Steve Birkinshaw Breaks 27 Year Old Wainwrights Record
Press Release / 21.06.2014
Berghaus sponsored runner Steve Birkinshaw completed a continuous circuit of 214 mountains and hills and climbed 36,000m in the process.
Birkinshaw ran 512km in just six days and 13 hours, beating the previous record by almost 12 hours.
Steve Birkinshaw has broken one of the longest standing and toughest running records in the books. Late last night, Lake District based Birkinshaw set a new record for running a continuous circuit that includes the summit of each of the 214 hills or mountains that feature in Alfred Wainwright’s famous seven volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. He completed his run in six days and 13 hours, knocking almost 12 hours off the record set by fell running legend Joss Naylor MBE in 1987.
Starting from Keswick on Saturday 14 June, Steve Birkinshaw set out on a continuous circuit of the Wainwrights, each day running around 78km and reaching the top of over 30 peaks. Birkinshaw was backed in his adventure by Berghaus and nutrition brand TORQ, and had a support team that included runners and a qualified medic. He finished at Keswick Moot Hall an hour ahead of his expected schedule, at around 10.00pm on Friday 20 June.
Throughout his run, Steve Birkinshaw was carrying a GPS tracker, which allowed the public to follow his progress and to hike or run up to meet him at locations along the way. As the week progressed, word of Birkinshaw’s progress spread via social media and there was someone waiting to cheer him on at the summit of almost every Wainwright top. On the final day, scores of runners appeared to join Birkinshaw for the final leg of his challenge and accompanied him as he arrived in Keswick, where hundreds more people were waiting to welcome him, including his wife Emma and their three children.
Steve Birkinshaw was raising money for two multiple sclerosis (MS) charities during his run. His sister has MS and he has created donation pages for both the national MS Society and a local charity, the Samson Centre. To date he has raised over £12,000 for the two charities.
Steve Birkinshaw comments:
“It’s all a bit overwhelming to be honest. Joss Naylor is an incredible athlete, so to have beaten his record is an amazing feeling. I couldn’t have done it without my amazing support team and the backing of Berghaus, so I’m hugely grateful for their contributions. There were some really tough times out there, but I was spurred on every time I reached a Wainwright top and met someone else who had made the effort to come out and support me. I’m also over the moon with the amount of money that people have donated to the multiple sclerosis charities.
“The final day was incredible – to be joined by so many other runners and then welcomed home by my family and such a big crowd put the seal on everything. It’s fair to say that my legs are a bit stiff now and I may take a few days off before my next run.”
Steve Birkinshaw, 45, is an accomplished adventure racer and fell runner. He is a multiple winner of the Original Mountain Marathon (formerly the KIMM) and in 2012 won the Dragon’s Back Race, believed by many to be the toughest adventure race on the planet. When he’s not breaking fell running records, Birkinshaw is a research associate at Newcastle University.
