Race Report - 2022 Bob Graham Round

The Bob Graham Round. It's an ultra challenge steeped in history. It dates back to 1932, when hotelier Bob Graham first completed the 66 mile loop ascending more than 27,000 feet while summiting 42 peaks or fells in the Lake District in the UK in less than 24 hours. Years later, the round was established as an "official" challenge, inviting runners to become members of the exclusive Bob Graham 24 Hour club if they managed to complete the round in under 24 hours. Only one out of three runners of the 200 runners complete the challenge in time each year and earn the glory of being part of the club. The round begins and ends at Moot Hall in Keswick and runners can choose to complete it in either clockwise or counterclockwise direction at a time and date of their choosing. They are encouraged to announce their intend prior to their attempt with the Bob Graham 24 Hour Club. These days, there are even trackers available to allow friends, family and other interested parties to follow along online as these brave souls attempt the challenge. On July 16, 2022 I had the honor of being one of those brave souls who attempt the BGR. But first, let's rewind a little bit.

When I ran my first Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc in 2015, I struggled mightily once I hit the perceived halfway point in Courmayeur. Thankfully, I joined forces with a few fellow racers that included Olivier Gaillemin, a French guy living in the UK. Our merry band of brothers made it across the finish line in just under 40 hours. Ollie and I continued to stay in touch. When he told me about his plan to attempt the Bob Graham Round in 2020, I was super excited for him as that had been on my bucket list ever since I heard about the challenge, so when he invited me to join him, I immediately replied with "yes!" I didn't want to give him a chance to change his mind. Then Covid happened, borders shut down and international flights were cancelled.

As countries went into lockdown, Ollie (and I) had to postpone the plans for the BGR indefinitely. When a year had passed, Ollie was ready to try again. Unfortunately, international travel between the US and UK was still banned, so I would not be joining him for his attempt. Ultimately, I was glad I wasn't able to join him as he smoked his round in less than 21 hours and would have surely left me behind after just one leg. However, the true gentleman and friend that he is, he promptly promised to organize a support crew on my behalf whenever I was ready to travel to the UK to give the BGR an honest try. Generally, you're either a UK runner with the ability to rally friends and fellow runners to support your attempt or you're an elite runner that has no issues lining up support. I fell into neither category, so I will never be able to thank Ollie enough for creating this opportunity for me. Once I told him that I would be able to attempt the BGR in the summer of 2022, he started to reach out to his friends and fellow Sale Harriers (his local running club) to line up a solid crew of supporters, navigators and pacers for each of the 5 legs of the round. In the end, he managed to convince 15 friends to support this German dude from Alabama that apparently though he had the chops to complete the BGR in under 24 hours. Clearly, I had no idea what I was in for or I may have never attempted the round in the first place, but more about that later.

Once Ollie suggested the best date, time and direction, the real planning began. I cleared my race calendar after July 2022 with the Tahoe 200 in June and the Bob Graham Round in July as my only goal events for the year. I wanted training and focus on these two events alone. After two hours on the hone with Delta, I was finally able to reschedule my flight that had been cancelled two yers earlier. Ollie volunteered to pick me up and put me up at his family's home for the duration of my visit minus the 3 days we would spend at the Hostel in Keswick during my actual attempt.

My training progressed nicely in the months leading up to the Tahoe 200 and I was happy to barely miss my time goal at that event, finishing in the top 20 in just over 75 hours. Now my sole focus would be on the round. With only 4 weeks between the two events, I would focus on recovery and maintenance only. The hay was in the barn, so to speak, so the goal was to feel as fresh as possible and be injury free  at Moot Hall on July 16, 2022 at 6PM local time. 

I landed at Manchester airport in the UK on Thursday around noon and after some initial confusion, Ollie located me wandering around the terminal. We headed to his home, dropped off my luggage and walked to the local supermarket to pick up some supplies for the weekend adventure ahead. Ollie was kind enough to make some burgers for dinner, vegan of course, and after some final planning I headed to bed in hopes to get some sleep before we'd leave for the Lake District the next morning. The idea was to get there on Friday afternoon to be able to meet up for dinner and beers with some of the support crew for a meet and greet.

