Race/Run dates: Whenever you like!

The George Fisher Tea Round is a run from the George Fisher outdoor shop, back to the shop and encompasses 12 000 feet of climb, 30 miles and the 10 peaks that can be seen from the (now defunct) Abraham’s Tea Shop on the top floor. All info can be found here: (The Tea Round)

I used this as part of my Bob Graham training in April and ran it with Simon Bayliss on the unpopular Anti Clockwise route. It was the second day I’d tested negative after having Covid and stated at the time it was one of the most difficult things I’d ever done. We finished in 10 hours 46 minutes 15 seconds and made our entry onto the leader board

We received out free gifts for completion – a t-shirt, buff and sow on badge. However, we weren’t happy with our time and knew we could do better. We discussed a reprise early in the Autumn

In the meatime, Abbie Pease had a succesful round on one of the hottest days of the year. The views look fantastic. She told me that her time was not the best as she had to keep dipping in lakes and tarns to keep cool. She did however still scape under 10 hours on her first ever ultra, finishing in 9 hours, 59 minutes and 12 seconds. Great work, Abbie

And so, back to last weekend. I stayed with Simon at my Dad’s house and those in the know, will know this will never be best pre race preparation. I got concerned when Simon brought his whiskey out of his bag but thankfully common sense prevailed and it was just a tasting session.

The forecast was horrendous and we expected to get completely soaked, which I duly did but from the inside out rather than outside in. It was quite warm and I wore my Moreno wool top with the expectation of having a pretty difficult day. Bad move

Simon had spent some time looking at the route and we made much better route choices than the first time round in April. We managed to get the distance of the challege to just less than 30 miles and we went in a clockwise direction which meant 4 serious climbs up Cat Bells, Robinson, High Stile then onto the out and backs of Hobcarton Crag and Grisedale Pike. After those have destroyed your calves and quads, there is only the ‘undulations’ (as if) of Eel Crag, Sail, Causey Pike, Rowling End and Barrow left to conquer.

As the weather was pretty good, the views were also excellent (as long as you had the strength to lift your head to look!) The descent off Barrow towards Braithwaite was kind and very welcome, but just as with the BGR, a 4 to 5 mile return to Keswick ensued. This seemed as difficult as it was after my Bob Graham although it was maybe harder for Simon as he chastised me for being a ‘Sport Billy’ as I ran up a few slight inclines on the paths on the way back.

We made it back to Keswick after 8 hours 45 minutes and 12 seconds, taking a good 2 hours off the time we did in April. We were excited to get our free cake and coffee (the cafe closed down yesterday), our free t-shirt (they only had X Large shirts left) and a pint of IPA in the pub (they only had hand pull pale ale). These setbacks did not derail our great day however as the beer, the route, the company, the landlord, the weather and generally the day out itself was awesome.

Who’s up for next year?

Striders Tea Round results this year