UKC

I did this on Saturday, wow what an adventure! Might be better named the Clif 10 Peaks Nearly a BG Round!

I've done some tough courses including the Lakeland 100 but this really took the biscuit for tough miles! 10 summits including Helvellyn, Scafell Pike, Great Gable and on and on!

Suggested route but you were free to pick your own lines which led me to an 'interesting descent of Great Gable but thankfully I live to tell the tale of scree death slide......

It's a wonder this race hasn't got a bigger following, I flipping loved every painful moment of it!

In reply to Wonrek:
It's a strange one isnt it?

I think it had not a great start, seemed to want to attract anyone when it could actually be a world class ultra distance sky run (if it actually scrapped the choice option sadly)...

In the UK ultra distance mountain races arent a big thing yet. Maybe they will be. Look at the Vegan 3000ers? It's slowly growing and finally attracted a good field this year.. But even that you have to say it was 3-4 people deep. We'll always struggle though with UK ultra's in the mountains in the summer..

What would you rather race? Annecy Maxi Race? Laverdo Ultra? Mont Blanc 50k? Western States? thats the field it is competing with amongst others..

I've got to say I dont waste my ultra's. I only race big 50 milers unless in the winter or as training... in the past 3 years I've only raced major or championship 50 milers. When my racing days are over I've a huge hit list but I know I can only race 5-7 marathons or ultras a year.

In reply to Wonrek:

It does look good but as you say, I wonder if a lot of the potential audience are thinking "that's close enough to a Bob Graham, I'd rather focus on that". The guy I know doing it has already done his BGR.

In reply to Wonrek:

Clashed with the UT55 & 110 as well.

In reply to Roadrunner5:

I'm glad it doesn't have the SkyRunning label attached to it. I love my low key events and prefer the ambience of being in an experienced field without the big names. That being said Jez Bragg was there on Saturday.

I guess I was just taken aback by the course, my own stupidity I should have studied the route in more depth but I guess I was expecting a course more akin to the Lakeland 100 in terms of difficulty but this definitley took things to another level. I'm already toying with the Brecons edition but am hesitent as it's only two weeks after another race I'm doing.

Anyone ever done the Brecon and can give a comparison race?

In reply to The New NickB:

Saw all the 110 markers all over the Fell. I do hope they were all removed, there was something a little unpleseant seeing all the signs everywhere.

And don't get me started on the gel wrappers......

In reply to Wonrek:

This one is on my to-do-if-feeling-fit list. But I wasn't fit enough this year.
I'm glad it's not on the sky running list - all their UK courses sound interesting, but part of the set-up is that the routes are fully marked so there is little nav required - hence I'm not doing any of them (for me, route finding and navigation is part of the attraction).

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

There does seem to be a difference between UK fell and European mountain races: the latter nearly always are fully marked. When the world championships were held at Keswick the other year the courses had to be taped even though each championship is supposed to represent the flavour and ethos of the nation holding it.

The Clif 10 Peaks looks about 75% of a BGR both in distance and ascent. To me this and other similar events are part of the ongoing comercialisation of the outdoors, I'm not particularly easy with it.

In reply to Bob:

Why do you say commercialisation of the outdoors? The Clif 10 Peaks was one of the least commercial races I've run. Small field of runners with a staggered start, no course marking and only map and compass for direction.

There are lots of commercial races out there, the Lakeland trails I would say being one of them but please don't lump this race into that bag because this was mountain racing at it's finest!

In reply to Wonrek:

The Clif 10 Peaks

Clue in the name. I agree with Bob, in the sense of being uncomfortable with it. Similar with Red Bull events in the Peak and the peaks (sic) skyrace.

‘We have the V3K on the Welsh 3000’s and the 3×3 on an iconic Lakeland course. The Peaks SkyRace not only offers our first shorter ‘Sky’ race but it also offers an opportunity to race in the Pennines over technical ground. I’m really excited about this addition to the series.’

