After seeing so many great runners attempting and completing the Bob Graham Round again this year, I was inspired to return to my own memories and experiences of training for, supporting and completing the BG.
The Bob Graham Round was my first great running challenge and I was very lucky to have good friends at Elvet Striders, who loved the fells. They encouraged me and guided me towards this initially impossible goal. I spent my days on the fells and my nights dreaming of the many trods and tracks that those brave runners before me had slowly created over the years.
My 2018 BG was anticlockwise, though it is more usual to go clockwise. My new painting of the view from Red Pike to Yewbarrow, is how I saw the ongoing challenge that lay ahead of me coming to the end of the Leg 2. It is what those going clockwise, will see as they start Leg 3 and look back at what they have achieved. Having survived the vomit-inducing climb of Yewbarrow, they may be starting to believe that they can do it and thinking 'I didn't come this far, to only come this far!'
When everything is focused on this 24 hours and these 42 fells, nothing else matters. You are surrounded by friends, they literally take your baggage and leave you free to give your everything towards this one great achievement. You live in the moment, truly living for the day. Tomorrow can wait.
' Tomorrow Can Wait '
Acrylic on canvas board
23.4" x 16.5"
July 2024
Comments