Leading up to the trip to England, I felt pretty confident that I could complete the round in under 24 hours and I based that confidence purely on my performances and fitness leading into the weekend. However, when I finally met a good part of the crew, I started to get more than just a little worried. Here are all of these amazing people showing up ready to spend their weekend to help a total stranger attempt something as massive as the Bob Graham Round. Considering only one out of three attempts ends in a successful sub 24 hour round, my odds were pretty low, which made it even more intimidating. I didn't want to waste their time, so the pressure was one. Time to go to sleep early to be ready...but first, let's enjoy a couple more local Keswick brews and banter before hading back to our room at the hostel. 

We woke up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning and after a nice breakfast, I spent most of the day in our room resting on the bunkbed while some of the crew hung out at a cricket match just across from our hostel on the other side of the river. I wasn't really able to sleep, but just keeping my legs up surely had to be a good idea. Around 4:30pm, it was time to get my kit ready, tape my right ankle and lube all the important places. The Bob Graham Round is a very unique challenge with fairly strict and specific rules, but my favorite rule is that muling is allowed. That's right, your pacers and navigators can carry all of your gear.

We all assembled at Moot Hall about 30 minutes prior to my intended start time of 6PM. However, there was another runner going for the round at 6PM, so I decided to delay my start by just about half a minute. We would continued to see that runner and his crew ahead of us for a few hours until they disappeared into the night for good. We would not see them again until much later in the round.

All of the nerves from the day before settled as soon as Duncan, Tom, Fred and I were off. The first fell to summit would be Skiddaw, followed by Great Calva and Blencathra to complete leg 1. I was feeling great, but quickly realized that I was in for one if not the most challenging adventure, yet. By the time we descended Blencathra, I was struggling to see how I could handle 39 more summits. My quads were already burning and hurting and leg 1 was just the warmup. While the various crews on each leg would tell me that the worst was now behind me, I understood that to be lies after being fooled the first couple of times they said it. 

Ollie had worked out a very strict time schedule to keep me on track for a sub 24 hour finish. That included no more than 10 minutes to refuel and reset at each of the 4 transition spots (road crossings) between the 5 legs. Each crew also had the time table with the required summit times in hand, at all times knowing where I was on the sub 24 hour clock. For the first 2 legs, I managed to stay ahead of that schedule, feeling pretty good though I understood that I was in over my head. I had never ever encountered such steep terrain nor had I ever moved off trail at any length of time until that day. However, my luck would soon turn, but not until after Tom, Chris and Dave got me to the end of leg 2. While leg 2 started with some daylight left and finished in the dark, the reverse was the case for leg 3. 

Leg 3 was by far the most challenging leg as it was mostly run in the dark. In addition, 3 of us in our merry group of 5 rolled our ankles at various points of the leg. This was also the only leg with some more challenging weather conditions and some of the trickier summits. While we were never fogged in, we did have mostly wet conditions which slowed my progress a bit as I was not at all experienced running in bog. As a result, I lost all of the time I had banked during the previous 2 legs. Now,  just over midway through the third leg I was nearly 45 minutes behind schedule. There was nothing to do now but to try to pick up my pace. I was extremely thankful for the knowledgable nav guidance by Ed Gamble and the pacing support of his daughter Alice along with Rob and Alex. With their support and encouragement, I was able to make up a few minutes before we dropped into Wasdale, which included some spectacular scree surfing, which had me dumping 2 lbs of rocks out of my shoes even before reaching the bottom of the Scafell descent. 

Once I reached Wasdale, it was time for a serious reset. I needed clean socks and a new tape job on my right ankle before I could even consider continuing on. And then there was the question of time. Was a sub 24 hour finish still possible? I was doubtful and made it clear to Ollie that I had no intention of wasting anyone's time. I did not want my pride to get in the way of calling my attempt when a 24 finish had become impossible. I put my faith in Ollie's hands. If he thought it was still possible, then I would continue. I wanted him to be completely honest. I would trust his judgement. He was confident that it was still possible as long as we left Wasdale and as long as we didn't dilly dally or lalligag around. There as definitely no time for that. The Wasdale stop was the longest by far, but it was necessary. 

