Gavin Bland (born 21 November 1971Steve Chilton, "Gavin Bland in Profile (Part 1)", ''The Fellrunner'', Spring 2021, 45-48.
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fell runner Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...

who was a British and English champion and represented his country at the World Mountain Running Trophy.

Biography

Gavin Bland was born in 1971 in

Penrith, Cumbria Penrith (, , ) is a market town and civil parish in the county of Cumbria, England, about south of Carlisle. It is less than outside the Lake District National Park, in between the Rivers Petteril and Eamont and just north of the River ...

, and grew up on his family's farm in

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland. It is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' ...

. The prominent fell runner

Billy Bland Billy Bland (April 5, 1932 – March 22, 2017) was an American R&B singer and songwriter. Life and career Bland, the youngest of 19 children, first sang professionally in 1947 in New York City, and sang with a group called The Bees in the 1950 ...

is his uncle, and several other members of his family were active in the sport. He attended Keswick School, leaving aged sixteen to work on the family farm. Bland was successful in races as a youth. His first senior race was in 1989. Perhaps the most notable performance in the early part of his running career was a second place in the junior race at the World Mountain Running Trophy in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

. He also represented England in senior races at the World Mountain Running Trophy in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

and 1992. In 1991, Bland won the

English Fell Running Championships The first English Fell Running Championships were held in the 1986 season, based on results in various fell races of different lengths over the year. The winners have been as follows. *All Jeska's athletics results were declared null and void w ...

and was second to

Keith Anderson Keith Anderson (born January 12, 1968) is an American country music artist. Before signing to a record deal, Anderson was one of several co-writers on "Beer Run (B Double E Double R-U-N)", a duet by Garth Brooks and George Jones, released in la ...

in the British Championships. In 1999, he won both the British and English Championships. This was despite being a self-acknowledged "lazy trainer", though his work as a shepherd meant that he spent a lot of time on the fells in addition to his specific training. Throughout the 1990s, Bland was particularly successful at the most prestigious or "classic" long fell races. His wins included the Ben Nevis Race,

, the Ennerdale Horseshoe, the Peris Horseshoe, the Three Peaks,

Wasdale Wasdale () is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastw ...

, the Welsh 1000m Peaks, the Edale Skyline, Duddon Valley,

Holme Moss Holme Moss ( a.s.l.) is high moorland on the border between the Holme Valley district of Kirklees in West Yorkshire and the High Peak district of Derbyshire in England. Historically on the boundary between the West Riding of Yorkshire and Che ...

, the Three Shires and the Langdale Horseshoe. After the interruption of fell running by the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, Bland featured less prominently in races but had occasional returns to good form, winning counters in the English or British Championships series at Langdale in 2003 and Silent Valley in 2013. He still holds the race records for the Three Shires, Peris Horseshoe and the Carnethy 5.Carnethy 5 Hill Race.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bland, Gavin English male long-distance runners British fell runners Living people 1971 births British male mountain runners