New records set in Billy Bland fell running challenge

New records were set for the Billy Bland fell running challenge over the weekend starting Saturday 24 June.

In the challenge, runners take on the Bob Graham Round, a classic long-distance fell run of 66 miles and 42 fells around the Lake District, but do so as a relay with five teams.

The Bob Graham Round was initially run by Bob Graham, a hotelier from Keswick in 1932.

Billy Bland, a famous fell runner from Borrowdale held the record for the round for 35 years. The Billy Bland Challenge was then set up in 2010 to see if any teams could beat Billy's record.

It was finally beaten last year, first by Ellensbrough AC and then by Keswick AC.

On Sunday, 25 June, two mixed teams set the second and third fastest times for the relay in 12 hours and 51 minutes, and 13 hours and 1 minute.

Some of the legs were run by two men, some two women, some one man and one woman, with many top fell runners from Cumbrian clubs.

They also set new records for individual legs, with the mixed team taking the leg one record, and the men breaking the records for legs two, three and four.

The ladies broke the leg five record, coming within just seven minutes of the men's record.