A GEOGRAPHY teacher spent the first week of his summer holidays taking on a gruelling 24-hour running challenge in scorching heat.

Sam Gibbs, who teaches at the Queen Katherine School (QKS) in Kendal, decided to attempt the infamous Bob Graham Round, which saw him traverse 42 Lakeland summits- starting and finishing at the Moot Hall in Keswick- in 24-hours.

The route is around 66 miles with 26,900 feet of ascent and the teacher had wanted to complete the epic challenge for more than three decades before finally deciding this summer was the time to conquer it.

“The Bob Graham Round had been on my radar since I first read about it 35 years ago,” he said.

“Having helped on several successful attempts (and a few failed ones), I finally decided last September that I would have a crack at it.

“I trained hard for about six months, and it all came together the first weekend of the summer holidays.

“The main issue was the heat – it was 26°C when I set off on the Saturday evening but thankfully it cooled during the night, and I was up on my schedule for the first 65km.

“The next section from Wasdale to Honister Pass was very difficult – lack of sleep, plus running in furnace-like conditions really took its toll.

“By the final section I was suffering from heat exhaustion and was a real state! I couldn’t have done it without my brilliant support runners, road crew and very understanding and long-suffering family.”

Mr Gibbs finished in 23 hours 48 minutes and was supported on the fells by fellow teacher Ian Palmer, who he helped achieve his Bob Graham Round in 2019, year 12 student Dylan Cater and his son and daughter, Marvin and Tess.

Jon Hayes, headteacher of QKS, praised Mr Gibbs for his achievement.

“An incredible achievement by Sam, I know the tremendous amount of training and commitment that went in to making this happen,” he said.

“It’s especially pleasing to see so many of his support team came from our school community, giving their time to help Sam achieve this tremendous feat.”