Crowds flocked to the small town of Keswick in northern England Sunday, July 8, to watch Kilian Jornet break the most famous and arguably the toughest record in British fell (mountain) running. The Catalonian long-distance Skyrunning champion posted 12 hours 52 minutes for the 64-mile route with 26,630 feet of ascent, knocking a massive 1 hour 1 minute off the record.
Up on a Pedestal
The Bob Graham Round record has remained untouchable since 1982 when local lad Billy Bland from Borrow dale stormed this circuit of 42 summits in northwest England’s mountainous Lake District in 13 hours 53 minutes, annihilating the previous record of 17 hours 45 minutes by Mike Nicholson five years prior. This historic route starts and finishes at the Moot Hall in Keswick, climbing the Lake District’s highest mountains including Skiddaw, Helvellyn, the Langdale Pikes, Scafell Pike (England’s highest), Pillar, Great Gable and Robinson.
In the 1980s the builder and stonewall er Bland was running phenomenally, winning the British Fell Championships in 1980 and dominating classic long distance fell races like the Wasdale and Borrow dale. As Bland ran the Bob Graham Round, paced by fell-running legends like Joss Naylor and Kenny Stuart, he and his crew soon realized he might break 14 hours. But none of them expected the record to stand for so long.
“I wasn’t the best that was about,” says Bland. “I was fairly good but there were about 20 lads about that time that could run fast fell races. I think they put us on a pedestal they shouldn’t have, so none of the better runners really tackled it.”
The Competition Ramps Up
Bland is right. Until recently the UK’s Mark Hartell was the closest challenger (in 1999) to Bland’s record but was still over an hour away with a time of 14 hours 54 minutes. Then suddenly in April 2016, Brit Jasmin Paris broke the ladies record, flying around in 15 hours 24 minutes, only 91 minutes off Bland’s incredible time, and prompting some of the guys to give the Bob Graham another go.
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