James Gibson: Conquering the UK’s ‘Big Three’

Surrounded by the fierce beauty of the mountains of the Lake District National Park, James Gibson began his journey of fellrunning in the place that he calls home. As an outdoor instructor, he was already acquainted with the glorious British countryside. However, it was his friend Joe Mann who introduced him to fellrunning. 

“I had the fitness of going up hills from being an instructor. So fellrunning was a mixture of running the flats and downhill and then, when you get a little bit better, running the uphills. However, I preferred the significant, long challenges.

“I first got into fellrunning and accidentally did a Bob Graham. I was reccying legs three, four and five, and I was within the 24 hours, and my mate was like, ‘well, just keep going’. Thankfully, I made it to the end.” 

James set out to complete what he called ‘the big three’ consisting of The Bob Graham Round, The Paddy Buckley Round and The Charlie Ramsay Round, all under winter conditions, solo/unsupported with sub-24-hour times. This was something that hadn’t been done before across one season.

Inov-8 athlete James explained that this new challenge was birthed after completing the Wainwrights last year, which he did, supported: “I had lots of people, thankfully, spending their time to come and help me run.  So, after I finished that, I was like, well, what can I do that doesn’t require people to use their time to come out and support me? I had this ambition of trying to do more unsupported in winter, which no one had done.”