“Hello Eddie, this is Alwyn. I am looking for a partner for the Haworth Hobble this weekend and thought you might be interested. Also are you interested in joining a team doing all the Munros as a relay in June. Can you give me a ring back.” This message was waiting on my answerphone when I returned from a windy run along the beach on March 12th.

The long drive down to Lancashire for the Haworth Hobble, a 33 mile race run in pairs, did not interest me, but the thought of being partly involved in a new Munros challenge was intriguing.

Sir Hugh Munro first published his list of the 3000-feet summits and tops of Scotland in 1891. He somewhat arbitrarily designated separate mountain or mere top status, and inadvertently started a breed of people now known as Munroists, many of whom religiously plod to each summit not deviating to anything lower however interesting it might be. The list has been revised a few times, and it is the current list of 277 (at the time of writing - now 282 in 2021) Munro separate summits that are now known as the 'Munros'.

Thinking about Alwyn's call, I thought that I might be able to help out at weekends, and maybe do a section in the Cairngorms which I can reach quickly from home, but there was no way I could take the time off work to be a permanent member of the team as my annual holidays were already booked. When I rang Alwyn more details came out. The idea was to start on Saturday June 16th, and try to complete it in just over 2 weeks so as to only take 2 weeks off work. The idea was so exciting that I began to think of taking an extra two weeks off work even if it meant being sacked. I told Alwyn not to offer the place to anyone else in the next three days as I wanted it held for me.

My employers offered me the time off unpaid, so I was back on the phone 24 hours later booking my place. The hub of the team at this time was mostly hill walkers rather than runners, so Alwyn was the only one I knew. We were to have a meeting in the Lake District on the first weekend in April where I would meet most of the others. Tony Payne and Ian Douglas picked me up in Glasgow on the way to the meeting, and by the time we arrived, my excited garrulousness had thoroughly put them off, whilst I found them pleasant enough, but doubted their ability to cover the ground fast enough not to need extra time. All their training seemed to be measured in metres of climb with no reference to mileage. Whilst undoubtedly their commitment was total, I felt that distance was much more important than they seemed to think.

At the meeting we all had the chance to make initial assessments of each other.

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