Helpers

An essential ingredient of any successful attempt on the Bob Graham Round is support.

We do not profess to be elite runners or purists. Whilst it would be the ideal to run the round unsupported, in the nude, without water or whisky, in 5 hours, it is not going to happen.

We have been formulating a training plan, learning the route and crossing our fingers that our respective football teams get knocked out of cup competitions to free up weekends.

But we need a large number of helpers for the attempt itself. There are four breaks (each of around 15 minutes on the recommended timetable of the route) which need staffing as such and we need to be witnessed oneach of the 42 peaks. As we'll be battered we also need pacers to run as much or as little of the route as they feel like to help spur us on, take away some of the navigational burden and to supply a drip feed of Mars bars and good banter.

The rough plan at the moment is to make our first attempt on the weekend of 16/17 June 2007. We hope to hire a bunk house and put up any volunteeers so it should be a cracking weekend. If you are interested in taking part then please add a comment to this post or send an email to tablefootball@hotmail.com. The story behind the email address can be found on www.23sweetFAs.com.

All help much appreciated.

The Team

And then there were five... No sooner had the plan been aired the boys were biting and a team of 5 almost elite, but ever hopeful wannabees were assembled:



Nick Williams

Veteran of the 2005 Cho Oyu expedition and numerous forays into the Alps, the Highlands and the spanish bar behind Tottenham Court Road tube. My favourite moment - Hearing that Nick had thrown one of his work shoes in the Thames after a particulary big night. It was a Tuesday. The man is a legend. He had the remarkable fortune of meeting me at Lovells and in no way returns from every adventure worse off than everyone else.



Caspar Kennerdale

With a name that is half Jedi, half disney, Caspar provides the experience in the outfit. Anyone who can complete the Marathon Des Sables deserves a lot of respect and more than earns a Jedi label. However, this was the same man who once sparked a climbing foray at 4am when, with his hand out of the window he declared that the weather had turned for the better, that the rain had ceased and that we should kit up and head out. Somehow he had failed to notice the overhanging second floor... Works for Centaur, something to do with computers (eyes start to glaze) but it requires a pin stripe and seems to fund a lot of climbing kit.


Dave Selman

Claims to work but actually spends half his life training in California or Norway. Dave is by far the most technically gifted climber of the lot of us. Which is in no way useful on a 72 mile run. Strong contender however for leading the way home with Ian. Having seen the light Dave fled the city after commencing life with an investment bank and now runs his own company taking money from punters to fund his ice climbing... I mean to invest in the stock market.



Ian Sillett

The relative baby of the team, Ian hails from Horsham like myself and gave Nick and me a complete shoeing on our run round the Welsh 3000ers earlier in the year. Already providing excuses for planned training weekends in the form of his brother's wedding (surely you'd rather be joining us on a wet, cold, 6 hour run Richard?), Ian, who may well have been a goat in his former life, proved his endurance and knack for survival by falling off the top of Stanage Edge without serious injury (pride excepted). Ian works for the government so I could say more but he'll/they'll kill me. If you ever get hold of his email, send him weblinks. His email rejects them and sends him a nice message. He loves it. Ginger M WLTM OSFR w/GSOH



Me

The only famous person I have been likened to is one of high wit and intelligence and blessed with an innate natural athleticism: Rodney Trotter. I'm English, like the rest of the team, which equates to an alarming tendency to naivity and hopefulness. Hell, you have to be to follow in the footsteps of Bob. Bring it on.

In the beginning...

In June 2006 something terrible happened: I fell into the world of the mountain marathon. Clutching my copy of "Feet in the Clouds" and still nursing injuries from my only outing of any note along the welsh 3000ers a month previously, I signed up for the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon.

Days later, myself and my buddy of too many comedy climbing adventures, Nick Williams, were staring down the barrel of 48 hours lumping far too much kit around the mountainous highlands of Sutherland. I had no idea that it was possible to drive three hours north of Inverness, let alone host a competition there.

Anyhow, we survived, and we loved it. The mountains, the exercise, the crap weather, the clean air and the spirit of the adventure and the competition, the most wholesome and good natured I have experienced for a while. A million miles from the rat race, this was an event that was more of a celebration of our surrounds than a further corporate sentence. There wasn't an RBS advertising logo in sight.

For the uninitiated, mountain marathons generally involve a two day event where at the start line you are given a map and a set of grid references for electronic checkpoints which you have to navigate between as quickly as possible and which lead you to an overnight camp. On day two you are given a new set of grid references which lead you back to the start/finish. In your pairs you have to carry your tent, sleeping bags, stove etc and as much food as you think your legs, or your soul, will require to get you round.

The problem with this joyous insight into a new world of escapism into the mountains of our fair isles was reading about the legends of the sport of fell running. Tales of Joss Naylor, Billy Bland and, of course, Bob Graham. The seed was sown...