Howard Dracup - Pre Lakes 2500s round attempt

Howard Dracup, one of XMiles Ambassadors is planning for his biggest personal challenge to date. We asked him a few questions to get his thoughts before setting off for this mammoth challenge:

What is The “Lakes 2500s“  Round? 

So the Lakes 2500s round is a route that takes in all the Wainwright fells over 2500ft high....62 fells! The routes approximately 115miles long with around 45,000ft of ascent.

You have to visit the Keswick Moot Hall but it’s permissible to start/finish at any point you like, providing you visit Moot Hall. Most people will choose Steve Parr’s traditional route and start & finish at Moot Hall.

You can choose your own direction of travel & visit the peaks in any order. The challenge has only been done previously by a handful of people. Steve Parr 1984, John Fleetwood 2007 ,Tim Ripper 2019. Paul Wilson 2020 & Kirsty Hewitson 2020.

48 hours is the target time for the challenge but any continuous round will be recorded.

When will you be setting off?

I’ll be setting off this Thursday, 17/9/20 at 9pm going in a clockwise direction from Moot Hall.

What fuel will you be using before & during the attempt?

I've been using lots of different supplements really. I find using/eating one thing or using 1 brand gets a bit tedious on events over 24 hours. Real food like pizza, wraps and sandwiches etc combined with Clif Shot blocks, OTE anytime flapjacks, OTE Soy protein drink, Chia charge bars & precision hydration. I’m also going to be testing out the OTE super gels!

How did your race being cancelled affect you?

To be honest I handled it pretty well. I’d just arrived home from my last training run before tapering properly and opened my emails and saw the “CANCELLED” word straight away and new what it was about. I was gutted initially bit after about 30 minutes I got over it.

It must of been pretty hard for Mike to make a decision like that but I think it was probably for the best and best for the future of UTS in the current situation. Within minutes I was thinking what can I do instead to compensate for it?

Only 5 people have finished this attempt, are you aiming to beat them, and if so, how?

Yes, it’s a very tough round. My ultimate goal is to finish the challenge in 48 hours - just to do that I'd be happy as I haven’t had chance to recce any of the route and the lines and there’s been a lot of rain up here in the last week so it’s going to be quite soggy underfoot.

I've also only had 4/5 days to string a schedule together and find a support crew- it’s been pretty manic and stressful but we have got a good team together now so it’s all good. I’m excited. What will be, will be and it is what it is. The current record is 42hrs 56mins held by Steve Parr which was set in 1984.

It would be nice to try and beat it but without the recces and not having much time to plan it’s unlikely... we will have to see. My plan is to set off nice & easy, smile, enjoy it and see what happens! 

What are you plans for the rest of the year?

After this I’m going to carry on recceing the “wainwright’s round“ and probably going to have a go at a winter attempt, but we shall see.

Track the Lakes 2500s round attempt

Track Howard's progress via opentracking > HERE

About the Author

HOWARD DRACUP

XMiles Ambassador -

Follow Howard on Instagram: @howard.dracup