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NEWS: Tom Randall Breaks Lakes Classic Rock Challenge Record

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 UKC News 12 Aug 2020

Tom Randall has broken the Classic Rock Round record in the Lake District with a time of 12 hours 2 minutes 36 seconds. The round combines 34 miles of running between 15 multipitch Classic Rock routes, involving 70 pitches up to VS and 4300m of ascent. Tom beat the previous record of 12 hours 54 minutes set by Will Birkett and Callum Coldwell-Storry.



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 Alex moore 12 Aug 2020
In reply to UKC News:

Is the tick list at the bottom wrong! Shouldn't it be Murray's Route (S) and not Murray's Direct (VS)? 

Post edited at 18:04
In reply to Alex moore:

You're quite right.

I wrongly assumed that the existing "Lake District Classic Rock Challenge" ticklist would actually include all the correct routes within the Lake District Classic Rock Challenge.

That's just been updated.

 salad fingers 12 Aug 2020
In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant! Always fancied this as a grand day out. 

Couple of bags of sweets seems like a meagre nutrition strategy!

 Rick Graham 12 Aug 2020
In reply to UKC News:

Very impressive.

Good climbers and fellrunners, who have done both, consider the classic rock round harder than the  Bob Graham.

In reply to Rick Graham:

Time to resurrect something I always thought should be a thing - do the Bob G, but solo Lord of the Rings en route.

jcm

 jamieevans 13 Aug 2020
In reply to UKC News:

Inspiring

How about a style for mere mortals?

A self supported expedition starting and finishing at a train station for instance? 

 GDes 13 Aug 2020
In reply to Rick Graham:

That's interesting. I can't imagine it feeling harder given that it's half the length. I wouldn't imagine the climbing would add that much in terms of overall difficulty. Shows what I know. 

 Rick Graham 13 Aug 2020
In reply to GDes:

You are probably correct, just repeating what I heard /read .

Maybe they were better climbers than runners ! I would think that the pool of people capable  of doing both rounds is quite small .

 shaunhumphreys 14 Aug 2020
In reply to UKC News:

Great effort from Tom - Shame it wasn't considered news worthy when Will and Callum smashed the record a few months back! 

2
In reply to GDes:

I'm fairly experienced with both the CR and BG rounds and I think the CR is harder to do in the sub-15hr range than just doing the BG in sub-24, but if you swap it around and say CR in sub-24 and a solid BG in sub-18 then the BG is harder! 

In reply to shaunhumphreys:

It depends on how much you want to be in the limelight... Will and Callum were really quiet about it and considering that I'm extremely interested in this stuff, I had to know the right people to 3rd hand hear about them breaking it. I guarantee you that if either them had dropped Nat or Nick a couple of lines to say they were keen to share that it had been done, it would have instantly been covered. Especially as I know Nick loves this kind of stuff! The same often happens with some really impressive climbing things - some people prefer to keep it on the down-low and that's cool... it all depends on how you like to operate

 petegunn 14 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

I'm yet to try the CR round but have done a BG round. I'm not a runner but am fairly fit.

I managed my BG in 22hrs 14mins with only 10 runs spread over 4 weeks of training so it can't be that hard 😉 I feel that the CR round will be mentally harder but not physically (I hope). 

Superb effort and we'll done. I might try for an "All Up" round when I'm ready as I think there should be 2 records for this. Fortunately/unfortunately I got into road cycling during lock down so my attempt will wait til next year now I think.

Post edited at 15:04
 shaunhumphreys 14 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Yeah for sure - I do know Will through the scene and I could see how he might not be too fussed about publicity beyond his friends on social media. 
 

Totally agree with what you say, I just hope someone was keeping an eye out to see if they did want it sharing - it’s always a shame to miss hearing about a dark horse doing something amazing! (If they want people to know)

Congrats on smashing it, looks like one hell of a day out!

 vscott 14 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Would agree with CR feeling tougher on the basis of BG plus various BG support duties versus 2/3rds of a CR ... various factors - less info and trickier to recce, much more conditions dependent (all routes properly dry), tradition? of no support/pacers, and unlike the BG where a just keep plugging away putting one foot in front of the other tends to get the job done the CR has (very) high consequence of failure through tiredness/moment of loss of concentration nagging at the mind throughout - the routes are steady enough but not all are jug paths.

