Following the footsteps of a legend
On the 30th July Philip Burnett began the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge, raising money for our charity.
The Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge involves traversing 30 summits in a distance of 48 miles and climbs 16,000ft (77Km, 4877m), starting in Pooley Bridge and ending in Wasdale. The route was first completed by Joss Naylor, at the age of 54 in 11 hours and 30 minutes.
It is for Fell runners over the age of 50, and completion for the route is set times according to age; for Philip Burnett, this meant completing it in 15 hours. We caught up with him after his attempt.
What was the motivation behind raising funds for Brathay?
I really appreciate the support you give to young people and families especially giving them the chance to access and enjoy the Lakes and outdoor activities. I know how much my own children have enjoyed, and learnt from, spending time doing outdoor activities and just feel it's important that everybody should be given equal access to all that the outdoors has to offer.
What made you decide to do the Joss Naylor Lakeland challenge?
I'd wanted to take on a Joss Naylor challenge for a few years as it's designed for us older runners and seemed like a good test. Originally I had planned to attempt next year after my 60th birthday as I had planned to attempt the Bob Graham this year with my daughter, Hannah, but unfortunately she had a knee injury so I thought instead I'd bring my Joss Naylor attempt forward.
Did you do any special training?
I'd already done a few mountain races this year (Galatzo trail, 42km, in Mallorca. Ultra Trail Snowdonia 56km and Trail de St Jacques 75km in France) so I'm reasonably used to the distances and climbing. We came up for a couple of recce weekends and had checked out legs 1,2 & 4. Living in Surrey means that access to the fells is rather limited!
What was your aim for this challenge?
I was hoping to manage to get round in under 15 hours but unfortunately that wasn't possible in the end - a combination of poor weather and struggling with some of the more technical parts of the route. (Philip still completed the challenge in an impressive 18 hours, in very testing weather conditions!)
Are you looking to make another attempt?
Possibly! It takes a lot of time and organisation to do a challenge like this. I had pacing support from my children (Thomas and Hannah) and friends Luke and Louise. In addition, my wife was driving round providing road support - so it relies on quite a few people to give up their weekend!
Philip raised close to £1000 for Brathay from his challenge. A huge thank you to Philip from us and to everyone who donated to his campaign.
