The Dream of Bob

I can’t remember when I first heard of the Bob Graham round, but I can remember thinking how utterly absurd it was and that I’d never be able to take on a challenge like that.

42 fells, 106km, roughly the height of Everest (from sea level) in ascent. And 24 hours to get round.

Truth be told, I still think it’s a bit bonkers and am not entirely convinced I’ll ever be able to take on a challenge like that. And that’s why I’m writing about it really. Because over the course of the last year that dream has become both more tangible and more impossible.

I’ve got a bit more experience, done a couple of longer distance runs, and a few days of back to back Munros. Got some elevation in my legs. Last summer I became fitter than I’d ever been. I did the Abraham’s Tea Round and finished with gas in the tank, but at the same time I hit my limits in ways I haven’t before – I quit and trudged off before the end of a long McWilliams Round.

So I decided to write it down. I’m hoping to do a Bob this year. I’m planning for that eventuality. I’ve checked the phase of the moon, the hours of daylight, and can tell you exactly where I should be for dawn (Hall’s Fell Ridge) and sunset (Newlands Valley, for a dusk run back to Kewsick).

It feels a little overly earnest to write this down, but it’s not really about that. I just realise the power of actually making something known, of taking your dreams and committing to them – even if just on paper. Maybe it helps make them feel more real, or maybe it just makes you accountable in some way for the things you say. As Lawrence would tell us, dreaming in the dusty recesses of our minds is vanity, but if we dream in the day we may act on them and make it possible.

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
T.E Lawrence

I’m nowhere near fit enough yet, but also know that I can do a good long hill day no problem. I’m not too worried about my legs – if I do the training and avoid injury then they should get there. It’s a fairly simple equation, miles in equal miles out.

More worrying are my nutrition issues – I can’t fuel effectively. I can do 9 hours on gels and haribo but 20+ hours is a different ask. To complete a Bob, I’ll need to train my body to fuel better.

And perhaps most importantly, I’ll need more mental resilience. To be able to keep grinding through pain and not give up. To hit Wasdale, hopefully at about 2:30pm, and be able to face the steep slopes of Yewbarrow without giving up. Having support will help with that but at the end of the day it still takes a willingness to suffer. I’ll need to be able to reach the road, where the support crew will have a car, and consciously decide to hurt some more instead of going home.

I’ll need to run a lot of miles between now and then. And a lot of hills too. I know three of the legs, but am sketchy on two. My Harvey’s map of the round is pinned above my computer in the study in the hope that it will soak in through continued looking.

I’ve been really inspired by some online talks by Beth Pascall, who managed to train for it and smash the women’s record last year, while also being a doctor in a pandemic. Hearing her explain training around work made something click. I’m not a fraction of her fitness, but it made me feel like it was possible to fit training around life.

And so there it is, a dream on screen. A dream a little closer to being a reality. My fear of being unable brought out into the light and analysed. I reserve the right to fail – to reconnoitre legs three and four and find myself so battered I can’t continue – but I also reserve the right to dream.

As the poet said, “if you can dream – but not make dreams your master, if you can think – but not make thoughts your goal.”

2021, let’s be having you.