Impressive effort btw esp on just a packet of sweets!

 steveriley 14 Aug 2020
In reply to petegunn:

1. Chapeau Tom. Monster effort.

2. I think you are a runner Pete, just one that doesn't run much. I know it's only 3mph but there's rather a lot of it

 GDes 14 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Interesting cheers. Would you hazard a guess at total running time? Presumably sub 10, which sounds pretty decent for 34 miles over the Cumbrian tops... 

In reply to GDes:

I did quite a few training runs on this and my running time was between 7-8hrs depending on the day. 

 GDes 15 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Does the clock start at the bottom of the first route and stop at the top of the last? 

 vscott 15 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Out of curiosity (and apologies if already said above/elsewhere).. Assume you traversed (via the BG trod) from Gimmer to Bowfell? I think Brian Davison on an early CR round did (and didn't recommend) the shorter distance but much added ascent back to valley and up the other side. And on Jone's route is the "accepted route" to descend the gully from the top of the pinnacle back to Lord's rake and traverse across to do MGG or top out via slingsby and round (adding quite a bit more climbing and descent)?  Thanks   

In reply to vscott:

Yup used the BG route to get across to Bowfell (it's a tiny bit slower than going down into the valley but less descent/ascent). Interesting about the Jones's route.... I'd presumed that you had to climb all of Jones, then do Slingsby and then that ridge to finally do a small down climb off the pinnacle. Apparently not! Wish I'd know that before I set off and it Slingsby is quite often wet and the whole ridge + longer descent thing is a bit of a pain when combo with MGG :-D

 planetmarshall 17 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Fantastic. I don't have the grades in hand to be attempting this any time soon - but out of curiosity, did you take climbing shoes? Or just climb in fell shoes?

Cheers,

Andrew.

Post edited at 09:52
 vscott 17 Aug 2020
In reply to Tom Randall - Lattice Training:

Thanks Tom - your (longer) version for Jones’s seems more in keeping than cutting off half way up the crag - don’t know what previous record holding pair did - anyone know? 

 Michael Hood 18 Aug 2020
In reply to vscott:

How is it described in Classic Rock? - does it describe carrying on up Slingsby's to the top of the Pinnacle? If so then I would suggest that Tom doing that (rather than copping out half-way) is a correct interpretation of the challenge.

(I have a copy 10' away but now is not really when I should be looking 🙁 )

 Paul Figg 18 Aug 2020
In reply to Michael Hood:

Classic Rock takes you up Slingsby's Chimney and Low Man / High Man, to me this would be the obvious thing to do and how I checked out the LCRRR a few years ago and will probably choose to do. As long as people are happy with what ever they choose to do it doesn't really matter, we're all just out there for a good fun day out.

 Michael Hood 18 Aug 2020
In reply to Paul Figg:

> we're all just out there for a good fun day out.

Indeed, but this does look rather more like type 2 fun than type 1 fun 😁

In reply to vscott:

Sorry for late reply! I've chatted to one of the previous record holders and after a bit of discussion I think it's fairly reasonable that you'd not go all the way to the top (Slingsby etc) as the CR book describes descending by the gulley to the left and also it would invalidate a load of other peoples' previous attempts. I'll just say I did an "inefficient" version!  

At some point, I'll put something down in writing on a blog or something and get what I think are the reasonable "rules" down on paper. There's some stuff that needs clarifying over what support is/isn't allowed as there's potential for people to really manipulate the standards further down the line if you're not clear. This happened on the El Cap speed records and some of the tactics were pretty silly (and also hard to find out about if you weren't in the scene/there at the time) and also make it ridiculously hard for non-locals to compete with. 

 Luke90 02 Sep 2020
In reply to galpinos:

More details on Facebook:

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4572796309404617

Interesting comment on the Instagram about "keep it local, keep it quiet". Guess people are happy to have the record back with a local boy, which is understandable, but I hope that doesn't extend to any ill feeling towards Tom. That would be an ugly attitude.


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