Moot Hall after 23.44 hours
Huge congratulations to NLFR’s Alan Hirons who realised a 20 year dream at 10.28pm on Sunday 22 May 2016 when he touched the doors of Keswick’s Moot Hall to complete his Bob Graham Round in 23 hours and 44 minutes.
Alan’s attempt was initially scheduled for an 11pm start on Friday 20 May, but with pounding rain and high winds forcast he moved it back 24 hours. A wise decision not taken by three other attempts starting that night, forced to abandon after losing too much time to bad weather.
By Saturday night the weather had calmed and Sunday brought sunshine and low winds. On a 23 hour schedule over the classic clockwise route Alan teased his supporters by pushing it close at the end of legs 3 and 4. But in the end it was never in doubt as he finished with over 15 minutes to spare – even opting to avoid the road and take the longer trail route from the bottom of Robinson into Keswick at the end of Leg 5.
It was a truly fabulous day and worth every minute to see Alan’s smile as he finished.
Ascending Dale Head Leg 5
Supporting Alan on the Round were a crack North Leeds team (with a little help from Borrowdale, Horwich and Pudsey P):
- Legs 1 and 2: Matt John
- Leg 3: Greg Weatherhead
- Leg 4: Mike Ayers, Brendan Bolland, Anthony Meanwell.
- Leg 5: Sara Demaine, Dom Nurse and Mike Ayers.
- Road: Hilary Lane, Hilary Tucker and Di
