|
The Bob Graham Round is a fell running challenge in the English Lake District. It is named after Bob Graham (1889–1966), a Keswick guest-house owner, who in June 1932 broke the Lakeland Fell record by traversing 42 fells within a 24-hour period. The Round was first repeated, in a better time, in 1960 by Alan Heaton. Since then over 1900 individuals have completed the Round with the fastest time being 13hr 53m set by Billy Bland in 1982. The Lakeland 24 Hour record has also been improved with the current holder, Mark Hartell, successfully reaching 77 summits in the allotted time. Along with the Paddy Buckley Round and Ramsay Round, the Bob Graham Round is one of the classic big three mountain challenges in the UK. Some thirty individuals have completed all three. ==History of the round== The development of progressively lengthier and more competitive rounds of the Lakeland fells is chronicled in the Bob Graham Club's ''Story of the Bob Graham Round'', and in the fell-walking section of M. J. B. Baddeley's Lakeland guidebook:,〔Baddeley, M. J. B. ''The Lake District'', 23rd edition (edited by R. J. W. Hammond), 1968, Ward, Lock & Co.〕 and most recently in Chapter 15 of Steve Chilton's ''It's a hill, get over it: fell running's history and characters'' Some of the more notable rounds: * 1864: the Reverend J.M. Elliott of Cambridge traversed the summits around the head of Wasdale in 8.5 hours * 1870: Thomas Watson of Darlington covered with over of ascent in 20 hours * 1902: S.B. Johnson of Carlisle completed a , round in 22.5 hours * 1905: Dr Wakefield of Keswick completed the same round in 22h7m (recorded in The Sedberghian) * 1920: Eustace Thomas, at age 54, covered the same round in 21h25m It was Dr Wakefield who codified the essentials of the challenge: "''To traverse on foot as many tops over 2000ft and return to the starting point within 24 hours''". Wakefield was Keswick based so specified the start/finish point as that town's Moot Hall. On 12–13 June 1932 Bob Graham extended the 24-hour Lakeland peak bagging record to a total of 42 peaks in a time of 23 hours 39 minutes. Even though this was recognised as the new record several of the tops claimed did not reach in altitude. The approximate distance of the new record (determined using current technology) was with of ascent. At the time the distance was claimed, not by Graham, to be in excess of though the given amount of ascent was reasonably close to the currently accepted figure. Several 20th Century sources (including the ''42 Peaks'' booklet〔) erroneously state the distance to be . The record came under immediate scrutiny, possibly because Graham wasn't from the higher social classes who up until that time had been the only ones with the free time to spend long periods on the fells but more likely due to the large reported distance. The first attempt at beating the record came from Freddie Spencer Chapman who managed the round in 25 hours. As far as is known, this was the only attempt until after the Second World War. The next attempts were not until the 1950s with some coming close to success. In the early 1960s, at a time when the veteran walker Dr Barbara Moore was gaining publicity for doing the John o'Groats to Land's End walk, the Lakeland writer Harry Griffin noted that "''You didn't need fitness for such walks, you could get fit whilst undertaking the challenge. The Lakeland 24 hour record on the other hand.''" This piqued the interest of several runners: Maurice Collett and Paul Stewart made an attempt starting from Langdale but experiencing rough weather they completed the round in 27 hours 20 minutes. Also interested were the Heaton brothers from Lancashire who systematically set about attempting the record. After several attempts Alan Heaton finally broke the record in 1960. This began a flurry of activity to add extra tops with the intent of extending the 24-hour record. It was soon discovered that the route of Bob Graham's round was not optimal for attempts on the absolute fell record so the two began to be regarded as separate challenges and have slightly different rules. The 24-hour record has now been extended to 77 tops. Bob Graham's round was left as a challenge in its own right. The Bob Graham Round is now a standard fell-runner's test-piece: having been successfully completed by 1976 people up to the end of 2015. Solo rounds have been accomplished but, again, most contenders are accompanied by at least one runner in support: a requirement for acceptance by the Bob Graham Club. The vast majority of attempts are undertaken close to mid summer to make use of maximum daylight. Nonetheless, as of March 2014, twenty eight individuals have successfully completed a winter round of the standard circuit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bob Graham Round」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|