Meet the team
Interview with Kirk & Tim
So what is ‘The Cumbrian’?
(Kirk) The Cumbrian is the name Tim and I gave to the idea of combining three existing Lake District challenges into one unique route. The Cumbrian combines the Bob Graham Round, the Frog Graham Round and the Fred Whitton Challenge. These individual challenges are all, in their own right, pretty tough undertakings. We think we’re the first pair to try complete them back-to-back.
So what do each of these individual challenges involve?
(Kirk) OK, The Bob Graham Round is the classic and original long-distance mountain running route. It’s 106km long and touches the tops of 42 of the highest fells (peaks) in the Lake District. It climbs a total of 8230m in elevation, which is essentially Everest, in a day, from sea level. It’s a race, but there’s no one set day that everyone does it. It’s a personal challenge that anyone can attempt, at any time they choose. The clock starts when you touch Moot Hall and you have 24 hours to bag all 42 peaks and be back at Moot Hall. It’s hard. Really hard, but brilliant.
(Tim) The second challenge is a kind of spin off of the Bob. The Frog Graham Round follows a similar pattern to the Bob. It starts and finishes at Moot Hall, climbs 18 peaks but as the name suggests, there’s an aquatic element! The route has been masterminded to include 4 lake crossings. So, you run over mountains and when the mountain meets the lake, you swim across it! Once you’re across each lake, you put your fell shoes back on and continue along the running route to the next set of peaks. It’s 64km in length, ascends 4500m in total, which is a lot for relatively short distance. The lake crossing total 3km of open water swimming.
HAVE YOU DONE ANY OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGES BEFORE?
(Tim) Neither of us have done the Frog which will make things interesting. We’ll soon run the fell sections and once the lakes warm up a bit, we’ll try the whole route in one go.
(Kirk) Tim has swum the channel – in Speedos! I haven’t swum across anything. I agree with Tim, The Frog is definitely going to be interesting….
(Tim) We’ve done the Fred Whitton route but not as part of the official race. It’s a truly brutal route with so so much climbing, but it’s beautiful.
(Kirk) The Fred’s reputed to be the hardest single day race in the UK. Many keen cyclists can cover 180km in a day quite easily. It’s the accumulation of the climbs that catches people out. It eats so far into the energy reserves that if you don’t keep on top of your feeding plan, things grind to a halt pretty quickly. By the time we get onto our bikes, we would have run over 160km and ascended and descended over 12,000m. It’ll be interesting to see how our legs react after that.
So how did it come about and why attempt ‘The Cumbrian’?
(Tim) It’s been bubbling away for ages. It’s hard to pin down exactly how it all started but we’ve always loved moving around the mountains, either walking, running, biking etc and you can’t beat getting into the lakes on a summer evening. We mooted the idea of a double Bob but wanted a bit more variety. Then the idea of combining the Frog, Bob, Fred surfaced and over a few runs together we thought of the name, ‘The Cumbrian’. We quickly realised that we should try and leverage our efforts to raise money for some good causes.
(Kirk) It’s funny how these ideas or dreams keep coming back to tempt (or haunt) you. At some point you just need to pull the trigger and commit. I think we agreed we’d give it a go on one of our local runs and then told some of our close friends and that was it – there was no going back. How the challenge has evolved has completely blown us away. We’ve met some incredible people who have given huge amounts of their time and have put their faith in us to pull this off.
(Tim) Initially, if we’re honest, the plan centred on us both having the joint goal of being the first to complete the three challenges back to back. Now, it’s certainly on leveraging the idea to raise as much money for three carefully chosen charities. This is what motivates us and those who we speak to.
Which charities are you raising money for?
(Tim) There are three. 1. Jigsaw – A Cumbria based hospice for children with life limiting illnesses. We’re both parents and it felt right to try and help young kids and families who’s lives are radically changed by factors that no parent would want to face. 2. Keswick Mountain Rescue – Comprises 45 unpaid volunteers, who are available at all times of the day and night in any weather, 365 days per year, to assist those in distress and lost on the mountains. 3. The Brathay Trust – This established charity based in the heart of the Lake District bring disadvantaged young people into the National Park and give them experiences that significantly change their lives. Kirk and I have been fortunate to have been brought up with access to these beautiful spaces and we’ve taken that for granted at time. We want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to visit the Lakes and benefit from the work that Brathay do.