Once my feet were taken care of, I was ready to go. This time, Ollie took over navigation and pacing duties along with Richard, Mile and Matt and the first hurdle would be the massive climb up YouBastard, no wait, I think it's called YewBarrow. The sun was now right above us and the day had warmed up significantly. Combine that with my need to continue to make up more time and it explained why I started dry heaving just before completing this initial climb of leg 4. I slowly managed to recover and was able to make better time as we continued. After a 7 hour leg 3, a 5 hour Leg 4 felt almost short:-) I rolled into Honnister Pass feeling pretty good, but heading straight for the bathroom as I knew I only had 10 minutes total to get in and out if this transition spot to keep my chances of a sub 24 hour finish alive. 

At this point, every second counted. It was now Mike, Rob and Elton's turn to take me all the way back Keswick and we had to do so in less than 3 hours to complete the round in time. The plan was to do a quick shoe change once we hit the final 5 mile stretch of road leading back into Keswick to try to move quicker on pavement. Once I completed the final descent and reached the car with Ollie and my Altra Vanish Carbon shoes in hand, I made the split decision to not change shoes and just keep moving. That would turn out to be the deciding factor in my race against the clock.  

With less than 5 miles to go, we still weren't sure that I could make it. Apparently, there were some discrepancies between various parties as to how much ground we still had left to cover before we would reach Moot Hall. I was struggling to run 9 to 10 minute miles and my hope to hit my goal had faded fast over the last 2 miles. It wasn't until we had just over a mile left to go when Ollie waved at us from the side of the road to join us for the final stretch and to inform us that we would indeed make it. When I finally spotted the gable of Mot Hall in the distance, I knew I would make it. I climbed the stairs and tapped the door after 23 hours and 52 minutes of exploring the Lake District and its Cumbrian Mountains.

While I would not dare to try to give a true play by play of each of the 42 summits or any of the memorable features along the Bob Graham Round as I would barely able to name a third of the fells I ascended, I did want to write this report as a thank you note to the fifteen amazing runners that showed up and spent their entire weekend to help a German from Alabama accomplish one of his life goals. The fell running community in the UK is as rich as any trail running community I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and they are one of the friendliest bunch of folks you'll ever meet. I am proud to call them friends and part of my "fell running family". And in case that I haven't been clear, I would have never ever had the opportunity to chase this goal of mine of not for the gracious help of my friend Ollie and his group of friends. I will never ever be able to thank them enough for not only giving me the opportunity to chase this dream, but to carry me through to the finish. If you've made it this far, head on over to my YouTube channel to check out my full adventure video.

How To Prepare For A Self-Supported Long Distance Adventure During A Pandemic And Beyond

My entire packing list for a 70+ mile self-supported adventure run

It all started 3 years ago, when I first attempted SCAR, short for Smokies Challenge Adventure Run, a 72 mile traverse of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park entirely on the Appalachian Trail. It's a rite of passage of sorts or many Southeastern trail and ultra runners. It requires runners to be self sufficient for the entire route with one opportunity for crew support at about the half way point right before or right after crossing the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail, Clingman's Dome.

Runners taking on this challenge have to make sure to not only carry enough food for 72 miles and a way to sterilize their drinking water along the way, but they must also take along all of the gear necessary to handle any and all weather conditions the trail may throw at them at a given day. The closest I had come to logistical planning like this had been for the Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc in Chamonix, France, a race that requires runners to carry a significant amount gear to be able to handle serious mountain weather. Having run that particular race twice, I can attest to the need for the all of the required gear.

When we finally tackled SCAR 3 years ago, we were hit by a freak snowstorm in May, forcing us to abandon halfway through the adventure and self extract for 10 miles down closed park roads with not a soul around. We were wearing every single piece of clothing we had started the adventure with just 12 hours earlier. After an initial rain storm, followed by freezing rain and hail that turned into thick snow, we learned very quickly what gear worked and what did not. In fact, most of our gear did not work.

