Abraham's Tea Round

It's not very easy to motivate yourself to go running when back in the cold, dark, damp UK after a few weeks in sunny warm Australia, especially when you're working in any daylight hours there are, but my strategies to make myself do it are to enter events, set myself a challenge or arrange to meet friends.

I was travelling over to Durham for the funeral of a friend who was well known in the Durham running/triathlon/coaching scene and so wanted to do something "in his memory". When I had started to do a bit of exercise after my break due to RED-S (but was still not running at all), Allan had taken me on a couple of bike rides and we'd always finished in a café, chatting about all things running and sports related. It therefore seemed appropriate to attempt to try to run the Abraham's Tea Round for him.

The summits that must be reached

Abraham's Tea Round is a traverse of all the summits which can be seen from Abraham's Café in George Fisher's shop, Keswick (and starts/finishes at George Fisher's front door). It covers a distance of just under 30 miles with just under 12,000 feet of vertical ascent/descent. The summits to reach are Catbells (451m), Robinson (737m), High Stile (807m), Hobcarton Crag (739m), Grisedale Pike (791m), Eel Crag (840m), Sail (773m), Causey Pike (637m), Rowling End (435m) and Barrow (456m). If you can show your route trace and completed time (including all stops etc) at George Fisher's, then you "earn" a free coffee and piece of cake. As everyone knows, I'm always up for coffee and cake, but due to Allan's similar love of a good café stop, this is why it seemed to be an appropriate day out. 

Setting off at 7am

I wasn't sure when to begin as I knew I would be having to run part of it in the dark, but hoped to get away with not too much more than the first few miles and last few miles as they were on road......well climbing Catbells with a headtorch wouldn't be so bad but I wasn't too keen on trying to do many descents in the dark! 

I decided to set off soon after 7am - which is actually quite a good time for finding somewhere to park your car in Keswick, but by the time I'd gone to George Fisher's for the obligatory start photo, strapped on my headtorch, turned on my watch etc, it was about 7:15. Keswick was relatively quiet but I did have to negotiate the guys setting up their market stalls by the moot hall, but I was soon off out of town on the track towards Portinscale. 

I'm not sure that I've ever run along the road to Catbells (I have done it in reverse during some versions of the Derwentwater 10 mile race) and I was surprised at how hilly it was. It was quite nice to be out alone with just the light of my headtorch, listening to the hoots of owls in the trees, but I did find myself saying to myself "there'll be a lot of walking happening today" as my legs seemed to feel every incline (not the best thought in what should have been, for me, the easiest part of the day!).

Having faffed around a bit meeting a friend around the side of Catbells, it was light enough to turn off my head torch, but despite the run along the road, I still felt rather cold due to the bitter wind. There were a couple of walkers also climbing Catbells, but hardly anyone was out, though I had to remind myself that it wasn't actually that early (I still get slightly confused between the time of sunrise in the UK vs in Australia).

After dropping down into Littletown, the route essentially reversed the Bob Graham Round route up onto Robinson (well, that's if you run the round clockwise as most people do). I hadn't been back to the area since my round.....and I had done that part in the dark anyway....so it was nice to go the other way in daylight (though actually via a slightly different route.....which did involve a couple of tough, slippery, icy scrambles. Not only was there more and more snow on the ground the higher you climbed, but the cloud closed in and visibility was really poor. I was worried about missing the top, but no fear....I touched it and popped out of the cloud again on the way down to Buttermere. 

I only found a specific map after
running the round!

It was a nice (mainly) runnable descent down to the road and onto the path that circumnavigates Buttermere. If you looked over at High Stile from the descent, it had appeared covered in snow but clear of cloud.....but the wind soon changed this. First there was some painful rain/hail, but this settled during a rough scramble up heather and rocks, only for the cloud to close in again once above the snowline. At least there were other people having a break by the summit cairn so it was hard to miss.....but then a decision had to be made. Carry on along to Red Pike and follow the path down to Bleaberry Tarn, or backtrack slightly and head straight down aiming for the tarn. 

The second option sounded better despite it being rather rocky initially, as the likelihood was that the path would be really slippery and icy....and you could actually bypass the tarn itself running down grassier slopes and joining the path below it. Unfortunately, there was no other way back down to Buttermere (the other end of it this time) except for down the path which certainly meandered, zigged and zagged about, with enough large steps and jagged rocks that it was hard to get into a rhythm or run at any speed. 