(Kirk) Our aim is to raise £10,000. If everyone we connect with gives just £3, one pound for each of the Rounds (Frog, Bob, Fred), we’re confident we can do it. Of course, if anyone can give more, that’s great.
What’s been the hardest thing so far?
(Kirk) – Time management is definitely really tough when you take on a project like this. Running 130 km per week takes a long time and it has knock-on effects when I’m not super organised with work and family commitments. It’s a bit of a roller coaster. There are good weeks and not so good weeks. You just need to stay positive and keep going.
(Tim) – I think in the beginning it was mentally committing to the challenge when ‘The Cumbrian July 2022’ seemed so far away. The cold, damp winter months of long running, swimming and cycling sessions required some strict goal setting and routines. However, once ‘The Cumbrian’ was shared with friends, supporters, sponsors and training partners then it was their enthusiasm and kindness that gets all those positive vibes going.
Have you received any support from anyone?
(Kirk) We always intended to ask a few companies to work with us on this project and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response. Torq Fitness, perhaps known best for their energy gels, have helped us by supplying us with a range of their products. We’ve bene using Torq gels and their energy drink as our primary source of carbohydrate during training and we’ll use them during the challenge too. Linked with fuelling; Supersapiens have provided us with their Abott Libre Bio Sensor. Combined with their app, it shows us blood glucose levels in real time. This technology is amazing and has really helped inform our fuelling strategy. Over such long distances, it’s hard to know, by feel, how much carbohydrate is in your system. The sensor tells us, so we can see when we need to top up on fuel. inov-8 are supplying us with shoes and clothing. Their kit was is designed by local fell runners and there’s a good reason why almost all of the local running community use inov-8. And Zoggs / Head have given us training and swim-run wetsuits, goggles, hats etc to help prepare for the swimming element. We’re really fortunate to have these people on board.
(Tim) Moving away from kit companies, we’ve met some seriously talented people who have given us their time free of charge to support the project. Henry Paisey, a super creative film maker and photographer, Al Topping of Extreme Exposures – a brilliant photographer with a great can-do attitude, the Sports and Exercise Science department at Lancaster University teamed up with us and conducted lactate threshold testing to fine tune our training plan. Hillthwaite Hotel who are putting up some of our supporters, helping to promote the event and raise money with the support of their guests. Rydal Hall who let us stay at their campsite for free during our training runs. The Round Pub in Keswick, who are helping us with some logistic support during the event. Not to mention family and friends who are making individual sacrifices and those who will support us along the route once we start. It’s been a huge team effort from the start and more and more people get involved as it develops. It’s staggering to think how the project has developed.
Do you think you can do it?
(Tim) – Yes, I am starting to believe and feel it. Why? because we have wonderful supporters, helpers and sponsors whose acts of kindness has created a kind of powerful medicine that gets all those feel-good endorphins flowing. These feel-good chemicals combined with knowing that we are part of ‘Team Cumbrian’ has produced a mentality of “we will do this” and “we have to do this”. I hope with resilience, good company on the fells and some sunny Lake District weather then we can all get through the three days.
(Kirk) – Genuinely, I really don’t know. It’s a long way and the elevation is brutal. If we maintain the training plan and don’t sustain any serious injuries, we’ve got a good chance of pulling it off. We’re certainly going to give it our best shot.
What will you do afterwards?
(Kirk) Do the thing that I hate doing the most. Lie on a beach somewhere and keep very still!
(Tim) I will need to buy my incredibly supportive and patient wife a huge bunch of flowers. (and maybe indulge on some local Cumbrian yummy puddings)
How can people support The Cumbrian?
(Tim) Firstly, share the website with friends, family and work colleagues. Tell as many people as you can about the challenge and direct them to the website. You can also leave us a message via the contact us section. Knowing that people are behind us will really help.
(Kirk) And then please donate what you can to one, two, or all three of our charities. If everyone we connect with gives just £3, we’ll make our target. Remember, the challenge is only one part of the overall aim. We’re doing this to change lives and we only do this by reaching our £10,000 target. Even at this difficult time, £3 (£1 for each of the 3 challenges) is doable for most people. If you can afford more, of course, that would be great.