Since that day, I have taken on a few more self-supported adventure runs and I have learned quite a bit in the process. When we finally decided to give SCAR another go earlier this year, I was excited and ready to get to planning. I still had my old spreadsheets detailing not only each pice of gear I used, but also the weight of each piece. As you will realize very quickly when planning a self-supported run, the weather conditions, access to resources during the run, the terrain and the length of the run all play a role in the gear necessary for such an adventure and the more gear you need the more important weight becomes. You'll need to weigh purpose vs. weight vs. cost and decide for yourself how to pick and choose. I will share some of my experiences of gear choices as well as nutrition considerations for various situations.

In January, I put out word among some of my running friends that I wanted to give SCAR another go in March of this year. This would give any interested runner enough time to train and plan accordingly. Before I knew it, we had 10 runners jump at the bid to give it a go. A friend of mine quickly reserved a large cabin for the last weekend in March and all we now had to do is to start training and plan gear and nutrition needs. Not to spoil the suspense, but we all know what happened in the world right around this time and just two days before we were supposed to start our adventure, the Smoky Mountain Nation Park closed all access to all trails and toads inside the park, including the Appalachian Trail. By that time, we had already lost half the runners due to various circumstances surrounding the pandemic. However, at that point all the training and preparation had already been completed. In fact, I had already loaded up my camper van ready to go.

In this part, I will share with you how I prepare for a self-supported run. While I obviously didn't take into consideration the constraints of a pandemic, I will add some thoughts about the implications of it in situations were runners still are able to venture out into remote places. For everyone else, take this time to plan out your next grand adventure and hopefully you'll find some helpful info in here.

These are the main factors when preparing for self-supported run:

Distance
This is not just the overall distance, but also the distance between points with access to water, nutrition and possibly gear. This may include naturally occurring resources (creeks, water spigots, lakes, etc.), supplies stashed at trail heads or trail intersections, supplies bought near trail access points (i.e. general stores, gas stations, etc.) or even crew. Knowing this will help you figure out how much supplies to carry for the entirety of the trail and for each section of the route. Note for a pandemic: Avoid any outside assistance and either stash supplies yourself or carry all of them, provided you are allowed to venture out at all.

Terrain
Is the route predominantly roads or trails or a mixture of both? Is there a lot of vertical gain, is the terrain steep? Is it extremely technical or mostly flat or even surface? How about mud, sand, ice , snow? All important factors when selecting your gear.

Weather Conditions
This is not just important for your gear choices, but even more so for access to water. Self-supported runs often rely on the ability to purify water from natural sources along the way as it is impossible to carry enough water for 70+ miles, for example. Choose your season wisely. Will water sources be flowing? How about wildlife? Is it active during your targeted season. Obviously, gear is a major consideration for this as well. Will there be snow cover or even snow pack? Will there be a potential for torrential downpours. It's a good idea to find a weather app that provides weather conditions all along the route and at different elevations along the route. Temperatures can swing to the extreme even with just a 1000 feet of elevation change. Wind may be blowing on a ridge line, pushing temps a lot lower than forecasted. All these are factors to consider when planning your gear. Note for a pandemic: It would probably be wise to avoid any areas with a risk of severe weather, when the likelihood of a rescue may be more common than at other times, hence potentially putting an undue additional strain on an already strained health care system.

Wildlife
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, familiarize yourself with the local wildlife and their behavior. When are they most active? Should these times be avoided? How about snakes, yellow jackets, mosquitos, back bears vs. grizzlies, mountain lions. These should not keep you from taking on an amazing adventure, but you should be aware. Maybe you'll need to carry bug spray, bear spray, a bear bell? Note for a pandemic: The note above still applies. Avoid areas with active wildlife, if a confrontation may require you to be rescued.

