Joss Naylor

Joss Naylor, MBE (born on 10 February 1936 at Wasdale Head) is an English fell runner, and a sheep farmer, living in the English Lake District. As his achievements increased he became better known as the King of the Fells or simply the Iron Man. His fell running achievements include successive peak bagging records within the scope of the Bob Graham Round:^[1]

• 1971: 61 peaks in 23h37m
• 1972: 63 peaks in 23h35m
• 1975: 72 peaks, claimed to involve over 100 miles and about 38,000 feet of ascent in 23h20m

His other fell running achievements include:

• 1973: The Welsh 3000s - the 14 peaks of Snowdonia in 4h46m
• 1974: The Pennine Way: 3 days and 4 hours
• 1983: The Lakes, Meres and Waters circuit of 105 miles in 19h20m
• 1986: (age 50) completed the Wainwrights in 7 days
• 1997: (age 60) ran 60 Lakeland fell tops in 36 hours
• 2006: (age 70) ran 70 Lakeland fell tops, covering more than 50 miles and ascending more than 25,000 feet, in under 21 hours.

He considered the 72 peak Lakeland circuit as his own greatest achievement, setting a record which stood unbroken for 13 years. He was appointed an MBE^[2] for his services to sport and charity, and is included as one of Britain’s top 100 sports personalities in the 2007 book Best of British: Hendo’s Sporting Heroes, by sports journalist Jon Henderson.^[3] Olympic Gold medal winner and co-founder of the London Marathon Chris Brasher described Joss Naylor as 'The Greatest of Them All', a title he bestowed on Joss when he ran 72 Lake District mountains in 24 hours.^[4]

Naylor is the subject of a biography by Keith Richardson,^[5] and his fell running exploits are covered in detail in Steve Chilton's It's a hill, get over it: fell running's history and characters. ^[6]

See also

• Bill Smith (fell runner)
• Billy Bland (runner)
• British orienteers
• List of orienteers
• List of orienteering events
• Munro/ "Munro Bagging"

References

Mountains and hills of Great Britain and Ireland List of mountains and hills of the United Kingdom Corbetts Donalds Fells Furths Grahams Hewitts Marilyns Munros Murdos Nuttalls Wainwrights Scotland Mountains and hills of Scotland Munros Grahams/Corbetts/Marilyns Donalds County tops 1974 current England Hewitts and Nuttalls Wainwrights Marilyns County tops 1964 current Wales Hewitts and Nuttalls Marilyns County tops 1964 current Northern Ireland List of mountains in Northern Ireland Hewitts Marilyns Republic of Ireland List of mountains in Ireland Hewitts Marilyns List of mountains and hills by height List of mountains and hills by relative height