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| Quick out the blocks in 2016 - New Year's Day on Capt. Cook's Fell Race with Mark Smith. |
This is Mark Smith - one of the more recent to join our Polyfellers - with quite a history in fell running. Mark recently came to work in the north east having previously run for Tattenhall Runners down in Cheshire (which is near Wales). He has added hugely to the section's pool of knowledge on fell races as he's competed in many events over the years especially over on the west . The north east fell scene has provided him with some new races to cut his teeth on. More particularly over in summer 2007 and winter 2009 , Mark took on the Bob Graham Challenge - which is reckoned to be the severest test (at least in England) for a fell race /ultra. It involves a run starting at Keswick and then taking a circuit of 42 Lakeland summits over 66 miles and all to be finished off within 24 hours.
See here for further details :http://www.bobgrahamclub.org.uk/
It is believed that only Chris Little from NSP has ever managed the feat and all told only about 1700 runners have ever achieved it. The BGR was also covered in 'Feet in the Clouds' by Richard Askwith .
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| Danny Richardson is delighted to have reached Scotland and in classic fellrunner style has pinned his number to his shorts. |
While there's quite a lot of interest in the Chevy and the Allendale Challenge , ultra events like the BGR are a stage further. Earlier in July 2015 Poly's Danny Richardson came 6th in the first St. Cuthbert's Way challenge - an ultra 100 km run from Holy Island to Melrose which took a superb route across the northern edge of the Cheviots . But to our knowledge there were no other similar ultra/off road achievements in 2015.
In any case, here are Mark's detailed blog reports on his BGR trials. They were great expeditions..
Winter 2009 :
http://winterbobgraham.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/in-bleak-midwinter-story-of-round-1819.html?m=1
Summer 2007 :
http://marksbgr.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/marks-bgr-29th30th-june-2007.html?m=1
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