Steve Birkinshaw: set to challenge the 24-hour Lakes record

A 13-year-old ultra fellrunning record could fall next month.

Mark Hartell’s long-standing extension to the gruelling Bob Graham Round was set in June 1997 when he ran 77 Lake District peaks in 24 hours, adding one to the existing total.

Now a new challenger aims to go further. Steve Birkinshaw, the Threlkeld, Cumbria-based ultra-running expert, plans to add a further peak and claim the new record.

The challenge, scheduled to take place on 20 June, will add Fleetwith Pike to Hartell’s tally of 77 Lakeland fells, setting a new target for the superfit long-distance specialists.

The original Bob Graham Round – named after a Keswick guesthouse owner who ran 42 peaks in 24 hours to celebrate his 42 years of age – has been extended since Graham’s first circuit in 1932.

Alan Heaton added eight peaks in 1962 and was bettered by two by Eric Beard the following year. Heaton then reclaimed the crown by totalling 60 peaks before Wasdale legend Jos Naylor put his mind to the matter, managing 61 fells in 1971, 63 in 1972 and 72 three years after that.

Jos Naylor

Naylor’s record stood for 11 years before Mark McDermott stretched it by the addition of four extra peaks. Present record-holder Hartell waited a further nine years before making it 77.

Whereas the Bob Graham Round traditionally starts at Keswick’s Moot Hall, the 24-hour extension rules are more flexible and 42-year-old Birkinshaw’s challenge will, most likely, start at Braithwaite, 3km (2 miles) west of the town

The northern fells around Skiddaw and Blencathra are the first targets, followed by the Helvellyn range, the Langdale fells and then the Scafell range.

These are followed by the Wasdale fells, the north Buttermere peaks and finally the Newlands fells, with Grisedale Pike the last mountain before a return to the valley at Braithwaite.

Total distance for the challenge is 175km (109 miles), with 12,160m (39,900ft) of ascent.

Birkinshaw certainly has the pedigree for the challenge, with a solo round of the Charlie Ramsay Round in Lochaber and the fourth fastest Paddy Buckley Round in Snowdonia and numerous mountain marathon victories.

Grisedale Pike, final peak in the 24-hour round

He also won the 2008 Lakeland 100 event and was second in last year’s. His name is a regular feature in fellrunning and ultrarunning winning lists and he is being helped by current record-holder Hartell in his training.

Birkinshaw suffered a setback in last week’s Fellsman when he succumbed to digestive problems in the second half of the race and had to cede second place to Hartell, eventually finishing the 97km (60-mile) event third in 11hrs 30mins, half an hour behind winner Duncan Harris.

But Hartell, writing in his blog, thinks Steve Birkinshaw can put this behind him and mount a serious challenge to the 13-year-old record. Writing of the pair’s performance in the Fellsman, he said: “He was clearly so much fitter than me and will know that he is unlikely to see a repeat of the stomach problems that bedevilled him around Middle Tongue – nevertheless, it’s one more thing he has to deal with and rationalise in the run up to his Lakes 24 hour record round.”