Episode #30
Why Would You Run the Bob Graham Twice?
The Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay Rounds are three of Britain's great mountain running challenges. Each is roughly 60 miles long, climbs thousands of metres and has traditionally been treated as a lifetime achievement in its own right. James decided to run all three twice . He completed the Double Bob Graham in the Lake District, the Double Paddy Buckley in Snowdonia and the Double Charlie Ramsay in the Scottish Highlands — all within six months, setting the fastest known time for each. Across the three challenges, he covered more than 350 miles and climbed around 50,000 metres. But the numbers only tell part of the story. In this conversation, James explains what it feels like to be moving through the mountains for 40 or 50 hours, what happens to your mind after a second night without sleep, and why he sometimes sees Roman numerals and faces in the rocks. We talk about the 60-plus-mile-an-hour winds that battered him on the Paddy Buckley, the moment he realised his 48-hour target was slipping away, and the support runner who drove across the country to help someone he'd never met before. We also talk about the final ten minutes of the Double Ramsay, why James actually enjoys climbing when he's exhausted, and what keeps drawing him back to increasingly difficult challenges. And, inevitably, we finish by talking about what's next. James is planning to spend this winter attempting to complete a self-propelled Munro Round in around 50–60 days. It seems that the Double Trilogy wasn't the end of the story after all. In this episode: What the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay Rounds involve Why James decided to double all three What 50 hours on the mountains actually feels like Sleep deprivation and hallucinations Running through extreme weather The importance of support runners The ten-minute finish on the Double Ramsay The mental side of ultra-distance running Why James loves these wild places His next challenge: a winter Munro Round
