Morning Run

Free walking tour - rock & roll history

Morning walk in London

1 of 42 on the Bob Graham Round

Lake District hike

Long before Hoka and Salomon, long before big name trail races w live tracking and race commentary like UTMB and Western States, long before Goretex, lightweight running packs and specialized trail running shoes … a group of badass women and men from the UK were running up and down the fells (hills) in England, Scotland and Wales. They were doing it in some of the nastiest weather you can imagine and over insanely difficult terrain. 

In 1932 Bob Graham did a ~70 mile loop in the Lake District linking 42 individual summits that included 27,000ft of elevation gain in just under 24 hours. To say that it was ahead of its time is a HUGE understatement (it took almost 30 years for someone to repeat it). The Bob Graham Round is now sacred ground for trail runners from all over the world and completing the loop in under 24 hours is a life accomplishment. A few hundred people a year try it and about 100 actually pull it off (consider that Everest has over 800 people summit it on a good year). 

I was hoping to run leg 1 of the 5 legs of the loop and barely made it up the first peak and back. It was still a super cool experience to be running up the trail knowing that trail runners have been covering this same ground for a very long time. 

The Lake District is a pretty special place if you ever find yourself in Northern England.

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rob simpson

1 of 42 on the Bob Graham Round

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Morning Run

Free walking tour - rock & roll history

Morning walk in London

1 of 42 on the Bob Graham Round

Lake District hike

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