Lakes and Wales

The Lake District is made for mountain running and walking. The sheep have made the fells nice and runnable, there's loads of well-walked paths and the area is nicely compact, allowing for a zillion and one combinations.  Oh and its pretty accessible with plenty of opportunities for support.

Of course the most famous long distance round of all is the Bob Graham, with thousands having completed the classic 24 hour circuit of 42 summits from Keswick.  But there's loads more possibilities and the ones described below are just those that I've personally completed or attempted.

Route & Page Link	Miles	Feet	FKC*	Season	Time	Date
Abraham's Tea Round	30	12,000	23rd	S	8 h 53m	22/10/18
Bob Graham Round	65	27,000	1088th	S	23 h 57 m	20/06/98
Bob Graham Round	65	27,000	10th W	W	23h 53m	17/12/05
Covid Round	59	18,000	1st	S	23 h 45 m	07/05/20
Cumbrian Traverse	33	11,500	?	S	9 h 19 m	18/10/09
Charnley Way	39	11,800	?	S	11 h 10 m	02/06/12
Lakes 24 (DNF)	75	28,000	DNF	S	25 h	17/05/09
Lakes 2500s	111	45,300	2nd	S	53 h	16/06/07
Lakes 3000s	45	13,000	?	S	11 h 55 m	21/04/07
Lakes 3000s	45	11,000	? W	W	13 h 30 m	08/01/12
Lakes 40@40	66	24,000	1st	S	23 h 45 m	30/05/05
Lakes Top to Bottom	40	14,000	1st	S	14 h 50 m	04/05/13
Lakes East to West	41	19,500	1st	S	20 h 45 m	30/05/12
Lakes Sea to Summits	47	17,000	2nd	S	15 h 30 m	31/08/18
Old County Tops	35	11,000	?	S	7 h 10 m
Wainwright 7	64	18,000	?	S	17 h 34 m	12/07/08

Wales is less compact than the Lakes and therefore less easy to engineer decent rounds.  The classic long round is the Paddy Buckley, with another classic 24 hour challenge in South Wales and Yiannis Tridimas' unrepeated Meiryionedd Round in mid Wales.  Much shorter is the Welsh 3000s with a record time peak to peak of just over 4 hours, but what it lacks in distance, it makes up for in quality.  I've spent less time in Wales, preferring to travel to Scotland, but Wales is more rugged than the Lakes and like Scotland offers a juxtaposition of sea and mountains.

Having reccied the Paddy Buckley, I fancied an alternative that maintained a natural line but included Crib Goch and Mynedd Mawr.  I will be flamed for this, but I find the bump bagging of the Paddy Buckley a bit contrived and wanted to include both the magnificent North ridges of Tryfan and Crib Goch.  This led to my own round, although I did complete a winter Paddy Buckley to make a winter triptych of the three classic rounds.

Route & Page Link Miles Feet FKC* Season Time Date Fleetwood Welsh Round 63 26,300 1st S 23h 20m 07/07/04 Paddy Buckley Round 63 29,000 2nd W W 28h 15m 08/12/06 Welsh 3000s 21 13,000 ? S 6h 35m
* First Known Completion or Completion Number
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