Purpose
Last but definitely not least, why are you taking on this adventure? Are you trying to push your limits? Are you just wanting a different challenge? Are you trying to set an FKT ("Fastest Known Time" for a given route)? Once you know why you're doing this, you will be better equipped to make the appropriate gear and supply choices.

One very brief note on your training preparations. Be sure to train like you would for any other event or race. Replicate the terrain of the route as much as possible and train for the distance and the vertical change that you may encounter on your route. Most importantly, be sure to carry the pack you plan to utilize during your adventure run during your training and test out the actual gear as much as possible. It's no good to have the lightest and probably most expensive gear out there, if it is not practical, i.e. a rain jacket that wets out after just 30 minutes or a pack that chafes your shoulders raw after just 10 miles or even worse, brand new trail shoes that blister your feet just 5 miles into your run. With that out of the way, let's get to the actual gear and supply considerations.

Let's start with the easy stuff, your preferred running hat, top, shorts, socks and shoes of choice. Consider both comfort and utility as well as hot vs. cold and road vs. trail. Maybe gaiters are a good choice or maybe you like compression around your legs. All these are personal choices you'll need to make.

Next up, the pack. If you go far or long enough, you'll need something to carry all your gear and supplies. The size requirements are potentially driven by what pack you already own and/or by the gear you'll need to pack. Again, comfort is super important.

Next up are additional layers you may need to pack. Consider a wind breaker, rain shells, a mid layer (down or wool), maybe sleeves, gloves and a warm hat or buff. If an item can serve more than one purpose, even better. For example, if you know you'll need a rain jacket, ditch the wind breaker or if you like using multipurpose buffs, consider skipping the extra hat and use the buff for that as well. Make sure you pack the right clothes. You do not want to get caught in a rain or snow storm or rapidly dropping temps without the appropriate gear.

Next up, other gear essentials and considerations. If there is significant vertical gain, you may want to carry trekking poles. Maybe you'll need micro spikes for icy terrain? If you're moving into the night, you'll need a quality light along with spare batteries. A backup light is important, too, in case your main light source fails completely. Another hugely important thing to consider is navigation along with tracking. You'll want to consider something that can load a GPX file or similar to provide directional guidance to you, especially in remote areas. Backup batteries are important once more as is a backup paper map (and compass). Technology has come a long way, from wrist GPS watches with extremely long battery life to super small two way satellite communication devices that can be a literal life saver. Finally, you should always pack either an emergency blanket or even better, an emergency bivy as well as any necessary emergency medication. I always carry an emergency epinephrine injector as well as some anti-histamine pills to be ready for the negative effects of an insect sting allergy.

I laminated a list of water sources for SCAR to carry with me for easy access.

Finally, water and nutrition. If you can't stash water along the way or have access to crew, you either need to have the ability to carry all the water you need or you'll need to bring a water filter of some sort to purify your drinking water along the way, You can choose to carry a hydration bladder with an inline water filter, a filter bottle, a UV pen, a filter pump or purifying tablets. The options are nearly endless these ays. Next you'll need to decide the amount of calories you'll need to take in to be able to sustain proper energy levels throughout the adventure. Everyone is different, so make sure you calculate your hourly rate of caloric intake and be sure to add some extra. Be sure to bring any supplements you're used to taking, i.e. salt pills or similar and don't be afraid to pack some treats, be it candy or a sandwich or torilla. Something that can lift your spirits when you're bonking at give you that extra physical boost as well.

Now that you've decided on all the items you need, it may be a good idea to write them all down on a list of some sort, so you can be sure not to forget anything when the time comes to pack for your adventure. You may not want to be as specific as me in noting weight of each item, but you definitely want to avoid the risk of forgetting an essential item. Finally, you'll need to see if the pack you have can hold everything you need to bring and if it does, how does it feel on your back? Can you run with it? Now that you've sorted the logistics, you can focus once again on the fun part of running, the act of running itself.

Gear check list I created for my SCAR adventure.

For comments or specific gear or training questions, please feel free to hit me up directly via my blog www.ultrakrautrunning.com, via Instagram @UltraKraut or Facebook and Strava martin.schneekloth.