I like watching this film (Kaleel Zibe seems to have some good stuff on their channel).
Has anyone done a BGR? Seems very hard, 1 in 3 make the cut off?
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I have thought that the BGR is beyond my distinctly average ability but a small seed has been planted in the last few months as to whether it is possible. After all 66/24=2.75mph?
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Definitely some savoury - after 4/5 hours there is only so much sweet/gels/energy bars I can take
My friendās north coast ultra managed to go ahead this weekend despite covid bla bla.
Winner of the 110 miler just crossed in under 25 hrs. Weather was bad all day with strong headwinds, rain etc. Plus watered down aid stations due to covid. That was an insane time as thereās almost 6k of vert. And that includes a 25 mile pancake flat section around an estuary!
Couldnāt make it up to help this year. But seeing all the texts and pics from my friends and the official event videos. The FOMO has kicked up into overdrive now.
Time to stop being a fat lazy toad and get my butt in gear. I need a big adventure/race. Time to get going again this winter!
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I havenāt done it but do know at least one person that has.
As @tunster says itās only about 4kph but as per the videos the bits that are flat can also be awkward to run on due to the crags, and sometimes descending is harder than ascending.
In recent weeks Iāve had a look at some of the legs, leg 5 is a total gimme normally but after 80kās probably less so, the last 12k is mostly flat and on roads.
You really need to know the routes and tracks as some arenāt obvious when you are up there, you are just going across open fell in places.
Given the ability of my friend that didnāt complete and the one that only just about did (albeit in a bad storm) I wouldnāt get round, if I had a good day with people that knew the line and avoided injuries etc. I might scrape under 26 hours.
I have now covered quite a lot of the route at least once, apart from leg 1. This lockdown has meant Iāve been over there a few times, including this week. Daylight is getting a bit short now to do more than 1 leg at a time on your safely if you donāt know it much.
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I have said to myself that I will try and recce some of the legs this autumn to try and get a feel for how possible it might be.
Having said that I am still in bed (11am) watching Saturday Kitchen having massively stubbed my toe (now hard to walk) running upstairs the other night to raid Mrs Tās secret Kit Kat stash, so perhaps need to rethink 
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Oh dear, not good about the toe, but Iām sure Mrs T thinks itās karma
This was the start of leg 4 earlier in the week, as Iāve never done any of it before I was finding my way, and visibility was barely 50m after Iād climbed about 200m. It was a bit stop start but once I got going I was probably just below 4k, the last 5-6k back to the car was a fair bit quicker so dragged my average up.
Quite whether you could do that with about 6000m of climbing in my legs already remains to be seen, getting food in is possibly as big a problem.
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This is where I am running tomorrow. Heavy dump of snow last night - screenshot from webcam at 1843mā¦ the highest point is 2400m
Snow line is around 1600m
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count see the route when I tried to click the link Jeff so have sent a follow request on Strava
I have done UTMB and TdS so should be able to cope with the vert, its the tricky gnarly terrain that, as you say really slows you down
Knowing the route (or having people with you that do) really seems to be a big part of getting round - living in NW Manchester the Lakes are only about an hour and a half away so should be able to get some decent runs in this year (toe willing)
looks like spectacular scenery - good luck - look forward to hearing how it went
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Time to break out the skimo gear!
Odd as it was supposed to have everyone view, Iāve accepted the request though.
Similar for me, Iām about 90 minutes from Keswick and if they ever dual the rest of the A66 it would be a bit quicker.
Not sure if you are on FB but the thereās a group of people that offer\ask for help with rounds or do training which might be an option, if I get time next year I might see if I can either follow or help some but I wouldnāt want to be responsible for route nav on most of it yet.
Someone is preparing for a triple round in a fortnight!
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I wouldnāt be too worried about a tad extra weight looking at that Matt! Donāt think youāll be running at 4.10s much.
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Good luck today Matthew Spooner, it looks epic
So my first Ultra is now complete, and I donāt feel like an imposter on this thread
54km, 3300m (my Garmin reported slightly low), Finish time 8h10m, 5th place. Absolutely loved it
About 20km of the run was in snow, which was knee deep under the ridge, and being near the front it hadnāt been flattened by other runners.
I donāt know if this is normal with trail running, however, the organisers had chosen to route the course through the hardest possible terrain. At one point, the course went over a wall and down a snowy slope that looked more like a vertical dropā¦ there were some rough steps, however, they were covered in snow. coming off the ridge there were places the path was possibly 50cm wide, with a steep slope on one side and a very steep drop on the otherā¦ I am sure if I had been walking it would have scared me to death, however, because I was so focused on running it felt fine.
I donāt think that there were any easy sections of the run, it was all climbing or descending. According to race notes there were 4km tarmac (1km at start, 2km at fininsh), 21km path and and 29km nature trailā¦ I didnāt know what nature trail meant, now realise that it means fields, mountain ridges, open moors, tiny paths through woods, covered in massive roots and streams with no bridgesā¦ or streams with log bridges which were slippers AF
I was flying past people uphill but losing places on the descents, my quads are not strong enough
Got my nutrition right, thanks to some of the advice above. Went with pizza, a bag full of mini spring rolls, a couple of Twix and Snickers, a few gels and cerial bars. I ate while climbing which worked well. Even after 8 hours I didnāt feel that I had under fueled. I carried about 2L of water, but it was probably too much as lots of places to refil
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well done - what a way to pop your ultra cherry
Stunning!
Well done. Hardest route is usually the way, sometimes there are ropes. Most of those pics look very runable but 3300 vert in 52kms, is bloody hard, so there must have been some horrendous sections?