From Jane McCarthy…
Looking for something a little out of the ordinary? This is the enticing line in the Introduction to the Frog Graham Round on the (extremely slick) website froggrahamround.co.uk It is billed as the UK’s Ultimate SwimRun Challenge, and was created by Peter Hayes (brother of our own Ilkley Harrier John Hayes) via inspirations from the classic Bob Graham Round but with an added twist. As well as running over 40 miles and ascending and descending over 15,000 ft over the NW Lake District fells, the contender must swim across Bassenthwaite Lake, Crummock Water, Buttermere and Derwentwater before finishing where it all started at Keswick’s Moot Hall. Jann Smith and I had listened to Peter waxing lyrical about the joys of swim hiking and the nature of his Frog Graham Challenge at an Alpkit-hosted event in March. He is also extremely entertaining and has created the Frog Graham Roll of Honour for successful completion of the Round, AND a certificate.
We set on the date of 15th July weeks and weeks in advance, needing to fit in with busy schedules and hoping the weather would be kind to us. The recent warm weather and the upcoming predicted heatwave bode well, but alas the weather in the Lakes is nothing but unpredictable and we knew our attempt would start wet and windy on the fells. At 6am prompt we left the Moot Hall, having chosen to attempt the Round in the less popular clockwise direction (either is permitted). Jann had done all the hard work of recce’ing all the legs – swimming and running – and given our relative competencies (decent runners on the fells, but only adequate swimmers) she wisely decided we should tackle Derwentwater first, so we set off in our wetsuits to run just over a mile to the shore. It is the longest swim and involves visiting three islands on route, we were a bit nervous, but thankfully Paul Carman had acquired a canoe for the purpose and escorted us across the water. We were carrying our running kit (trainers, backpacks, food, water) in our swim tow floats so a quick change at the shore and we were off up Catbells for the first leg over to Buttermere. The weather was pretty terrible for the next 5-6 hours, extremely high winds on the summits, cold rain and poor visibility. It was a relief to descend and we were looking forward to the relatively short and ‘easy’ swims in Buttermere and Crummock. Unfortunately, easy they were not as the wind even at lakeside was creating waves and testing our fairly recently acquired open water swimming technique to the limit. The route on the far side of Buttermere has some gruesome climbing up to High Stile, and the leg finishes with the steepest descent I think I have done in the Lakes – Jann sat down and set off sliding about 300m – very effective descending! The next leg covers more high fells, including Whiteless Pike, Crag Hill, Hopegill Head and Grisedale Pike, before descending to some more gentle hills beyond Whinlatter Forest. We arrived at our final swim on the shores on Bassenthwaite, greeted by still water and glorious sunshine, the 1km swim wasn’t fast but it was utterly beautiful. We had been greeted at each lakeside by Paul and his parents John and Julie who made us cups of tea and helped us warm up and refuel – an essential and wonderful support crew. A final gruelling climb up to Skiddaw from Dodd Wood and we summited the final peak before sundown, to enjoy a 5 mile gentle descent in to Keswick and finishing back at the Moot Hall at 10:41pm. It had taken us 16 hrs 41mins to complete the Round, which we understand is the fastest Clockwise Round to date, and we are Members 134 and 135 of the rapidly growing Frog Graham Club (there were 70 members as of July 2020). A new and wonderful experience for both Jann and I, not easy though – it is described as a ‘formidable, very tough challenge’ on the website and we would say this is a fair summary of our epic day out!