Puke. Commercialisation of Welsh 3s???

In reply to Stig:

Yes, the Clif 10 Peaks.
Similar to the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon, the Saunders Mountain Marathon, the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon (almost 50 years old, now renamed the OMM and sponsored by a different company).
Most big events like this couldn't take place without sponsorship. The sponsor isn't making money from entry fees, they are putting money in, and obviously want something in return. This is usually just the prestige of being associated with a good event, and the ability to sell their products to competitors. Hardly the thin end of the wedge.

Anyone who wants no commercial involvement can just go for a run.

In reply to Stig:

Sponsorhip is very different from commercialisation! Yes it has Clif on the posters and and there were plenty of Clif products for the runner but out there on the mountains.....I only saw one type of Cliff.

In reply to Wonrek:

OK, perhaps a better comment might be that its ethos appears closer to sky running than fell running. That might not be the case but it is how it appears, they've even got an "xtreme" (radical misspelling there) version. They've also bought in to the ITRA points system. It's not really about numbers either - something like the Borrowdale or even the Wasdale fell races will have far more competitors.

In reply to Bob:

I'm not sure that they have described themselves as a fell race have they? Certainly taking part in it there was definitely very little commercialism about it and as for the ITRA points, they're giving runners what they want. How else are you going to get a place in the UTMB if all UK races refused to sign up to it?

I've watched over the years as fewer and fewer UK races award UTMB points giving runners here in the UK a increasingly difficult path to gaining the points needed.

Ah but now you'll say the UTMB is but a circus in the Alps, maybe so but it's a spectacular circus and one that thousands of runners aspire to.

In reply to Wonrek:

I don't think that at all about the UTMB.

First a disclosure: I'm the membership secretary for the Bob Graham Club. It's up to you whether you think that makes me biased.

For several years the Bob Graham, the Ramsay Round and I think the Paddy Buckley were counters towards the UTMB even though these aren't "races". There was and is a good relationship between ourselves and UTMB/ITRA. The inclusion of the BGR on the qualifying "events" list did lead to some interesting emails: "I cannot find the race entry form on your website?"; "When is the next edition of your race?"; etc. (The Bob Graham appeared in their listing as being run on the 1st January!)

Morgan Williams posted this thread on the FRA forums -http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showthread.php?21840-Bob-Graham-Round-UTMB which explains why we no longer offer UTMB qualifying points in more detail. There was a small amount of upset - but as noted we asked for and received a one year period of grace to allow those who had already done the BG to use those qualifying points. I suspect that those races who do charge an entry fee who are no longer qualifying events went through a similar process.

I don't know how many other big events use ITRA's list of qualifying races, in principle it's no different to The Three Peaks or Borrowdale asking for qualifying races. As you say, the runners become the losers in all this.

In reply to Bob:


Sky running : "The course will be fully marked and no navigational experience is required."
10 Peaks : "The course is unmarked so you will have to navigate yourself and be confident doing so day or night."

In reply to Wonrek:

Well you wondered why the race didn't have a bigger following and one of the answers is that 2 signed ultra races on the same day and in the same area had over 900 entries.

In reply to The New NickB:

I didn't say it was a bad thing...... I'll go low key and self sufficient any day

In reply to Wonrek:

I may have my cynical hat on, from http://www.10peaks.com/the-lakes/xtreme/ :

"This is a natural extension to the Long Course which follows a similar, but not identical, route to that of the Bob Graham Round. The tough terrain combined with nearly 8000m of ascent make this one of the hardest non-stop ultra distance races on the calendar.

The Xtreme has been evaluated by the International Trail Running Assocation (ITRA) and awarded 4 qualifying points for all of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® events."

In reply to Wonrek:


Well you did say unpleasant.

I was out on the course actually and generally speaking the signage wasn't too intrusive. I have some issues with big commercially run races, regardless of whether they are road, trail or fell, but actually I was quite impressed by the UT team on the day.