The Lake District is a wonderful place.
Even on a cruel day, the landscape holds onto its dignity and upholds its superior charm. A rugged halo, the mountain skyline frames and protects the lowland pattern of dry stone walls, field barns, green meadows and grazing sheep. There’s an enduring greatness about it.
We like great places. We are drawn in by their scale, beauty and immanent danger. We go there to be excited in awe and trepidation. We go there to be enriched, knowing the journey will be forever included in the story of our lives. We go there to define who we are.
Like mountaineering, fell-running comes from motivation like this. The impossible idea of running up a mountain is the lure that attracts people to it. And why settle for one mountain when a few others could be more fulfilling?
Since the 1860s, the most mountains in a day has been one of fell-running’s most attractive lakeland challenges. In 1932, Bob Graham did 42. And, although Billy Bland did the same route in an incredible 13 hours and 53 minutes, and the record number of summits in a day is held by Mark Hartell at an amazing 77, repeating Bob Graham’s round of 42 is enough to satisfy the long distance appetite of most fell runners.
More people have been up the world’s highest mountain than have completed the Bob Graham Round. That’s why it deserves the name: ‘England’s Everest’. It fits the spirit of the poem - a celebration of Lake District landscape, a tribute to Bob Graham and to everyone who’s done it since, and a source of inspiration for anyone who dreams that they might do it one day.
Tim Coburn
Cumbria, 2013
England’s Everest was written in 2002 and dedicated to four friends – Derek Eland, Ian Davenport, Stephen Bates and Martin Barratt – in recognition of their successful completion of the Bob Graham Round between 2001 and 2003. Thanks for your inspiration – enjoy the poem!