Attempt Date: Saturday 9th August 2025
Distance 42 miles/Ascent 17500 feet
After my Bob Graham Round (BGR) in 2022, it was what next. The obvious route was to go for a Paddy Buckley. However, with my Dad living in the Lakes it seemed impractical to spend lots of weekends in Snowdonia when I could spend time with him and continue to enjoy the lakeland hills at the same time. The Joss Naylor Challenge seemed a perfect solution except I was in my early 50s and I doubted very much I could get round in 12 hours.
Let me elaborate a bit. The Joss Naylor Challenge is a 42 mile route that stretches from Pooley Bridge to Greendale Bridge in Wasdale, the home of the late Joss Naylor and takes in 30 peaks. The inaugural run was made by Joss Naylor in 1990 when he was 54 and he completed it in 11 hours 30 minutes. More info on the challenge can be found here. The challenge is that it’s an old fogies challenge which can’t be ‘officially’ attempted until aged 50. 50 year old males get 12 hours to complete and it rises by 3 hours each 5 year age increment. Being aged 55 I therefore had 15 hours which I thought was eminently more doable.
Once a decision to do it had been made and a date set, it was a matter of preparation. I do have a target on doing an ultra a month and I do like hills so base fitness was pretty decent. All I had to do was add more hills and distance in so I ran the 37 miler Old County Tops fell race in May, supported Liam Turner on leg 2 of his BGR then did legs 4 & 5 for Nigel Barnes and legs 3 & 4 for Dan Abbott. I also did the second half of the Coast to Coast in mid July on our annual Trevor Burton memorial holiday so there were plenty of miles in the legs.
The weekend of the Challenge came around and my team were assembled and primed to go. They had all booked Wasdale Head campsite whilst I stayed in Plumpton with the in-laws as it was very close to the start. I chose a 5am start with the hope of finishing before 8pm, therefore no running in the dark would be necessary. I would be running on a 14 hour 40 schedule so hopefully had 20 minutes in the bank that I wouldn’t need.
Leg 1 – Pooley Bridge to Kirkstone Pass, the flat leg. 14 miles and 3000 feet ascent – Support team; my cousin Clare McKeown, Richard Ellwood and a guest appearance from Gary Johnson with 5k to go.
Leg 1 support team. Ready for the off at 5.04am
There was another contender leaving at 5am so we let them go and set off at 5.04am, just as the sun was attempting to make an appearance. Leg 1 is the flattest and longest (distance wise) of the legs and a good way to get warmed up for what was to come. The weather was kind, good running weather, overcast, cool and with a slight threat of moisture in the air. Progress was good and although we were down on the schedule to start with, Clare kept advising me that that was the case on her recce of the route recently and we’d make time up along the way. Sure enough the 6 minutes we’d lost were soon eeking away and we made it into Kirkstone Pass 4 minutes up on schedule. We had also passed the other candidate, Patrick, from Ireland/Devon and he followed us in to Kirkstone Pass having made at least one nav error. Our lead was to be short lived however as he has the famous Carol Morgan on his leg 2 and 3.
Leg 2 Kirkstone Pass to Dunmail Raise. The short leg. 8 miles 3200 feet ascent – support team: Will Leaning, Lawrence Bate, Phil Howson
Quick change of team and a fuel up at Kirkstone Pass
One thing I have to mention here is the support crew. My wife Jen and my daughter Ella were up at 4am to ferry me to the start. They then had to drive to Kirkstone Pass and be there ‘at some point’ from 8am onwards. Phil drove Will and Lawrence over from Wasdale. It all takes a bit of coordinating and I’m massively grateful to those friends and family that gave up their time for me to run around the fells
Leg 2 starts with a big climb up Red Screes. We were joined by the other contender, Patrick, and the legend that is Carol Morgan on the climb up. Once at the top we never saw them again, they we off. I was following the nice and steady plan. The weather started to close in, visibilty was a bit rubbish and it got windy and wet. Time for the waterproof to come out. The run to Hart Crag seemed to take forever but once it was reached, it was familiar territory as we descending Fairfield then up over Seat Sandal and down into Dunmail Raise, following the BGR leg 2 route. We made more time up and arrived into Dunmail Raise 18 minutes up on schedule so I had 38 minutes in the bank.
Leg 2 descent to Grisdale Tarn.