I had a big low spell climbing up away from the lake again. The next summit was not a "target" but had to be climbed in order to get to the pass beyond it and the path to Hobcarton and Grisedale Pike. There were brief spells of sunshine but the wind was also still gusting so I kept taking my head and ear cover on and off every few minutes. I was walking up rather slowly as the fatigue and vague aches I'd felt in my legs early in the run seemed to have multiplied out of sight. At least this slow speed meant I could get lots of food down along with some drink, as I recognised that a potential calorie/energy deficit was compounding my wish to stop. Still, I reminded myself that I was doing this for Allan, and that kept me moving forwards.

A collage of the peaks as see from the cafe

Once over the top and running across and down the other side of the next pass, the fuel had kicked in, and I realised that I thought I'd be able to get round from there, no matter how long it would take. It was hard to judge time passing, as the terrain made speed very variable, as did the weather.....not just from a visibility point of view, but whether it was snowy, icy or clear underfoot, and also how gusty the wind was. 

Having been out to Hobcarton and Grisedale, it was time to climb up to the highest point on the round - Eel Crag at 840m. The route up was a steep climb up a boulderfield/scree, made harder by ice and snow, not just meaning that it was quite slippery underfoot, but that my gloves got wet when grasping rocks to haul myself up/stabilise myself in gusts of wind. Topping out on the plateau was a bit of a nonevent as the cloud had closed in again.....it was like running in a barren, frozen wasteland, just aiming to keep going up until the trig point came into view.

From the high point of Eel Crag, it was all downhill (relatively). The ridgeline was mostly runnable and there were some great views once clear of cloud. Sail and Causey Pike came and went and then came the odd "summit' of Rowling End. I call it "odd" as it's not really a peak, but just the end of the ridgeline, which you can see from Abraham's Café window (and from Littletown which was now down below again, having come almost full circle since running through it this morning). 

My "intended" run down from Barrow to Braithwaite

Rowling End was an out and back along a narrow muddy trail, which was followed by a heathery, brackeny, descending traverse down to cross a road and creek before picking up the path to climb the final summit of Barrow (luckily the visibility was good at this level as it would have been easy to miss this path). I've run a race which finished with a run off Barrow down into Braithwaite and so I figured it would be a familiar easy run from there. Unfortunately I was obviously a bit tired (mentally as well as physically) as I went "slightly" off course and ended up coming down too high up the valley. All was not lost as I followed some dry stone walls along 2 sides of a triangle back to where I'd intended to be.

I didn't really have a clue as to the time (as my watch had remained way up my sleeve hidden by clothes and gloves all day), but it looked like darkness was still quite a long way off, so I would be able to finish without my head torch, and more importantly before the cafe shut.....as I was desperate for a hot cuppa!

Finally at the finish

The final few miles were a mixture of farm road, tarred road and footpaths (both sealed and unsealed) as I had to go down and through Braithwaite, along the side of the main road, back into Portinscale, and finally retrace my route out over the footbridge and down the back footpath in Keswick. Maybe it was the thought of that hot drink, maybe it was relief to be finishing, or maybe the calories had fully kicked in, but I managed a few miles of about 7 minute/mile pace along there (well, except for the uphill into Portinscale which was definitely a lot more up that's I'd remembered/wanted by that stage).

My "race" trace!

Keswick was still full of shoppers and market stalls, which again led me to believe that it was probably still mid afternoon, so I did some good slalom practice along the high street and past the Moot Hall (I would say it was a fartlek but there was no chance of any bursts of speed happening!) and to George Fisher's. Only after I'd gone into the shop and asked a member of staff to take my picture did I dare look at my watch......I'd banked on taking about 10 or so hours, and I was well under 8! Runs in December, January and February count as "Winter Rounds" and as it turned out I'd unwittingly set a fastest time (so far) for a female in summer or winter......not because of any talent or speed of mine, but just because so few people have run it as yet (for all I know, that time was beaten then next day, as I saw from people's pictures on social media that they definitely had better weather in terms of visibility and less snow/wind). The weird thing about submitting your watch trace/time to earn your coffee and cake, is that you have to set it as a "race" (so that it records your total time, including all your stops and breaks etc)......I don't think I've ever done a "race" with no other competitors, no marshals and no checkpoints before! Still, at least I arrived back in the daylight with no mishaps and could head over to Allan's funeral knowing how much he would have enjoyed hearing about all about it (in a café of course)!