summer by Hugh Chatfield and Keith Wigley in 5 hours 16 minutes.
Last weekend was in another league! He was originally due to set off early on Sunday morning, but watching the weather forecast he delayed the start until Monday night. We’re handing over to Gavin to say what it was like out there:
“This had everything. Snow, ice, 10hrs of darkness. Sliding on icy rock all the way to Scafell Pike. Frozen scree off Blencathra. Beautiful, hard packed trail off Pillar. But the people? The people were what made this so special. People who tolerated constant changes to the schedule as I desperately looked for the best weather window. Who stepped in at the last minute when plans changed. People who ran with me for hours through the night in snow and ice, cheerful the whole time. I’ve never experienced such an outpouring of support, advice and help from so many wonderful individuals. To me, that’s what the Bob Graham is first and foremost: it’s a community. I trained hard for this, I worked hard, and I’m absolutely stoked. It wasn’t all easy, it was never meant to be. But my god was it fun.”
The Bob Graham round takes in 42 of the highest Lakeland peaks, with 27,000 ft of climbing, over 66 miles. Challengers aim to get round in under 24 hours.
Photos from Gavin’s Facebook page.