Leg 3. Dunmail Raise to Sty Head. The ‘now it gets serious’ leg. 10 miles 4900 feet ascent. Support team: Dan Abbott, Jim Rangeley, Amy Duck, Nigel Barnes, Will Leaning, Lawrence Bate.
Amazing support teams
These challenges are a great reason to run with your mates and what a team for leg 3. This is where is starts getting serious. A lot of leg 3 is the same as leg 3 of the BGR so I knew what was coming. We also knew what was coming with the weather and once we’d completed the tough climb up Steel Fell, the heavens opened and we were pelted to strong, stinging rain and buffeted around by strong winds. At least there wasn’t thunder and lightning like there was last time I was here with Dan on his BGR leg 3.
John Rawlinson has done a brilliant job of bringing the support team round from Wasdale and Jen had continued her running around with dropping off leg oners in Penrith and picking Amy up for leg 3. Absolute stars.
High Raise was a low point I think as the clag was down, the rain was pounding and it seemed to gone on for ever, just like Hart Crag. However, once that was conquered things started looking up. The weather was shifting through with clear skies and warmth behind it and the peaks started coming and going a little quicker. The climb up Bowfell is always a tough one and I think Lawrence was feeling it at this point but we all rallied round and kept going. The support crew always looked after me and each other amazingly well. The constant, ‘have you eaten recently?’, ‘do you need anything?’, ‘eat this or else’, ‘have a drink’ questions and demands were just fantastic. It’s such a privilege to have so many great friends out supporting me.
Towards the end of Leg 3, we had the descent off Great End to deal with, down to Sty Head. There is no real route of this so it was a matter of following the person in front and hoping they’d got a good line. Fortunately visibilty was perfect by this point and the rocks were drying out. We made it down to Sty Head at 14.44 so were now 33 minutes up on schedule and 53 minutes in the bank. Things were looking good
Leg 4 Sty Head to Greendale Bridge The final leg. 10 miles, 5000 feet ascent. Support Team: Dan Abbott, Jim Rangeley, Amy Duck, Nigel Barnes, Emily Chaplais, Will Leaning, Laura Rangeley.
This was the biggest ask for the road support crew as it’s not a road crossing so it required a 90 minute hike up to Sty Head from Wasdale. With having to drop Phil off after leg 2 then drive all the way round to Wasdale from Kirkstone, then walk up to Sty Head, Jen was very worried and stressed that she might miss me. Fortunately I’m slow and she made it with about 10 minutes to spare. This support crewing is not an easy task!
The climb out of Sty Head up to the top of the monolith that is Great Gable again seemed to go on forever. It was lovely to have Laura join us for the climb up as she wanted to be a part of the Challenge. Laura and Will made their way off Great Gable back to Wasdale whilst the rest of us carried on through leg 4, which initally is the BGR leg 4 but in reverse so we descended Kirk Fell, went over Pillar, Scoat fell, did the small out and back to Steeple then started the last few hills over to Greendale Bridge. The descent of Haycock was fun with a bit a scree surfing on the way down. The bending down to empty the shoes of stones after the descent was not quite so fun. The penultimate climb was a tough one up Seatallan but at this stage it was just a matter of getting my head down and getting it done. Not long after the final climb came and it was up and over Middle Fell followed by a long descent to Greendale Bridge.
The last fell is conquered
It’s an amazing feeling being supported all the way round a tough challenge like this and the support crew where there in numbers at the very end to cheer me in and to run the last 100 metres along the road with me to Greendale Bridge. I’d lost a bit of time on leg 4 and the sub 14 hour that had been mooted at one point (only by me) was lost on the shoe emptying escapade – but it was worth it for the scree surfing. I finished the challenge in 14 hours 13 minutes so was well chuffed at the end. Even more so when Laura stuffed a can of Abbeydale Deception beer into my hand. What a day!
Abbeydale Deception cures all aches and pains
We had an amazing weekend. The evening was spent sitting round the campfire (minus the campfire) and chatting and drinking it away. Again I can’t thank my support team enough for all their help, efforts, care, conversation, humour, encouragement. You were all awesome.
The weekend wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to the Great Man to pay my respects so after a recovery walk up to the top of Yewbarrow we walked over to the church at Wasdale to visit Joss’ grave. A very apt end to the weekend.
