Andy's BGR story is Andy's to tell, so read it here. Very pleased for him and he put himself through it from Pillar to the end. Suffering and sacrifice on the last 2 legs is what makes a BGR memorable and Andy did his share of both to his credit. It is not meant to be easy.
I really enjoyed walking over to Moss Trod between Great Gable and Kirk Fell on leg 4 in the moon light, brewing up coffee and hot Jelly(I thought Jim Mann were joking when I 1st heard him suggest that Andy liked liquid jelly) seeing them for 30 seconds and then disappearing again.
Leg 5 required some effort as pacers and Patrick, who I meet for the 1st time, was great company to pace with and we shared the task of getting Andy over the last section. Andy was in his own private hell dimension for most of leg 5, though did crawl out for about 20 minutes around Robinson.
As Fiona (Andy's Wife) coached him along the road at 5.30 in the morning, Patrick and I sat on the bench at Portinscale and pondered if we had any sympathy for Andy as he shuffled down the road, less than a mile from the end. We concluded that while he was clearly suffering, we had no sympathy at all, as it was his choice to do it. Provided he did not do permanent damage to himself, we were there to get him back to the green door with no excuses. The Bob Graham Round itself plays with your mind while you are a contender, pacers are there to feed and navigate, but also deliver some tough love (figuratively of course) when the self talk gets the better of the runner.
If you are going to do a BGR, there is a lot to learn from pacing leg 5 before your round.
I really enjoyed walking over to Moss Trod between Great Gable and Kirk Fell on leg 4 in the moon light, brewing up coffee and hot Jelly(I thought Jim Mann were joking when I 1st heard him suggest that Andy liked liquid jelly) seeing them for 30 seconds and then disappearing again.
Leg 5 required some effort as pacers and Patrick, who I meet for the 1st time, was great company to pace with and we shared the task of getting Andy over the last section. Andy was in his own private hell dimension for most of leg 5, though did crawl out for about 20 minutes around Robinson.
As Fiona (Andy's Wife) coached him along the road at 5.30 in the morning, Patrick and I sat on the bench at Portinscale and pondered if we had any sympathy for Andy as he shuffled down the road, less than a mile from the end. We concluded that while he was clearly suffering, we had no sympathy at all, as it was his choice to do it. Provided he did not do permanent damage to himself, we were there to get him back to the green door with no excuses. The Bob Graham Round itself plays with your mind while you are a contender, pacers are there to feed and navigate, but also deliver some tough love (figuratively of course) when the self talk gets the better of the runner.
If you are going to do a BGR, there is a lot to learn from pacing leg 5 before your round.
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